New York taxi’s retirement: A quiet life on country roads in Vermont

The yellow sedan parked in front of a convenience store here in the Green Mountains caught the eye of Lucille Stanley — the N.Y.C. TAXI markings on the vehicle’s flank could not be missed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/29/nyregion/new-york-taxis-retirement-a-quiet-life-on-country-roads-in-vermont.html

New York Taxi’s Retirement: A Quiet Life on Country Roads in Vermont By COREY KILGANNONNOV. 28, 2014 Photo Mike Ruse driving his yellow 2006 Ford Crown Victoria, once a New York City taxi, through Rockingham, Vt. Credit Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — The yellow sedan parked in front of a convenience store here in the Green Mountains caught the eye of Lucille Stanley — the N.Y.C. TAXI markings on the vehicle’s flank could not be missed. “Are you going back to New York?” she said. The car’s driver, Mike Ruse, smiled, accustomed to such jokes, and patiently told Ms. Stanley, “It’s a retired taxi.” Mr. Ruse’s yellow 2006 Ford Crown Victoria has not been in New York City since late 2011 when it was taken off the road after piling up about 310,000 miles in five years of big-league taxi work. It seemed headed for the scrap yard when Mr. Ruse, a lifelong Vermont resident, spotted it on Craigslist and bought it for $1,000 from a Queens repair shop. Since then, Mr. Ruse, an investigations detective for the Vermont State Police Department, has been steering it around the state, amused by people’s reactions at seeing a New York cab put out to pasture. Instead of lurching along clogged avenues and slogging through crosstown traffic, it is spending its golden years plying open country roads that have few stoplights. Photo The cab has become a traveling tourist attraction, Mr. Ruse said. “You don’t need to see the Empire State Building – you can see this.” Credit Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times The cab no longer takes fares, but it certainly draws its share of double-takes and questions. “The most common question I get is, ‘Why?,'  ” Mr. Ruse said. “And my response is that I always wanted one and that I liked it and I wanted to save it.” Mr. Ruse has put an additional 80,000 miles on the cab, much of them logged on vacation road trips across a dozen states. He has wandered the Northeast from Canada down to Washington and has chronicled much of it on his blog. “The farther away from New York you get, the more interesting it becomes to people,” he said. The cab has become a traveling tourist attraction, he said. “You don’t need to see the Empire State Building – you can see this.” Its original hood medallion, fare meter and Taxi TV monitor were removed by the seller. Otherwise, the cab looks original, down to the off-duty roof light, the clear plastic partition and the rate information sticker. Mr. Ruse said his affinity for New York City yellow cabs was fueled by trips with his father to Manhattan as a little boy. For a country boy, he said, “riding in a cab was my introduction to New York.'’ Photo The cab's original hood medallion, fare meter and Taxi TV monitor were removed by the seller, but other details, like the off-duty roof light, remain. Credit Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times He recalled his first cab’s musky smell, its worn rubber floor mats and an older Italian driver who “pointed to a building and said, ‘There are more people in that building than in your whole town.'  ” Mr. Ruse began collecting New York City cab memorabilia at age 6 — he had taxi sheets on his bed. As an adult, he developed a soft spot for “old cars nobody wants,” he said. The feeling was particularly acute for a New York City cab because “no one wants them after they’re done being a taxi.” When Ford discontinued the Crown Victoria model in 2011, Mr. Ruse became mournful that this sturdy sedan with the V-8 engine, which had become the classic shape of the New York cab, was slowly giving way to hybrids and minivans. “In five years, you’re not going to find these anywhere,” Mr. Ruse said, driving his cab through Springfield, a town of 9,000 about 225 miles from New York. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story He said that he saw the cab for sale on Craigslist three years ago, and that the cab called out to him: “Mike, come and save me.” He traveled to Queens to meet the seller, a Pakistani immigrant who owned an auto repair shop. The cab had bald tires, a leaky transmission, no gas cap and a lit service engine light, Mr. Ruse said. Still, he added, “I was in love.” Under the back seat, Mr. Ruse found two cellphones and lots of change and cab receipts from which he could identify several drivers of the cab, none of whom returned letters he sent them. Photo The cab piled up about 310,000 miles in five years of big-league taxi work. Mr. Ruse has put an additional 80,000 miles on the taxi, much of them logged on vacation road trips. Credit Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times In the trunk, there were five umbrellas, an old fedora and a single battered shoe. Though it may be far removed from the teeming metropolis, Mr. Ruse’s cab retains an aura of bustling New York. “To think where this cab has been, it’s done everything," he said. “It’s got street cred. It’s had people from all over the world inside it. It’s a real-life cattle wagon. I can smell smells. I can hear things and see things in it.” Mr. Ruse has sunk $2,000 into the vehicle, along with many hours of sweat labor to get it in running shape — though it still breaks down regularly. The cab has provoked funny scenarios, including requests to drive people to weddings and proms. A local rumor suggested that Mr. Ruse was using the cab as an unmarked car for police work. He was not. And a police chief told Mr. Ruse that the owner of a local cab company had complained that “there’s some New York City cabby who’s come up here to take all the fares.” Peter Bottino, 49, a friend of Mr. Ruse, said, “You have a million cabs around you in New York and you never notice them, and you drive one 300 miles up the road and everyone notices it.” Mr. Ruse’s fiancée, Orianna Baez, 28, a middle school teacher who grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, said she often slouched down when riding in the cab, out of embarrassment. “I don’t really care for it,” she said. “I don’t think much of city cabs.” Still, she said, she recently defended the cab from some onlookers who were poking fun at it, and scolded Mr. Ruse for being too polite. “I told him, ‘You got to toughen up if you’re going to drive a New York City cab,'  " she said, “You’ve got to get a little New York attitude.” NEXT IN N.Y. / REGION 23 year old Jason M. Shaffer who also goes by the name of Todd Swan has a history of conning people out of money throughout Vermont. Avoid him and his hard luck stories or you may end up losing hundreds if not thousands of dollars.