And those planning to leave for New York are being told to steer clear of the livery cab industry.

Along with the surrounding villages and hamlets, it has long fueled the livery cab industry in New York.

And the biggest asset in the yellow cab industry, the taxi medallion, is the hardest to seize.

"It takes away a lot of the color of the cab industry."

"It's a form of marketing," said Jack S. Lusk, the chairman of the Taxi & Limousine Commission, the government group that monitors the city's $600 million cab industry.

Both are licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which regulates the yellow cab industry.

The cab industry, apparently desperate for drivers allergic to smoke, had loosed him upon the streets before he could even learn to say "Hey," much less "you peoples."

The yellow cab industry says that the breakdown in the taxi system not only makes the stricter rules against them unfair, but also undermines the economic balance in the industry.

Jimmy Beatrice, a 52-year veteran of the cab industry, who owns eight Odysseys, said they were the best taxis since the 1948 DeSoto Skyview.

A note on our competition: The yellow cab industry competes for personnel with radio cars, limousines and liveries.