corngold. >> hi, i'm barry corngold with the san francisco cab association. i have a lot of problems with this proposal one of which is the statistics it's using is from 2000 when it says customers have a 40% chance of getting a cab in sf. that was 12 years ago. we now have 50% more cabs and the same problem. so just throwing cabs at it obviously doesn't solve the problem. there are a lot of other reasons that people don't get a cab 12 years ago. i think it may be hard for people to get a cab on friday and saturday night, of people that are generally complaining that they can't get a cab. that is when they go out. they are not out there monday evening when it's not that busy. giving the medallions to the company and leasing them, the mta collecting the money isn't going to provide any better service or more cabs out than giving medal medallions on the list. the average cab driver makes $30,000 a year and they wait years on the list and follow the rules and maybe make less than the median income of san francisco, which is less than the lowest paid mta employee

i'm barry corngold. i want to comment on how appalled i was and surprised at the lack of discussion before last meeting's vote on the medallion reform plan. in particular, vice-chair brinkman said that this has been looked at and underway for a long time. that you have -- that you have enough informing have looked at it enough and in the next following sentence you proceeded to show that you don't understand the concept of the waiting list or the issue with it. such as the people waiting 15, 20 years and sluging it out the of this time at very low-income and having to work hard shift where's there is nobody there. they finally are ready to get their medallion and it's not going to be worth it for them to buy it. you are telling them that okay, at least you have the opportunity to buy it if you are on the list. it makes no sense. everybody on the list gets a medallion -- i mean the medallions don't get sold to anybody who is not on the list and the people at the top of the list, it's not worth it for them

barry corngold. >> followed by peter witt. >> okay. good afternoon, mr. chairman and members. san francisco is a very, very busy city and we're living in expensive san francisco. people are paying high money to sit in a cab. they should get a cab as quickly as possible. the best service to the public is that cabbie should right away -- but we have 1500 legal taxis. another 1500 illegal taxis, but they are choosing the busy time to come out. it's not everyday at any time. this is the real effect. so add 200 cabs more is providing another 600 jobs for the gate and gas drivers. it's a very good thing. i would like to see the drives get shifts and support their family and pay their bills. but the actual cost of rung the business in the taxi is $50 a day only $50 by the car for insurance. it's $50 a day and now you are going to charge $1900 a month. so you should make your taxi policy as parallel to the cab company and driver, because you should give half of the medallion leased to the cab driver, who would like to lease. especially maybe two or three drivers coming to our office a