Readers Write: Uber and Lyft, sagging infrastructure, Gaza aid workers

Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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I continue to hear that Uber and Lyft leaving Minneapolis is a bluff. To be bluffing, Uber and Lyft have to be seeing a significant downside in leaving Minneapolis. I don’t believe that’s the situation. It would make sense for them to act on their intention. (Opinion editor’s note: Uber has said it is leaving the entire metro, and Lyft says it’s pulling out of Minneapolis.)

Uber is in 10,500 cities. In the United States, Uber is in every metropolitan area. Minneapolis is the 46th largest city in the U.S. With the largest cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Houston, etc.) dwarfing those outside of the Top 10 cities, I would be very surprised if Uber’s income and revenue from Minneapolis is even 1% of its total revenue. Probably much less than 1%. If you are Uber’s executives, it would be a no-brainer to sacrifice an extremely small revenue source to keep its numerous other locations from following suit and enacting minimum-wage ordinances. It is strictly a shrewd business strategy to keep its product profitable worldwide.

The situation points to a certainty that Uber and Lyft are going to pull out of Minneapolis unless this ordinance is overturned, and what the City Council is going to hear from numerous restaurants, hotels and other entities dependent upon conventions and local patrons is “I told you so” as they permanently shut their doors.

David Bialke, Brooklyn Park

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A startling discovering was that in December of 2023, the city of Washington, D.C., sent a cease-and-desist letter to Empower and warned commuters that Empower is not licensed in the city and is operating illegally. I have all the information I need.

Sally Thomas, Edina

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I owned and managed a school bus company for many years. When I started, drivers were getting $14 per hour. Now they are getting $27 per hour. Diesel fuel used to be $2.30 a gallon and is now over $4.50 a gallon. Did the prices we charged our customers remain the same over those years? Of course not. When our costs increased, we had to pass these on to the customers. And, frankly, we did not lose customers, because the service was needed even with the price increases. Unfortunate, but that is how business works.

Why on earth would Lyft or Uber leave a lucrative market rather than simply increasing the (rather marginal) price of each trip? If the increase in prices actually reduced the number of trips booked, the companies themselves would lose very little since drivers (their major expense) would simply pick up fewer trips. However, it’s difficult to imagine that their businesses will suffer significantly. Customers will continue to need rides from the airport and from bars in the evening and will simply have to pay a bit more per trip. What am I missing here?

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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but whatever our elected officials come up with regarding Uber and Lyft driver pay, it will be temporary. Both companies have made significant investments in self-driving vehicles and made it abundantly clear that their futures do not include drivers. Uber is already using self-driving cars in Phoenix, which are operated by Waymo (a unit of Alphabet/Google). If the goal is to help the drivers, debating a fair wage is the least of their problems.

Jerry Johnson, Eden Prairie

Parents who neglect their children are punished. Pet owners who neglect their pets are punished. Then why are politicians and public officials not punished for neglecting the public welfare? (”Myriad U.S. bridges in poor shape,” April 1.)

Our country communicates via infrastructures. Everything built by humans has a life expectancy. Our country requires a healthy infrastructure for its health, security and existence.

It seems that both political parties have become negligent in planning ahead for our country. Maybe it is because both political parties have become “mutual admiration societies”?

Donald A. Newell Jr., Isanti, Minn.

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Headlines on three pages of the April 1 paper were on the same subject: “Myriad U.S. bridges in poor shape,” “Iowa has most poor bridges” and “Buttigieg wants more bridge funds.” These discuss a subject we here have known firsthand since 2007. That’s when the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring 145 others, costing about $234 million to replace. And who knows how much it will cost to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge that was recently destroyed by a ship in Maryland — and where the money will come from.

We are grossly underprepared for such exigencies. Or even for much less dramatic ones that millions face everyday: inadequate income for daily living, medical care, sufficient food, adequate housing, etc. Other first-world countries do much better than we do on providing these necessities.

Jim Lein, Minneapolis

Offering humanitarian aid to those in need in times of war is a noble act. I am grateful for those who do it.

In April 1987, Ben Linder, a young U.S. engineer was working to bring a small hydroelectric dam to rural Nicaragua. He and two Nicaraguans were killed by the Contras, an army that was funded and trained by the U.S. government. Linder’s death, like the death of seven volunteer aid workers who were bringing food to Gaza with World Central Kitchen, brought into stark relief the risks of humanitarian work in war (”World Central Kitchen victims went the ‘extra mile’ to deliver food, other aid,” April 3).

Though thousands of Nicaraguans had already died in the conflict, just as thousands of Palestinians have already died in Gaza, Linder’s death was a global wake-up call for international solidarity. Hundreds of others followed in his footsteps, including my own family, trying to repair the damage of an unjust and illegal war and help those who were its victims.

I am thinking of Ben Linder today, as we mourn the aid workers with World Central Kitchen and the 32,000 Palestinians who have died in Gaza. I also mourn the innocents of Oct. 7 and the hostages still being held. None of them deserved their fate. I will continue to call for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, a lasting cease-fire and respect for international law. The indiscriminate killing, starvation and displacement of our brothers and sisters in Palestine must stop.