International Fare : LAX Lot Resembles United Nations as Cabbies Gather and Wait

Perhaps nowhere does Los Angeles’ immigrant culture intertwine like it does at Los Angeles International Airport.

Not in the passenger terminal, but in the lot where the cabbies hang out.

There is Arnole Chernavskiy, a 36-year-old electrician from the Ukraine, working long hours for a decent living in the Fairfax district for his wife and two small children. There is Franki Abadeer, 23, born in Egypt and taking classes to become an airline pilot. A few yards away, Ethiopians who fled their country’s civil war mingle with Indians, Mexicans, Indonesians, Koreans and Sri Lankans.

At lunchtime, a couple of Russian drivers play chess at a nearby table. A Muslim driver kneels in a private area to perform one of his five daily prayers. Workers at two catering trucks are busy dishing out an assortment of foods, including international delicacies prepared specifically for the drivers.

“You name it, I’ve got it!” shouts Amir Mina, an Egyptian who works at one catering truck. “I’ve got Ethiopian food, I’ve got Turkish food. I’ve got food from Nigeria.”

For taxi drivers, LAX is like a well-stocked fishing hole filled with an unending source of tourists, conventioneers and business executives. It is one of the few places in the city where drivers are assured of getting fares; if not the prized out-of-town trip, at least a short run to a nearby hotel.

And so every day not far from the airport runway, hundreds of drivers queue up at the paved holding lot and wait, sometimes for hours, to fish in the passenger pond.

At any given time, the holding lot offers a glimpse into the world of the city’s 5,000 licensed cabdrivers, a multinational collection from 100 different nations around the globe. Russians, Africans and Iranians account for well over half of the total; there are relatively few American-born drivers.

In this mini-United Nations, drivers are busier with the task of making money than holding grudges nurtured by years of conflict. Still, there are occasional tensions.

Some Ethiopians, angered by the decision of neighboring Eritrea to break away and form its own republic, refuse to buy food at a truck owned by an Eritrean woman.

“I won’t spend my money with her because she probably sends it home to fight my people,” says one angry driver.

“That’s ridiculous,” snaps Nigsti Bariagaber, an Eritrean who has operated the truck for four years. “If I had money I would use it to have a better life here. I wouldn’t send it anywhere.”

In a small eating area with tables under umbrellas, drivers representing five different nationalities hover around a television set watching the O.J. Simpson trial.

“So what’s happening with O.J.?” Alex, a young Russian driver, asks a Nigerian standing next to him. “Did he do it or not?”

The Nigerian shrugs his shoulders. “Only O.J. knows,” he says.

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Elsewhere, African drivers boast about taxi trips. On a day when much of the pickings are slim, one talks about the day he landed a wealthy passenger who paid cash to be driven to San Francisco. Another remembers the time he took a family to Disneyland.

The influx of foreign taxi drivers has resulted in some conflicts with customers. Muslim drivers often resent customers who bring dogs in their vehicles.

“Dogs are considered outside pets, not inside pets. They are also not considered clean,” says Mohammad Anvarizadeh, 42, an Iranian. “Here one dog gets more money (spent on its care) than the average Iranian, or African.”

The influx has also brought a change to the airwaves as dispatchers have taken to communicating with drivers in their native tongues.

“If you think Spanish is tough, wait till you hear some Ethiopian dialects,” said a taxi official.

Most of the 1,300 cabs licensed to operate in the city are individually owned. “Many drivers just lease a car and at the end of the day they walk away with cash,” said Dennis Rouse, a board member of the Authorized Taxi Supervision Inc., a company hired by the city to regulate the drivers of Los Angeles’ eight licensed cab companies. “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to do that.”

Many drivers were well-educated and successful in their native lands, but their opportunities here are restricted because they speak limited English.

Officials, noting that nearly 2,400 taxi trips originate each day at the airport lot, say the business has been growing. The Department of Transportation is considering a plan to increase the number of licensed taxis on the streets by 600. Drivers worry that would devastate their business, creating too much competition.

“They’re trying to take the bread out of our mouths,” says Aris Minanian, an Armenian driver.

Another driver, Gevorg Gevrikyan, 24, also an Armenian, complains that business is already bad. “There are not many tourists in Los Angeles, not since the earthquake, fires and other disasters,” he says.

For most drivers, such as Franki Abadeer, the Egyptian who hopes to be a pilot, the flexible hours of taxi driving offer an opportunity to pursue other goals. Yet for Abadeer it also has a bitter taste. His father, a taxi driver, was shot to death by robbers in New Jersey.

“He gave them the money, but they shot him anyway,” he says.

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The hours are wearying for many. Leonid Perelman, 46, a Russian with a wife and two children, takes only Sundays off. “I work 14 hours a day, six days a week,” he says.

Officials say it can cost up to $40,000 to purchase, outfit and license a cab. The investment is so great that Perelman, for one, is afraid to lease his car to other drivers. “If someone destroys your car, who loses?” he asks. “I do.”

At the lot, two old friends, Goodwin Muchiri, 30, of Kenya and G. Mcasa, 43, of South Africa, take time to get reacquainted.

“For Africans this is where we get a chance to meet, we usually live so spread out,” Mcasa says.

After a long day, Muchiri drinks a cup of coffee at one of the catering trucks. “I work hard, but every year I get a chance to go home,” he says.

Nearby, Mustafa Ali, 26, a Somali, is worried and paces back and forth. He has been ordered to a disciplinary hearing by Authorized Taxi Supervision; another taxi driver has accused him of refusing to pick up a passenger who wanted to take a short--and thus unprofitable--trip from LAX. If the charge is substantiated, he faces suspension from the airport.

Ali argues that it was all a misunderstanding. The hearing officers agree, but not until after warning him that his airport privileges will be revoked if there is another complaint.

With all the foreign-born taxi drivers on the street, Reginald August Graham, a retired auto mechanic who lives in South-Central Los Angeles, says he is surprised at the reaction he has received from customers since he began driving a cab a few months ago.

“Some people almost hugged me,” he says. “They say they never meet an American taxi driver. ‘Everyone is always a foreigner,’ they say.”

This requires a standard explanation.

“I’m a foreigner too,” says Graham, who was born in Jamaica and has lived in the United States about 29 years. “You never know.”

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A Long Road

In a survey of drivers’ birthplaces, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation discovered that licensed taxi drivers came from 100 countries. The poll, conducted in December, 1993, counted licensed ambulance, van and taxi drivers. Cabdrivers were the largest multinational contingent.

Country of origin: Number

Ex-Soviet Union: 864

Iran: 684

Ethiopia: 369

Mexico: 288

Nigeria: 210