BY now, the tale of the Prague mayor and pirate taxi has circled the globe.
In the unlikely event that you missed it, the mayor last week donned disguise to experience for himself a rip-off taxi ride. Having been charged 60 euro for a trip of about three km, which amounted to 500 per cent of the proper tariff, and having asked for a receipt and been given one in the name of a non-existent company, the mayor revealed his true identity. The taxi driver now faces a fine of about 41 000 euro. At the rate his meter runs, he will require unsuspecting fares travelling a total of about 2050 km to pay the penalty, provided he is allowed to stay in the same trade – which all indications are that he will not be.
Oh, for such a crusading mayor in this city, I hear you cry. A little research showed that the mayor of Prague is by no means a one-off.
The mayor of Bangalore has had quite enough of potholes, it was reported last year. Now, when he finds one, he issues a 15 euro fine against the city engineer responsible for the stretch of road. There is a solution for Sofia, if ever there was one, which combines a new source of revenue with an incentive for officials not to have to provide that new source of revenue.
Perhaps the champion activist mayor of them all is Ray Mallon, the first citizen of Middlesbrough in the UK. Formerly the head of the CID in the city, to which post he was appointed after having cut crime in neighbouring Hartlepool by 35 per cent in two and a half years, Mallon was elected mayor after his career as a detective came to an end for what was reported as having “admitted breaching disciplinary rules”.
Funny that, given that discipline is a subject close to the heart of Mallon, who is known to the media and the burghers of Middlesbrough as “Robocop”.
Last year, he appointed 100 street wardens as a “community protection force”, saying he aimed to cut crime by 15 per cent over the next 12 months.
“As a tide of litter, graffiti, yobs and muggers blight Britain’s streets and public buildings, we in Middlesbrough say, ‘We have had enough,” growled Mallon. Please, where applicable, substitute in your imagination in that sentence, the words, “Bulgaria’s”, “Sofia” and “Sofianski”.
I have had my own experience of witnessing a mayor-turned-municipal activist. In 1989, then a municipal reporter, I spent a night bobbing in the wake of the then mayor of Cape Town as he paid a series of visits, in mufti and minus his chain of office, to nightclubs throughout the city. Not to shake his mayoral bootie, but to inspect fire hydrants, emergency exits, and the sale of liquor to minors.
We know that by now the mayor of Buenos Aires may be wishing he had followed the example of his Cape Town counterpart. After the fire at the end of last year that resulted in several deaths at a Buenos Aires nightclub, the mayor faced an outcry for his resignation.
South America can be a rough place for mayors. Ask Terri Welch, the mayor of Melksham in Wiltshire in the UK, who last year visited Venezuela to see her daughter.
After a round of shopping, Welch and her daughter were returning by taxi when the driver pulled over to the side of the road, produced a firearm, and held the two women at gunpoint while two men jumped into the car and robbed them. A somewhat more direct method of a taxi driver redistributing wealth, than that usually employed in Prague, Sofia and various other capitals.
Sofia’s Sofianski seems better at attracting controversy, rather like an unemptied street refuse bin attracts flies. He should take heart, being the focus of nasty allegations, because he is in good company. France’s Jacques Chirac was investigated for the money spent on catering and entertainment when he was mayor of Paris. Fortunately for Chirac and those who believe no city (especially in France, one may assume) should be shamed by lack of gastronomic generosity, French magistrates decided there were no charges for Chirac to answer.
Should Sofianski ever emerge from his current round of troubles, from those criminal charges related to sundry property deals to the stink kicked up by the “Refuseniks” who protested against the rubbish dump in Suhodol, to the poundings he receives over Sofia’s street dogs, we will be only too happy to help him take a little ride of his own, for the sake of us all. We only ask that he go for a few taxi rides, perhaps looking out for potholes on his way, to kill two birds with one stone.
Should you read this, Mr Mayor, we’ll stump up for the price of a pair of false spectacles, wig and fake moustache, although the Legal Alien Slush Fund does not extend to covering exorbitant taxi rides. Meet you at the corner of San Stefano Street and Yanko Sakuzov, in the joke shop.
In the unlikely event that you missed it, the mayor last week donned disguise to experience for himself a rip-off taxi ride. Having been charged 60 euro for a trip of about three km, which amounted to 500 per cent of the proper tariff, and having asked for a receipt and been given one in the name of a non-existent company, the mayor revealed his true identity. The taxi driver now faces a fine of about 41 000 euro. At the rate his meter runs, he will require unsuspecting fares travelling a total of about 2050 km to pay the penalty, provided he is allowed to stay in the same trade – which all indications are that he will not be.
Oh, for such a crusading mayor in this city, I hear you cry. A little research showed that the mayor of Prague is by no means a one-off.
The mayor of Bangalore has had quite enough of potholes, it was reported last year. Now, when he finds one, he issues a 15 euro fine against the city engineer responsible for the stretch of road. There is a solution for Sofia, if ever there was one, which combines a new source of revenue with an incentive for officials not to have to provide that new source of revenue.
Perhaps the champion activist mayor of them all is Ray Mallon, the first citizen of Middlesbrough in the UK. Formerly the head of the CID in the city, to which post he was appointed after having cut crime in neighbouring Hartlepool by 35 per cent in two and a half years, Mallon was elected mayor after his career as a detective came to an end for what was reported as having “admitted breaching disciplinary rules”.
Funny that, given that discipline is a subject close to the heart of Mallon, who is known to the media and the burghers of Middlesbrough as “Robocop”.
Last year, he appointed 100 street wardens as a “community protection force”, saying he aimed to cut crime by 15 per cent over the next 12 months.
“As a tide of litter, graffiti, yobs and muggers blight Britain’s streets and public buildings, we in Middlesbrough say, ‘We have had enough,” growled Mallon. Please, where applicable, substitute in your imagination in that sentence, the words, “Bulgaria’s”, “Sofia” and “Sofianski”.
I have had my own experience of witnessing a mayor-turned-municipal activist. In 1989, then a municipal reporter, I spent a night bobbing in the wake of the then mayor of Cape Town as he paid a series of visits, in mufti and minus his chain of office, to nightclubs throughout the city. Not to shake his mayoral bootie, but to inspect fire hydrants, emergency exits, and the sale of liquor to minors.
We know that by now the mayor of Buenos Aires may be wishing he had followed the example of his Cape Town counterpart. After the fire at the end of last year that resulted in several deaths at a Buenos Aires nightclub, the mayor faced an outcry for his resignation.
South America can be a rough place for mayors. Ask Terri Welch, the mayor of Melksham in Wiltshire in the UK, who last year visited Venezuela to see her daughter.
After a round of shopping, Welch and her daughter were returning by taxi when the driver pulled over to the side of the road, produced a firearm, and held the two women at gunpoint while two men jumped into the car and robbed them. A somewhat more direct method of a taxi driver redistributing wealth, than that usually employed in Prague, Sofia and various other capitals.
Sofia’s Sofianski seems better at attracting controversy, rather like an unemptied street refuse bin attracts flies. He should take heart, being the focus of nasty allegations, because he is in good company. France’s Jacques Chirac was investigated for the money spent on catering and entertainment when he was mayor of Paris. Fortunately for Chirac and those who believe no city (especially in France, one may assume) should be shamed by lack of gastronomic generosity, French magistrates decided there were no charges for Chirac to answer.
Should Sofianski ever emerge from his current round of troubles, from those criminal charges related to sundry property deals to the stink kicked up by the “Refuseniks” who protested against the rubbish dump in Suhodol, to the poundings he receives over Sofia’s street dogs, we will be only too happy to help him take a little ride of his own, for the sake of us all. We only ask that he go for a few taxi rides, perhaps looking out for potholes on his way, to kill two birds with one stone.
Should you read this, Mr Mayor, we’ll stump up for the price of a pair of false spectacles, wig and fake moustache, although the Legal Alien Slush Fund does not extend to covering exorbitant taxi rides. Meet you at the corner of San Stefano Street and Yanko Sakuzov, in the joke shop.
