The “deregulation” proposal simply doesn’t deal with the problem, and leaves us with socially disastrous underprovision of public services. It’s not intellectually sane.

I’d be happy to see another proposal which actually solves the problem, but I don’t think there are any.

The livery companies are refusing to register as taxi companies because they don’t want to serve arbitrary trips between two points in Portland.

Well, to hell with the livery companies. Cherry-picking “the best” for one private company just means the government ends up having to pay for the rest of the service throughout town (LEMON SOCIALISM), or means that there is substandard, terrible taxi service in the town (which just hurts everyone).

As a *liberal* I think the way to deal with this is in fact to provide a government transportation monopoly, but the current “regulated utility” model of taxis works well enough; “deregulation” would break it and provide dreadful taxi service throughout town, like it has in so many other arenas.

Transportation is a public utility. It needs to be regulated.

But what’s to stop the livery companies from just becoming taxi companies? If it’s a matter of registering as a taxi company, submitting to inspections, and paying a tax or fee, why don’t they just DO it?

Is it like New York City, with its indefensible medallion system designed to restrict provision of taxis and turn medallion ownership into a valuable property right? (Property sucks. Turning something which isn’t a property right into one should only be done if there’s a very good reason to.) If there’s a deliberate restriction on access to “taxi” status in Portland, target THAT.

If not, it makes you wonder what the livery companies are trying to avoid. They’re trying to evade something. What is it? Standards for quality of service? Requirement to take street hails?

As for Apple and its proposal to throw out the street furniture, that’s unjustifiable, and to hell with Apple. If it doesn’t understand the concept of public space, it had better go away.

You know what would fix that don’t you? A new law that forbids anyone named after a beer from holding public office!

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/2012/02/28/apple-proposes-spectacular-store-for-portland/

As for Apple’s plan to rid the sidewalk of all furniture, bike racks, benches, planters and other obstructions, both Wark and commission chair Guenevere Millius offered objections. Millius said the proposal was an “overly controlling approach to what’s in our environment.” Wark agreed, saying, “The tone of it is, let’s change everything around us so it’s our environment, and not necessarily Portland’s environment.” Millius summed it up: “I’m not sure sweeping all the street furniture out is acceptable to me. I would like some justification.” …

Probably just happenstance. When a cab finally came, the driver was nice and gregarious, as they usually seem to be in Portland in my limited experience, but I was being overrun with sickness even as we rode on through the cold, rainy night together.

This is probably off-topic.