7. The Taxi Riots of 1934

New York was in the depths of the Great Depression in 1934 when desperate denizens flooded the taxi driving job market to make a quick buck. Unfortunately, the economics of this trend was not stable, as most of the city was tightening its belt, resulting in the Taxi Riots. Taxis became a luxury, diminishing the demands of the job market. Salaries were low enough to start a taxi driver strike and conditions became riotous by February of 1934.

Then-Mayor Fiorello Laguardia sided with the protesters and took away the billy clubs of police officers, but protests carried on for months. In 1937, the Haas Act was signed, which capped Taxi Medallions at 14,000, stabilizing income for drivers. Looking back, much of this story has harbingers of the current battle between ride-sharing programs like Uber and traditional Medallion taxi operators.