Monday night the Portsmouth city council killed all three amendments requested by Uber that would have allowed all Uber drivers to operate legally in Portsmouth.
At the public hearing before the vote, Uber supporters outnumbered opponents about two to one. One taxi loyalist accused Uber drivers of “laughing at” the police because he saw an Uber driver park often right next to a police car downtown. Except “Uber Grandma” Stephanie Franz then stepped to the podium to say that driver was her. Why park there? She said:
“I do that because I fear the taxi cab drivers. My car’s been blocked in. I’ve had stuff thrown at it. They take pictures of my car. They take pictures of me. They yell at me. They’ve done a lot of different things.”
Additional reports of taxi drivers harassing Uber drivers and customers all fell on deaf ears. Ordinance architect Asst. Mayor Jim Splaine urged everyone to vote down all three amendments requested by Uber, which they did.
Splaine even jumped into the Free Uber Facebook page comments to defend the ordinance, erroneously claiming: “We’ve created a free market” by forcing Uber drivers to register with the city.
Portsmouth resident Jason Walls blasted the council’s actions in an op-ed published today in the Portsmouth Herald:
What I saw [Monday] was a group of people listen to a vast majority of interested parties in favor of abolishing the ordinance or, at the very least, adding the amendments requested by Uber to allow us to move on in the short term, and then, subsequently, completely ignore those people and pass the buck onto the next council. In the meantime, Taxi drivers will continue to harass Uber passengers, police will continue to waste time policing the ordinance, and all of this will happen during the holiday season when a surge of ride-sharing drivers is needed most.
This is dangerous and despicable. It’s disgusting to me as a resident and taxpayer. The council members, save for Thorsen and Dwyer, should be ashamed. The headlines should read “Council votes to delay safer Portsmouth” or “Council votes to continue increased drunk driving risks.” You had an opportunity to end this, or at least refrain from enforcement, until this time when it is needed most is over, and you didn’t – even those with nothing to lose on their way out. Let the record show.
Councilor Thorsen, who together with Councilor Dwyer, was one of the only voices of reason during the debate, had the best quote of the night, admitting that the council “didn’t really even know what we’re talking about”:
“I have a little bit of concern over this whole process just because, for example in our last meeting, I went away scratching my head because I was told that our process is better than Uber’s process, for example background checks. And at the same time, we were told we don’t know what Uber’s background check is. Now either one.. you can’t say both. And yet we said both right up here on the council, which told me we didn’t really even know what we’re talking about. And that concerns me in this whole process.
Now we had some feedback from the police department, and that’s good. But again, I don’t think that in trying to get down to the 15 versus 7 [years for the background checks] — I don’t agree with 15, I think we should be at 7 because that’s what most are.
I wanted to be able to address that. I’m going to have to leave it to the next council. We have several young people up on the next council. I think they’re going to have a different opinion than this council. I hope that they do and I hope that they get Uber into Portsmouth as soon as they possibly can.”
The turf war on the streets of Portsmouth continues. Eyes now turn to the new city council and their first meeting January 11th.
Regional physical media chain Bull Moose recently opened its doors in the old Video Headquarters location in the Hannaford plaza on West Street in Keene. They carry a wide variety of media including video games, cds, vinyl, DVD, Bluray, and even books! It’s refreshing to see someone trying to keep physical media distribution alive – hopefully it works out for them. Kudos also to Bull Moose for carrying Keene-produced-and-edited documentary Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree on DVD!
DJVCS DVDs on-the-shelf at Bull Moose, Keene!
Of course, you can watch the feature-length documentary produced by Free State Project participants for free in its entirety online, but that doesn’t do you any good if you’re looking for a gift for this holiday season. Victimless Crime Spree makes a great stocking stuffer, and Bull Moose in Keene is selling it for LESS than Amazon! Amazon has it listed for $7.93 while Bull Moose has it on-the-shelf, brand new, for just $6.97! There’s no cheaper place to purchase the Director’s Cut DVD, which is loaded with hours of bonus footage and even features TWO commentary tracks!
Bull Moose has three copies in stock as of yesterday, so if you’re looking for a perfect last-minute gift, stop in to 401B West St. in the Hannaford plaza. They’re open until midnight tonight and 7pm on Christmas Eve.
If you don’t live in the Keene area, just grab your copy at Amazon where it qualifies for Amazon Prime and Free Super-Saver Shipping!
The last time we heard about how many taxpayer dollars the city of Keene has spent on their frivolous lawsuit to try to crush the rights of Keene’s Robin Hooders, it was December of 2013, the year they filed the suits against us.
Keene’s Robin Hooders were feeding expired parking meters in relative obscurity until the city filed its suit in May of 2013. That suit blew up into a huge storm of publicity, making Keene’s government the laughingstock of the world.
Attorney Charles Bauer is getting very rich from taxpayer dollars.
Determined not to show any good sense, the city gang continued to lavish tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on failure after failure in this case. They hired the go-to law firm for all NH municipalities, “Gallagher, Callahan, and Gartrell” (the same firm that lost the Gericke case, which upheld the right to record police). Hey, it’s not like it’s the city’s money – they stole it from Keene’s productive class – the people.
Now the case is going back to the NH supreme court on appeal, but mayor Lane claims the law firm is going to cut them a break on this appeal and do it pro-bono. How generous of Bauer’s firm! (Robin Hood attorney Jon Meyer has been pro-bono from day one.)
After the city’s latest failure at the superior court, once again the city has given us an early Christmas present by deciding to appeal the most recent decision to the NH Supreme court.
The city’s expensive attorneys from Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrellwaited until the LAST possible day they could file to legally file the appeal (PDF). The city has already spent countless dollars on this case and this latest appeal is a further waste of taxpayer funds.
The appeal is for the Supreme court to look ONLY at the lower court’s ruling regarding the request for the “buffer zone” injunction. The NH Supreme court has already decided the allegations of “tortious interference”, “civil conspiracy”, “negligence”, and the demand for financial compensation were unfounded and the activities engaged in by the Robin Hooders are protected by the first amendment.
Once again the robin hooders will be represented by the NH Civil Liberties Union’s Jon Meyer who expects the case to be heard sometime in the summer of 2016, three years after the case was first filed in 2013. We will keep you up-to-date on any further developments.
