Tough on Taxis

I own Brisa Marina taxi in Santa Barbara. Chief Cam Sanchez’s police officers apparently have been directed to issue unwarranted citations, without cause, to cabbies solely for the purpose of generating revenue for the police department and the City of Santa Barbara. I received a citation for “impeding the flow of traffic” when clearly I was not impeding any traffic, as you can see in photos of the crime scene.

This is contrary to the testimony of the citing officer, who claimed that cars were having to drive over the center double-yellow line to get by me, even though the street at that location is five car-widths wide. A lot of the cabbies have received a barrage of tickets similar or identical to this citation, which amounts to nothing less than corruption on part of the SBPD.

In some instances, taxi drivers have received impeding tickets for someone jumping into their cab while they are stopped at red lights or stop signs, or while they are yielding for pedestrians, without holding any cars up in traffic.

Furthermore, the City of Santa Barbara has failed to provide taxi stands where needed ( in front of Sharkeez, for example. You’ll also notice that 95% of all taxi stands have time limits making it impossible to pick up drunks without risking getting cited before 9 pm. An obvious scam to generate income from some of the poorest working people in the city, leaving lots of us homeless or unable to provide for our families and children.