TheNew York Times is reporting that Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) is dropping his plans to put a one-year cap on new Uber vehicles in New York City:
The agreement brings a temporary end to a fractious struggle that had consumed City Hall for several days, and inundated parts of the city with mailers, phone calls, advertisements and even celebrity endorsements…
With a possible City Council vote one day away, the company's aggressive campaign had denounced the mayor on the airwaves, insulted him on the company's own app and, most recently, found its arguments reinforced on the celebrity Twitter accounts of Ashton Kutcher, Kate Upton, Neil Patrick Harris and other infrequent participants in the municipal taxi dialogue.
Perhaps the company's most potent new ally, though, was a less surprising mayoral critic: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who waded into the conflict on Wednesday as a staunch defender of the company that Mayor Bill de Blasio had cast as a corporate behemoth.
In a radio interview on Wednesday morning, Mr. Cuomo, with whom Mr. de Blasio is enmeshed in an open feud, called Uber "one of the great inventions of this new economy."
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Holy shit, the impossible has happened. A regulation has failed to make it to a vote in New York. I don't know if there will be long term consequences, but its victory dance time none the less.
found its arguments reinforced on the celebrity Twitter accounts of Ashton Kutcher, Kate Upton, Neil Patrick Harris and other infrequent participants in the municipal taxi dialogue.
Kutcher moonlights as a VC, and has invested in Uber. VCs always present themselves as bringing more to the table than just money (whether it's connections in the target industry, management/hiring help, etc.). His special skill is to make politicians fear for their approval ratings and back down from idiotic laws. Not bad skill to have in this day and age.
Holy shit, the impossible has happened. A regulation has failed to make it to a vote in New York. I don't know if there will be long term consequences, but its victory dance time none the less.
The long-term consequences are that DeBlassio has now pissed off 2 unions, and that his body will never be found.
Worry not. I'm sure a regulation to prevent the prevention of regulations will be voted on shortly.
Kutcher moonlights as a VC, and has invested in Uber. VCs always present themselves as bringing more to the table than just money (whether it's connections in the target industry, management/hiring help, etc.). His special skill is to make politicians fear for their approval ratings and back down from idiotic laws. Not bad skill to have in this day and age.
Demi Moore also taught him how to use a pottery wheel.
And the potty.
Meanwhile, NY politicians' layabout brothers-in-law suddenly find new careers at Uber as, oh, I dunno, community relations specialists or something.
"Have you done any community relating this month?"
"Sure thing, boss, I've been relating to the community down at the strip club."
"Very well, carry on then."
So NYC decided that 27 different options for deodorant, or getting ride, isn't such a bad thing.
Whoa - someone get Bernie Sanders on the line, STAT!
Wait, Cuomo did the right thing? Please tell me there wasn't a catch. Otherwise, props to him.
Cuomo is state. They don't have a piece of the taxi action. He would be singing a different tune if was wetting his beak.
Which means Cuomo's signaling to de Blasio that he wants his cut. Then he'll do something.