Remembering the Era of New York’s Jewish Taxi Drivers
A sunny yellow cab darts and weaves amid an armada of glum, black utility vehicles, catching my eye. As I stand on a street in the very heart of Manhattan, I can see it coming a mile away, which is the point, after all. Its bright, snappy exterior makes the vehicle pop. The use of yellow as a distinguishing mark is a fairly recent phenomenon, mandated by New York’s municipal authorities only in 1967; previously, cabs came in many hues, red and lavender among them. Although there’s something to be said about an abundance of color on Gotham’s thoroughfares, the sprightly yellow seems just right, in sync with the city, the visual equivalent of its vibrant, untrammeled spirit. And more. Thanks to the presence of this brightly colored car-for-hire, yellow—an Old World symbol of confinement ever since the Middle Ages—acquired a new, more beneficent meaning in the New: an expression of mobility, of getting from here to there.
The next time you’re up and about on the city’s streets, take a good look at a taxi as it speeds by, for its days are numbered, or so The New York Times recently observed.
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