More than 100 people filed into Dallas City Hall this morning to speak on the city's proposal to regulate Uber out of existence. The expected showdown, however, will have to wait after the City Council unanimously approved an investigation into how the proposed rules were developed and wound up on its consent agenda.
For a legislative body whose members typically seize on such topics as fodder for lengthy digression, the speed with which they dispatched the issue was remarkable. They did not open the floor to public comment and limited their own debate to the wording of a motion authorizing the investigation, which will be headed by Mayor Mike Rawlings and has unanimous council support.
Rawlings wrapped things up with a paean (also brief) to democracy.
"Ladies and gentleman, thank you so much for coming down here," he told the would-be Uber speakers on their way out. "Our citizens matter so much, and your input is extremely important to us. We will get to the bottom of the issues. We will understand them."
The council, he promised, will do what it can to make Dallas "a great city, an easy place to get around, and a safe place to move around."
The debate now moves to the council's Transportation and Environment Committee, which is scheduled to meet on September 9.
See also: -Dallas Wants to Rewrite its Taxi Rules to Outlaw Uber, the App-Based Private Driver Service -City Hall's Favorite Tool in Uber Crackdown: Undercover Vice Stings by Dallas Cops - Dallas Swears It's Not Trying to Crush Uber, Just Regulate it into an Unrecognizable Form
