David Do,
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Commissioner, Taxi and Limousine Commission
If you ask David Do what his priorities are for the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, he’ll say ramping up debt relief for cabdrivers, boosting accessibility options for New Yorkers and greening the taxi fleet with electric vehicles. In his first six months as commissioner, he’s off to a good start.
A city relief program has wiped out approximately $240 million in debt held by more than 1,100 taxi medallion owners in the past three months. During the week of Sept. 19, the TLC said, it closed one loan every three minutes.
The agency, Do said, plans to announce its approach to creating a more sustainable fleet early next year.
Through a proposed metered fare increase—the city’s first in 10 years—the TLC aims to more than triple the surcharge it collects to better support owners and drivers of wheelchair-accessible taxis.
“That is my passion: to come in and see where I can improve things,” Do said.
Do, who hails from San Jose, California, is the son of refugees from the Vietnam War. The first in his family to graduate from college, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Merced, then a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Maryland.
After establishing himself as a community advocate in Washington, D.C., he led the district’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs under Mayor Muriel Bowser. He most recently headed D.C.’s Department of For-Hire Vehicles during the pandemic.
“My passion was to improve the lives of our drivers,” he said, “and it still is.”