Taxi Driver's Disappearance Sparks Search For Answers

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Taxi drivers sometimes stop for a break near Carl Schurz Park on East End Avenue. But the area may have been the final stop for Yu Mein "Kenny" Chow, a cabbie from Queens who went missing near the park nearly two weeks ago.

Chow picked up three fares in his yellow taxi by 5:30 p.m. on May 11 before leaving his cab at the corner of East 86th Street and East End Avenue that day, said his brother, Richard Chow. He hasn't been heard from since.

Chow's family and fellow cabbies fear he may be the latest taxi driver to succumb to pressures in the industry that have driven many to desperation and even suicide. They called on the NYPD to speed up its investigation and bring them answers about his fate.

"I want to see my brother, who cared about family," Richard Chow said Tuesday.

Kenny Chow, 56, came to the United States from Myanmar with his brother in 1987. He started driving a cab about a decade ago and bought a taxi medallion around 2011 for about $700,000, Richard Chow said.

Chow was struggling to earn enough money to make the $3,500 monthly payments toward the mortgage on his the medallion despite working seven days a week, his brother said. He was also trying to care for his wife, who is sick with stage four colon cancer.

"Sometimes he'd have no business or most of the business, Uber maybe took it," said Richard Chow, who also drives a cab and owns a medallion. He didn't have "enough money to go home, take care of his family."

To make matters worse, Kenny Chow's mortgage lender, Melrose Credit Union, tried to intimidate him by mailing documents resembling legal filings demanding he pay off the rest of the medallion loan in full or face foreclosure, his supporters said.

Chow was reported missing on May 12. He had left his taxi just a short walk from an esplanade in the park overlooking the East River.

Police inspected the car and returned it to Chow's home in Auburndale, Queens, his brother said, but it's uncertain whether cops have examined footage from a surveillance footage from a camera on the corner where he parked it.

An NYPD spokeswoman said police are still investigating Chow's disappearance.

"As in every case, detectives conduct a thorough investigation including the review of any surveillance video obtained," the spokeswoman, Det. Kellyann Ortt, said in a statement.

Stories like Chow's have become common among drivers who have faced intense competition on the road as the values of their medallions have plummeted, taxi advocates say.

Four drivers have killed themselves since December, and industry advocates have blamed their deaths on the unfettered growth of ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft. The app-based ride industry provides about 600,000 trips a day in the city.

"The circumstances that are leading to depression and desperation, they need to change," said Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. "We don't want to be here talking about the possibility of another driver brother gone too soon."

The City Council is considering several bills that aim to level the playing field between the traditional taxi industry and app-based services. Taxi advocates say the city needs to take action soon before things get even worse for the drivers. Uber argues it's already regulated and provides an important transportation option in the outer boroughs.

The debate will continue in City Hall. But in the meantime, Richard Chow wants New Yorkers to help the police bring his brother home.

"I hope I find my my brother," he said.

Kenny Chow is described as an Asian man with brown eyes and dark hair standing about 5-foot-6 and weighing about 140 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and khaki pants, according to the NYPD.

Anyone with information about Chow or his whereabouts can call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-577-8477 or 1-888-577-4782 to leave a tip in Spanish. New Yorkers can also text tips to 274637 or submit them online at nypdcrimestoppers.com.

(Lead image: A poster seeking information about Yu Mein "Kenny" Chow's disappearance is pictured at the corner of East End Avenue and East 86th Street, where Chow left his cab on May 11. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)