Skip to main content

Crack Motels: desperation, hope, and survival...hope not doing too good these days

The Mosley Motel
I had a pick up in south Tampa at a nice townhouse/condo. A girl came out of the condo, but did not look the part. She looked road weary and beat. You know, hard living, even though I just picked her up on easy street. I knew this was not  her place. I have seen her type before. Years of bad decisions, poor emotional support, lack of friends, no job, no man, and everyone else in the world is too blame. Sad. What is really sad is I'm rarely wrong on this. Two decades of driving a hack has jaded me, I guess. It's not bias if you've seen it a million times.

I was surprised when she said she needed to go to St. Petersburg on 34th street. That's an out of town trip and that is when I get nervous about getting paid. I hope the John was nice enough to give her money for the fair. They usually do. I ask a few qualifying questions and I'm now satisfied she has money because she knows exactly what the fare will run because she has done this before. We settle down for a nice ride.

A typical swinging night at the Mosley
We end up at the Mosley Motel (read the reviews! LMFAO). The place looks almost passable during the day. At night, the cockroaches, crackheads, drug dealers, prostitutes, dickheads, and bums come out in full force. Its an arm pit. People who end up here are out of jobs; out of couches; out of touch; and out of luck. This is the last way station before you are officially homeless. $200 plus a week keeps you from the streets. It does little to protect you from the marginal elements of socitiey. You fucked. There is no other way to put it.

Ain't got nothing to do
My experience has shown, from the front of my taxi cab, that these people are in between work, and in between here and there. Transient workers, mentally ill waiting for their checks, sex offenders, and the stung out. Unfortunately, since the recession, Families have turned to these places. That was not supposed to happen with this administration. Politicians have only  paid lip service to a very real, but solvable, problem.

Obama has made their life so much better.
She paid the fare and got out. I could notice people just hanging out on the stoops. Nobody looked like they had a job. Nobody looked like they had any fire burning behind their eyes. Life takes...I guess. I wonder how many just chose to live this way. While I was parked there, you could see a black, older guy, come up the ally on a bicycle. He was looking around for someone but no one.

He must be a 'hook.' In normal person terms, that is a middle man. He never touches the dope or the money. He waits for people who want to score dope and he takes them to the place. He gets a fee for his services. I saw a hook get the shit beat out of him when he demanded money. It was in the backseat of my taxi. They had called for a taxi to go to the hood. I never ask people what they are doing, but you know. You know what I mean. The buyer was upset because he knew the dope boy and said the could get the rock on his own.

"Fuck you nigger!" he says

The hooked continued to demand his money. Then the buyer dives over the seat and beats the shit out of him. I stop and get out of the cab. Realize folks I was in deep hood. I mean DEEP HOOD. My white ass was standing there while a crowd was gathering. I hop back in as the buyer got out and I hit the gas. The origin of that fare was a crack motel in Tampa. The point I am making is these places are not safe.

Do these people ever go inside. They did pay for the room, right?
Most people can drive home at night to their nice crib. They can close the gate, and never have any contact with this problem society has. The only way it will get better is have housing for families and put the rest of fuck-ups  in prison. The later one is being done in Florida by this Governor and it already having a positive affect.


Comments

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Popular Posts Last 30 days

The Taxi Truman Show

I may have found the escape hatch Regulated Taxi driving is now dead. Uber has taken over. The current situation is no longer tenable for drivers who face an old model of cab leasing, and can no longer continue paying a Pre-Uber lease. Today was the tipping point. This time of year we should be very busy...EXTREMLY BUSY. We are not. It is dead as a doornail with drivers at the airport waiting up to 5 hours to a ride. It should be off the hook. It is for Uber. They pay no fee to the airport, yet they are allowed to operate. I made a good living for years. Transportation was regulated in Hillsborough County. This insured uniformity or rates, insurance, and accountability. But no more. The HCPTC has now allowed a gypsy cab company take over. Uber has not only taken some or part of our business - they have taken it all. This is because they are low balling the market in an attempt to establish a monopoly. They are well on their way to doing that with the compl...

Sleeping with the enemy

I sort of stick out in this sea of pink I always seem to get on TV. This is Tim Fasano (in the yellow shirt with camera) sitting in the room full of Lyft and Uber drivers. Did you ever feel really alone? These rideshare people are operating an illegal business that is cutting into my livelyhood, and I wanted the Hillsborough County Commission to know it. The Lyft drivers are a bunch of punks and  kids who have never worked a day in their lives. They will get whats coming to them. How do you spell douchebags? You will see me in the video shown on the local news.

Who's picking you up?

She would never make it on the mean streets. She will stay with the craft beer drinkers and poor people suffer. People like the lady above is what is wrong with the rideshare concept. This women will never go into the bad part of town. Poor people in society suffer enough, now, they won't even be able to get rides. The cheery pickers have arrived. Cab driving will now be an exclusive right of passage for hipsters, on the same level of Starbucks coffee, skinny jeans, and alternative rock with craft beers, and the other sacraments of hipsterism. This has to be stopped. Jobs are at stake.  "Led by companies like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar, ride-sharing has rocketed into the mainstream in a relatively short time frame. Uber started up in San Francisco four years ago, and has since expanded to 128 cities worldwide. The company's most recent valuation came in at an eye-popping $18 billion. Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick has publicly stated that his company is doubling ...

What Lyft and Uber will take from the Tampa taxi business

A lyft car at the Iconic sign on Florida ave downtown Tampa I have been a hack in Tampa Florida since 1995. Unlike the estimated 50% of Americans that hate their jobs, I have never had a day when I did not feel like going to work. Certainly, the last few years  have not been fun because the economy fell apart like a three dollar watch. However, economies are like tides and this one is on the rebound, at a snail's pace. I would like to thank Mr. Obama for that but that would not be fair. The economy is recovering despite any fiscal policy of his. That being said - there are challenges. My job is inherently difficult. We face strange and deranged people street level on a daily basis. Taxi companies in Tampa (which are regulated) must serve the general population. We have no choice. Short fares, drunk fares, people going to buy drugs (they don't tell you that) we must pick up. Don't get me wrong, there are business people, beautiful women, great trippers, and long haul...

Dana Young is a Liar or very confused about Uber

A very bad person with no honor or integrity I attended a meeting at the hockey arena downtown which was attended by all the Tampa Bay area state senators and representatives. In attendance was one Dana Young (R). When it was her time to speak, so told a story about a young women that was being raped. While the college student was being sexually assaulted, the student hit the Uber app on her phone and the police now knew the GPS coordinates of her location. What MS. Young did not disclose was that it happened on the UCLA campus and that it was an UBER DRIVER THAT WAS RAPING HER! "As students prepare to return to college, one thing female students cannot go without is caution. Assaults, especially sexual assaults, are a haunting part of daily life for so many students. Uber has made that nightmare even more of a reality . We tell our students that getting a driver when they’ve had too much to drink is the responsible course of action — it’...

What a Bigfoot blog said about my workout

Tim Fasano may look like an old man, but we're now certain that if anyone tries to mess with him, he's taking down hard. In this video, Fasano shows us his cardio routine. "This is awesome cardio as I get in shape with weights and running to smash my haters in the mouth," says Fasano. posted from Bloggeroid

Redlining practices of Uber and Lyft exclude Black People

Uber and Lyft are companies formed in Lilly white silicon valley, by Lilly white computer geeks, who would not know what the hood looked like even if they ventured into Oakland. They have put together a business model that is for white people, and excludes blacks, and most poor people. Their intent is to only cheery pick the best, and richest fares in any community, and Redline the hood and poor areas.   This is easily done by allowing the drivers to not only choose where they work, but allow them to choose who they will pick up. The driver can rate the customer and, then, nobody will pick them up. If the rider does not tip (which is cultural and common with inner city people), they will get a bad rating and no Uber or Lyft guy will pick them up. I must pick them up even if they don't tip. A typical attitude of a Lyft rider is like the comment left on this site.  You have to accept the new and ever changing world of technology and what people are comfortable with. M...

A Trolly crash on Channelside along with Gasparilla

It was bound to happen. A car hit the trolley on the way to the cruise ship today before the Gasparilla parade. The cross ways are poorly marked, and someone from out of town would not be looking for it, or expect it. Believe me, I have come very close in the past. I always thought those things were a bad idea for nobody rides them, and the conductors come flying through intersections. I wonder who was at fault. We were busy today as the pirate festival kicks off the start of our tourist season. May, 5 will mark the end.You will see me with my Corona beer that day drowning my sorrows for the party is over. That's what really sucks about the seasonal nature of Florida. Today was not a normal Gasparilla day for me. I was working the Westshore area and got three ship runs in a row. They were very nice people from up north that were amazed and loving the beautiful weather we are having. They wondered what all the fuss was about and I explained the pirate heritage of Tamp...

FUCK UBER

Listen, you Uber fuckers, you screwheads. You are stealing my shit. I tried to be rational (What's that?). But not now. I am a man who will not take it anymore. A man who stands up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. I am a man who stands up. Look at it this way. A man takes a job, you know? And that job - I mean, like that - That becomes what he is. You know, like - You do a thing and that's what you are. Like I've been a cabbie for nineteen years. Ten years at night. I still don't own my own cab. You know why? Because I don't want to. That must be what I want. To be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. You understand? I mean, you become - You get a job, you become the job. One guy lives in a shit hole, another lives on drugs. You pick up a lawyer. Another guy's a doctor. Another guy dies. Another guy gets well. People are born, y'know? Why do you want to drive Uber? You think you can avoid your destiny? You'l...

National Taxi strike called for October 26, 2014 against Uber & Lyft

Following the crowd is the opposite of the Uber Man...They want your mind...don't let them have it! There is more at stake then a ride to work. The battle for man's mind has begun. The Internet has made many things possible and reacting with incomplete information has had a debilitating effect on peoples behaviour and mental acuity. The ability to assess facts accurately has been diminished. When wide swaths of hipsters chose to use a ride share company because it has a slick app, without considering the consequences to society, then harm is being done. Ignoring that modern society is structured by law - they proceed anyway. This course must be redirected Back in the dark ages, villagers and townspeople would often react to a rumor and then take action swiftly to bring justice upon the presumed guilty party without waiting for the authorities to resolve it. The more emotionally attached people were to the crime, the less real or confirmed information they needed to follow...