New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has raised the white flag in his war with Uber.
The mayor agreed to withdraw a bill that would cap the number of cars the mobile app-based service could operate within the city, one night before the city council was set to vote on the measure. In exchange, Uber has agreed to cooperate with the mayor’s office on a four month study of the impact of Uber’s fleet on New York’s traffic patterns and environment, according to NBC New York.
The decision comes after Uber waged a weeks-long political war on the proposal, attacking de Blasio in television ads and robo-calls that accused the mayor of kowtowing to the city’s taxi industry — one of de Blasio’s largest campaign donors.
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Shortly before de Blasio’s announcement on Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo came out against the proposal to limit Uber, telling the New York Post that he planned to go around the mayor and meet directly with Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. Cuomo was joined in his opposition by a smattering of celebrity supporters, with Kate Upton, Neil Patrick Harris, and Ashton Kutcher all decrying the mayor’s proposal on Twitter.
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