They’re not hookers — they just look as if they could be!
A dozen scantily clad women rallied outside City Hall yesterday, decrying a bill they say prevents beauties wearing skimpy clothes from getting a fair shot at hailing a yellow cab.
The proposal, which will soon get Mayor Bloomberg’s signature, slaps stiff penalties on cabbies who ferry prostitutes and get a cut of the cash.
But yesterday’s collection of bartenders and shot girls said that hacks will now be scared to pick up any woman wearing a short skirt or spiked heels — and noted that sometimes, even legitimately employed women have to flaunt it to make a living.
“They don’t even know who is a prostitute or not!” said Diana Estrada, 27, a Sofrito bartender wearing a cleavage-baring spaghetti-strap dress.
“You don’t have a shirt on that tells if you’re a prostitute or not.”
She frequently takes cabs home to Astoria after leaving late shifts, and she’s concerned taxi drivers will pass her by, since she wears short-shorts or miniskirts.
Currently, the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission has the authority to strip drivers of their licenses if they knowingly partake in sex trafficking.
But the new bill — which the City Council unanimously passed Wednesday — would require the TLC to both strip a driver’s license and slap them with a $10,000 penalty if he’s previously been convicted of sex trafficking.
On a first offense, a driver goes to a city hearing, where his license could be revoked.
The proposal could make cops more willing to arrest drivers who are innocent, said taxi-union boss Fernando Mateo.
“I will challenge any one of you to tell me which one of [these women] you would consider to be a prostitute,” he said yesterday. “They’re all sexy.”