Say Driver, Is This Cab Cursed?

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July 25, 2007
In San Francisco, It's 5 to 1 for 666
By JESSE McKINLEY
SAN FRANCISCO, July 25 ?- It was a good day for the Devil in San Francisco on Tuesday, as the Taxicab Commission voted to keep the Dark Lord's favorite number ?- 666 ?- affixed to an allegedly cursed cab.

The vote, which came after an amused period of public comment and annoyed looks from the commissioners, extended the satanic reign of Taxi No. 666, which is driven by one Michael Byrne (pronounced burn).

Mr. Byrne, who did not appear at the hearing on Tuesday night and was not reachable for comment, had lobbied ?- out of superstition ?- to have his medallion number changed, and had found an ally in Jordanna Thigpen, deputy director of the Taxicab Commission.

In a memo distributed last week, Ms. Thigpen wrote that Mr. Byrne believed the number to be responsible for a series of calamities he had endured in a streak of bad luck that had led him to have his taxi blessed at a local church, to no apparent avail.

"This medallion holder would prefer not to speak about the specific problems," Ms. Thigpen wrote, "but they are of great severity."

Adding to the cab's sinister mystique was the fact that Taxi No. 666 caught on fire on a Good Friday some years ago in a blaze that, as local legend has it, wrecked the car but left the offending medallion untouched.

So it was that the commission had been asked to deep six the number of the beast in favor of the less offensive 1307, a move that the commission president, Paul Gillespie, who is a cab driver himself, thought was only kind.

"This is a very simple thing we can do to make one person's life a little easier," Mr. Gillespie said, adding that he himself had driven Taxi No. 666 in the past. "People do bring a lot of bad energy in the cab, and if people want to talk about the number, then the driver has to talk about it."

But others saw the debate as a waste of time and money, two things the Great Deceiver would no doubt have approved.

"If we don't have 666, what's next?" said Tom Stanghellini, 59, a longtime cabbie. "What about medallion 13? Or 1313?"

Commissioner Patricia Breslin echoed that.

"Where does it end?" Ms. Breslin said. "I lived at a residence numbered 666, and I did not go over to the dark side."

Ms. Thigpen said she did not want to set a precedent, but said the number in question had become increasingly difficult for her office to assign. "No other number causes an administrative burden like this number," she said on Wednesday. "And I'm sure with all this attention it's going to get worse."

In the end, the vote was 5 to 1 against changing the number. (The commission's seventh member was curiously absent.) But Mr. Gillespie, who sighed deeply before casting the only dissenting vote, said he doubted this would be the last time the commission would have to take up the issue.

"This guy," he said, "still has this problem."



Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company