New York City… Fourth time I am visiting it since I left
during the summer of 2001. The first two were professional visits. The last two
a combination of personal and professional to see if the big apple has any
offers I can accept to end my career path where it started. As my daughter
would say, to see if NYC can help me complete a circle with a 19-year diameter. But what I
would like to share with the reader regarding my last visit to this never-sleeping
city is my experiences with the regular "Joe"s that try to make ends meet in
this "country" of its own…
During my one day break in NYC, I visited the Cloisters Museum: Walking up to the museum in Fort Tryone Park
Closer to Cloisters the vistas get even better
Finally in Cloisters...
Intricate doorway inside one of the cloisters... All brought from European cloisters of the time...
My daughter will explain later “being a lawyer, she probably had better “studying skills” than the Bangladeshi guy of my last trip. Makes sense… Angelica is renting two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen from her landlady, who also lives in the same house “upstairs”. She chuckles with the two bathrooms comment and volunteers "I am not going to share a bathroom with my son (her younger son still lives with her). She pays $1200/month and is happy with this arrangement. I am happy to hear that she can make over $7000 a month in the east coast jungle, not realizing I forgot to ask her about overhead in detail… She minimized the amount of taxes she paid, though... I am hopeful for a friend, who is looking for increasing his income. I wonder if he could do Uber then. I don't know yet, that there may be a lot of overhead involved in this business. That will wait until my third Uber driver…
An inner courtyard in the center of the Cloisters complex, one of several in fact...
Cloisters up against the New Jersey promenade...
On the way back to the city along the waterfront...
Back to my daughter and her partner, and this time we are all visiting his parents where all his extended family will get together for Thanksgiving
Wonderful bunch of family of Mike's scattered all around the country, but mostly along the east coast, in New England...
From a distance the NYC skyline does bring out nostalgia under the November sky...
Three Uber drivers that I came across between Long Island
and New Jersey, between New Jersey and Manhattan and between Manhattan and Long
Island, two young men, and a middle-age woman will unfold in this story. The first one took me from my
daughter’s house to Hackensack New Jersey, a 45 minute ride. This young Bangladeshi-American man,
named Anjhali (not his real name) is an Uber driver full time, meaning 60 hours a week on the streets of the Big Apple. He is married to a
woman, who works at Domino’s, in fact that’s where they met, before he started
his job at Uber.
My daughter and her partner prepared a lovely and very healthy welcome dinner for me...
They now have a 4 year-old son and the mother works at Domino’s only over the weekends when Anjhali is more available to their child. However, the mothers in law take turns in coming to the US to live with them to take care of the “baby” as Anjhali calls his son… He is limited (!) to work 60 hours a week due to NYC ordinance for taxi drivers. He tells me how difficult it is to become a taxi driver in the big apple. In addition to your regular driver’s license you have to get a taxi license, which requires an additional exam. His English is still developing after nine years in the US, and it isn’t hard to understand why it took him several trials to pass that test.
They now have a 4 year-old son and the mother works at Domino’s only over the weekends when Anjhali is more available to their child. However, the mothers in law take turns in coming to the US to live with them to take care of the “baby” as Anjhali calls his son… He is limited (!) to work 60 hours a week due to NYC ordinance for taxi drivers. He tells me how difficult it is to become a taxi driver in the big apple. In addition to your regular driver’s license you have to get a taxi license, which requires an additional exam. His English is still developing after nine years in the US, and it isn’t hard to understand why it took him several trials to pass that test.
It looks like he is settled into
being an Uber driver, is it for life? Don't know. I am curious about what the monthly income is, but I don't feel comfortable asking him that and I don’t push any further with questions. A sweet,
subdued young man, an immigrant, who is doing his best to become an American,
take good care of his family, with no health insurance, no retirement benefits,
nothing but his body and his car to rely on to earn a living, to live and make
America great again!
Closer to Cloisters the vistas get even better
My second trip is with a woman originally from Dominican
Republic, who has moved to NYC after separating from her husband five years ago
with her two sons. She was a lawyer in DR and is now a full time Uber driver.
My heart aches with how much immigrants may be willing to sacrifice by moving to the
US. Through our conversation, I learn that it wasn’t really the US that
attracted her to NYC, it was her family... Most of her family has been living in NYC
for decades. At the time of her divorce family reunion to reconnect with her strong social support system had become, understandably her priority. I admire her humility to accept whatever life threw at her to make
it work for herself and her then two young boys.
Angelica (not her real name) is fifty-four now; five years
ago at almost fifty, she didn’t feel she could go through the hassle of going to law school,
bar exams, etc to become a lawyer here, instead she did this and that until she
found her way to Uber. She is working 60 hours a week, during day hours only; as a woman her priority is safety... She is
taking home $1800/week. She tells me about the taxi license, which is a must to
pick up passengers in “The City”, although she lives in New Jersey. However, it
took her one trial to pass the exam, which she thinks was no big deal.
Intricate doorway inside one of the cloisters... All brought from European cloisters of the time...
My daughter will explain later “being a lawyer, she probably had better “studying skills” than the Bangladeshi guy of my last trip. Makes sense… Angelica is renting two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen from her landlady, who also lives in the same house “upstairs”. She chuckles with the two bathrooms comment and volunteers "I am not going to share a bathroom with my son (her younger son still lives with her). She pays $1200/month and is happy with this arrangement. I am happy to hear that she can make over $7000 a month in the east coast jungle, not realizing I forgot to ask her about overhead in detail… She minimized the amount of taxes she paid, though... I am hopeful for a friend, who is looking for increasing his income. I wonder if he could do Uber then. I don't know yet, that there may be a lot of overhead involved in this business. That will wait until my third Uber driver…
My last driver is Jose (not his real name), from Mexico, who
also is proud of his taxi license. He is not as content with what he is doing
as my previous two drivers, though. He has two children and his wife is a nurse
with benefits. He finds himself lucky that he and his family have health
insurance and other benefits through his wife. He tells me his take home income
varies anywhere from $4500/month to $6000 by working 60-70 hours/week. He tells
me Uber drivers are allowed to work 7 days a week but not more than 10 hours
per day. This hour counting actually takes into account the time a driver spends actually driving customers from one place to the other, not the time spent on the streets...
Jose works the second shift, but what time he ends ranges
anywhere from 2-3 am till 6-7 am. The reason: If he has made good money, he
goes home earlier, if not, he is on the streets of the big apple until early
morning hours. My heart skips a beat recalling my in-house calls during my residency and early professional years in pediatrics… He tells me this is transitional work for
him. He will eventually become either a policeman or a fireman and he is
applying for both. I ask him what is frustrating about the job. Wow, is he full
of anger toward Uber Inc.!
He tells me Uber management is very mean toward its drivers.
When they first started, they wanted the car owners sign up with a car up to 3
years of age, no older: I think, to impress the customers. I recall how
impressed I was with the car of an Uber driver about a decade ago in Miami. The
cars that I rode this time are no different than mine: The answer is, Uber now
accepts cars up to 10 years of age. Customer base swallowed the hook, obviously, no need to impress them any further…
Worse is yet to come. When Uber first started, they would
share 85% of the charge with the driver, now it is down to 65%! Once the
drivers swallowed the hook, they didn't have to share fair amount of income with them, it looks like… He tells me Uber does nothing for the drivers, all
overhead expenses are on the drivers, which includes, repairs, gas, tolls (I discovered by reviewing one of my receipts from Uber that tolls actually are paid by the customers!), taxes, taxi
license (initial cost of $900) that needs to be renewed every three years
($400/renewal), Uber initial membership ($4500) on and on and on… Wow… This is not a
full time job one would be happy to do unless trapped in a rat hole with no
other options… Jose clearly feels like he will get out of this hole as soon as he can, which he thinks will be no more than 3 years
I am glad I had lots of change with me and I tipped all of
my drivers generously in cash. Who knows, Uber may take 1/3 of the tip as well if I tip them on Uber app…
Otherwise, why would the Uber app be soooo excited about the tip when I gave 5
stars to each one of them after my rides… I am also happy that I gave a hug to
each one of my drivers wishing them and their families well. The “sweat of
their brow” deserves every single dollar they make all day long, all night
long…
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| Mike's cousins and their children at Thanksgiving party and the football they play day after thanksgiving very year! |
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| On the way back to NYC, the beautiful view of Manhattan was breathtaking... the black and white medium is totally unintentional... |
