Airport taxicab drivers obtained a 17-day extension on the deadline to install new equipment after a series of pleas and threats not only from their own numbers but from Jefferson Parish and Kenner politicians. Parish President John Young, for example, asked New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu for relief on Wednesday, and the Kenner City Council was preparing Thursday evening to...
Airport taxicab drivers obtained a 17-day extension on the deadline to install new equipment after a series of pleas and threats not only from their own numbers but from Jefferson Parish and Kenner politicians. Parish President John Young, for example, asked New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu for relief on Wednesday, and the Kenner City Council was preparing Thursday evening to demand enforcement of its own laws on New Orleans-based cabbies driving to and from Louis Armstrong International Airport.
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John Young
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Kent Denapolis
That threatened confrontation was avoided when the Aviation Board, earlier Thursday, extended the Dec. 31 deadline to at least Jan. 17, the date of the board's next meeting. Walter Krygowski, the airport operations chief, said the demand among taxis wanting to make the necessary upgrades had overtaxed the few equipment stations that can do the work, making it impossible for all airport cabs to be in compliance by the end of the year.
That's exactly the point that non-New Orleans cabbies have been making for weeks. Although they are licensed by suburban governments, these cabbies must comply with New Orleans' new equipment law if they work the New Orleans-owned airport in south Kenner.
Young's letter, released Friday by his office, used a carrot approach. Saying cabbies licensed by Jefferson Parish "have served the flying public ... for many years, thereby contributing to the success of our region," he asked Landrieu for support in extending the deadline so that Jefferson cabs could continue "providing the service that the traveling public has come to expect." (Read Young's letter, Landrieu aide's response.)
Kenner officials say they have been trying a similar tact without success. So City Councilman Kent Denapolis picked up a stick, drafting a resolution with council members Gregory Carroll and Maria DeFrancesch requesting "immediate enforcement" of its own law regulating vehicles for hire -- including New Orleans-licensed cabs -- on Kenner streets. (Read the proposed resolution.)
That raised the prospect of Kenner code enforcers, and perhaps police, pulling over New Orleans cabbies to see their papers and, in the case of vehicles without Kenner licenses, forbidding them to drive in Kenner.
The Kenner law actually applies to New Orleans-licensed taxis already. But Denapolis said Kenner historically has not enforced it, preferring instead to honor the vehicle inspections and licenses of New Orleans' taxicab bureau.
After learning of the deadline extension, however, Denapolis decided to defer the council vote on his resolution until Jan. 17.
