ONEONTA – Gordon D. Young, 82, passed away Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, at home.
He was born Nov. 22, 1927, in Oneonta, to Elmer and Mary Ellen Young of Colliersville, who predeceased him along with a sister, Madeline Terry of Sarasota, Fla.
His loving wife of 63 years, Gladys, survives him; as well as two sons, Richard (Dick) and wife Nancy Young of Otego and LeGrande (Lee) and wife Donna Young of West Laurens; three grandchildren, Richard Young Jr. of Oneonta, Michelle and Adam Edelstein of Worcester, Mass., and Jason and Amanda Young, stationed in the United States Coast Guard, Vicksburg, Miss.; two great-grandchildren, Erica Young of Oneonta and Hunterlee Young of Vicksburg, Miss.; one niece, one nephew; and a cousin and friend, Jan Ackley.
A private service is to be held at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care.

Has anyone noticed the ever so growing number of taxicabs in Oneonta? It used to be that you could walk down the street and only see a taxicab once in a while, but now they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. They are everywhere!
I spoke with Oneonta City Clerk James Koury, who furnished me with a tally of the number of taxicab companies registered to operate in the city as well as the number of registered cabs each company owns. It is a lot!
As of Nov. 30, there are six taxicab companies registered with a total of 28 cabs on the street serving Oneonta. Oops! As of Dec. 14, change that to seven taxicab companies and 29 cabs. Yes, since my meeting with the city clerk, yet another company has entered the arena.
There are good points to this – and there are not so good points.
The good point is that you can step out of just about any building downtown and easily hail a taxi day or night, or have one dispatched to your address in a reasonable time.
Another good point: The city receives revenue in the form of licensing fees charged to the taxi companies and cab drivers for the privilege to do business in the city.
The bad points require a lengthier explanation.
Recently, I met up with several cab drivers who were sitting at, as one driver called it, “The fishing hole,” referring to the Trailways Bus Terminal on Market Street. They say it’s a good place to pick up bus passengers in need of a ride to their homes whenever arriving in town via bus as well as college students who can’t wait for the scheduled OPT bus that goes to the campus, or people who don’t wish to drink and drive.
One driver said that he used to average around $200 driving the night shift but now only brings home around $75, and that includes tips.
After being in the business for almost a decade he’s looking for another job. “Cab driving just isn’t profitable anymore,” he said.
You would expect the cab driver’s main complaints would center on the economy, unemployment and the all-so-popular complaint of rising gasoline prices, but no! What complaint eclipsed all others? There are too many taxicabs out here – nobody’s making any money!
It’s a classic example of Plato’s “Tragedy of the Commons.” The overabundance of taxicabs has cut into the market share so deeply that nobody is earning a decent wage, not even a modest one.
In fact, the taxicab business has reverted from just friendly competition to a high-tech war.
Radio-dispatched companies now communicate with their drivers using cryptic jargon just in case other taxicab companies are monitoring their calls through the use of radio scanners.
Some companies bypass two-way radio systems all together preferring to dispatch calls via cell-phone to their drivers.
To win over customers from competitors, several companies now offer “frequent-flyer” discount cards, special holiday rates, acceptance of credit cards and local college-issued debit cards, and one even has gone so far as to roll back some of their prices to what they charged five years ago. Good news for the customers … bad news for the cab drivers.
While these tactics may increase a taxicab company’s market share, they also cut deeply into the individual cab driver’s earnings. Cab drivers usually aren’t compensated by their companies for the discounts; they, too, have to bare the price cuts.
To add to the taxi companies’ woes, Oneonta Public Transit, the city bus system, has recently offered Sunday bus service between downtown Oneonta and Southside. Sundays used to be a great day for the taxicab companies. A lot of people used to use cabs to get to work or shop in Southside – those days are gone!
Having seven taxicab companies operating in the city has also created another problem. If you board a cab from the wrong company, you may end up arriving at your destination only to discover that the driver doesn’t accept your frequent-flyer or student debit card; a combined result of a passenger not distinguishing which cab they board and drivers snatching one another’s calls.
Beside’s that, the rates are different amongst the varying taxicab companies so a return trip may be a different rate than what you expected.
It’s a “Win-Win-Lose” situation. The city wins from the additional and much needed revenue from the increase in companies registering to do business in the city, the customers a win by getting lower rates and faster service, but the individual taxicab companies, especially the cab drivers, are the losers.
As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, there are too many taxicabs, and the situation is going to get worse. That is until city government takes the bull by its horns and addresses the situation.
This can be accomplished in several ways: Regulate the number of taxicabs that can be licensed to operate in the city, or get together with the taxicab company owners and agree upon unified cab fare rates, or do both.
Also, requiring drivers to take some kind of “area knowledge” exam would not be a bad idea either. I once actually had to explain to a driver how to get to Maple Street. How do you hire a driver that doesn’t know where Maple Street is?
My grandfather’s favorite expression was, “Mark my word.” Well, “mark my word, if something isn’t done soon, the situation is only going to get worse.”
Until that day arrives, you can help in solving part of the problem by doing this: whenever you take a cab ride, especially during these fast approaching days of harsh winter weather – don’t forget to tip your driver!

K.C. Harloff, Cooperstown, drove cab while a student at SUNY Oneonta.