City rejects bids by 2 cab com p n

Even though tourism and convention numbers are projected to be down during the next two to three years, taxi cab companies still believe Anaheim is a prime area for expansion. The city already has two companies that provide pick-up service here and two other companies came before the City Council on July 21 to ask permission to begin service in Anaheim. But the council voted 3-2 against adding new taxi cab services, echoing the recommendations of city staff, which said there isn t a need for additional taxi service. Mayor Tom Daly and Councilman Lou Lopez supported the additional service. Councilmen Bob Zemel and Tom Tait and Councilwoman Shirley McCracken voted no. We ve looked to see if there have been complaints to the Visitor and Convention Bureau about taxi cab service and there haven t been, said John Poole, city code enforcement manager. We have faith in the information that we re receiving from them. Poole also said the city maintaihotels in Anaheim about the current taxi situation. If there have been any problems, they ve not been brought my attention, he said. Representatives from South Coast Cab Co. and the Coast Yellow Cab Cooperative tried to convince the council there was a need for more taxi service in Anaheim. South Coast Cab wanted permits to operate 40 cabs and Coast Yellow Cab wanted to have 30 permitted taxis. Karen Clark, a representative from South Coast Cab, pointed to a survey done by code enforcement staff last December as proof of a need for more taxis. City staff had volunteers makes six calls for taxi cab service with the two companies currently in Anaheim, A Taxi Cab and Yellow Cab, and record the response times. Most of the calls were for services from the west end of Anaheim to the east side or vice versa. Clark said that of the 12 total calls, five calls took more than 20 minutes for response, and service in Anaheim, Clark said. Poole presented a similar survey done on June 30, response time of 11.6 minutes for Yellow Cab and 14.8 minutes for A Cab, with a maximum response time of 27 minutes. That s too long to have to wait for a cab, Daly said. Lopez said if there isn t a need for more taxis, then companies would not be coming forward to try to gain permits in operate in the city. Why would a company commit business suicide by setting up shop where there isn t a need? he said. South Coast Cab had offered a compromise that would allow them only to accept calls and not sit in lines at hotels and Disneyland. But Poole said that would make enforcement even more difficult. We have to push the envelope to enforce what we have now, he said. Taxis that are permitted to make pick-ups in Anaheim have to display a window sticker. However, any cab company can drop people off in Anaheim from another city. Surface streets have had to deal with construction related to improvements of their own Sirimarily aof the construction work has created clouds of dust. All of this means that the city is estimating a drop off in revenues brought in by the transient occupany tax the IS percent tax on the room rates of people staying in hotels and motels in Anaheim. Word of the construction is being filtered to large groups that are planning on visiting Anaheim. Before arriving in the city for their annual convention, members of the Fraternal Order of Elks read about the construction . Problems in their monthly magazine. A picture of a city road sign that reads Imagination at Work, Drive Slowly, was published along with a caption warning Elks of potential problems. Travelers in Anaheim this summer will no doubt come across construction signs like this one, the caption reads. Because of Anaheim s current $550 million revitalization of the city s infrastructure, it s a good idea to plan ahead to avoid heavy traffic. However, most of the convention didn t seem to affetted by the construction. From what little we ve seen, we ve really liked Anaheim, said Harry Tanger, a New Jersey native who was planning on spending extra time in Anaheim with his family after the convention ended last Wednesday. I was a little concerned about the construction and the roadways, said Tanger, who was staying at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers hotel next to the Convention Center. But it hasn t really been a problem for us. It might have been worse for some other people who were staying further away from the Convention Center, but it hasn t been a problem for us. Elaine Cali of the Anaheim orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau said an aggressive marketing campaign is under way to promote Anaheim as a vacation and convention spot. A $7SO,000-a-year advertising campaign has been started, focusing mainly on print advertising in Northern California and the Southwest, Cy in Anaheim, but Cali said city officials are trying to work in coopoeration with the tourism industry to make things go as smoothly as possible. Construction is on-" she said, but with the help of city officials we re trying to be as proactive as possible in reducing the effects that it has on visitor.s to