Residents of Minneapolis may have to start hitchhiking to their doctor’s appointments because progressives in the city have passed a law that will drive ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft out of the city. Ryan Mills explains at National Review:
Twice a week, Jim Grathwol’s son, Matthew, travels to a Minneapolis clinic to have his blood drawn and to receive anti-psychotic injections that are vital to maintaining his mental health.
Three times a week, the 33-year-old Minnesotan travels to and from Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. He’s also going back to school to finish a degree in screenwriting, his dad said.
Over the last five year, Grathwol said, his son has made a tremendous recovery and is successfully managing a schizoaffective bipolar disorder that once sent him spiraling. He lives on Social Security Disability but is working hard on getting back on his feet.
To get everywhere that he needs to go, Matthew depends on Lyft, the California-based rideshare service. He gets a special Lyft travel benefit as part of his Medicare program.
“This is a special, niche market,” Grathwol said of the medical-waiver program, “but gosh and golly, I’ll tell you, it is a great benefit that gives my son independence.”
But the Lyft rides that Grathwol’s son and many others depend on may not be available in Minneapolis for long after the city’s far-left council recently mandated such drastic increases in driver pay that both Lyft and its competitor, Uber, say they’re leaving the city on May 1.
Councilmembers determined new driver-pay rates without requesting local data from the rideshare companies or inviting the companies’ leaders to engage in their process.
Lyft leaders called the Minneapolis ordinance “deeply flawed.” The Star Tribune editorial board said the council “ill-advisedly voted to require an excessive minimum wage” for drivers.
Minneapolis’s Democratic mayor, Jacob Frey, vetoed the ordinance. The council almost immediately responded by overriding the veto with a 10-to-3 vote, though a majority of council members on Thursday expressed a willingness to revise the legislation in response to overwhelming public backlash.
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