No one seemed to take a taxi to Evgeny (Gene) Freidman’s party Sunday at the University Club. The Russian émigré owns 900 NYC taxi medallions (worth $1.2 million each), but the guests arrived in Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and various German rides.
The event was a baby-naming ceremony to celebrate the birth of Freidman and wife Sandra’s new daughter, Leyla . Among those in attendance: Jacob (the Jeweler) Arabo, Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue, p.r. guru Ronn Torossian and various real estate developers who griped about the club’s dress code requiring neckties even on Sunday.
The taxi king, a big fund-raiser for Bill de Blasio’s campaign, was happy the Bloomberg era was ending. He crowed, “I came off the boat from Russia with nothing, and own thousands of cabs all over America, but none of it compares to holding my kids.”