The City of Portland’s revenue bureau has opened an investigation into a blind woman’s complaint that she and her seeing-eye dog were refused a ride in a Broadway taxicab Thursday.

Deb Marinos, 56, of Salem took the Amtrak train from Salem to Portland’s Union Station on her way to an appointment at OHSU Hospital. At about 11:30 a.m. an Amtrak worker gave her a ride in a small cart to the cab stand.

Marinos, a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the

, is legally blind. She was accompanied by her seeing-eye dog Kibble, a two-year-old black Lab.

The Amtrak driver took her to a

and opened the door.

“The taxi driver said ‘I don’t do dogs,’” Marinos said. “The Amtrak employee told the driver that refusing the ride would be breaking the law. He said no again.”

Even after they threatened to call dispatchers to complain, the driver still refused to take her and her dog.

The Amtrak worker then went to another cab, but he told them he was waiting for a fare.

So he, Marinos and Kibble approached a Sassy cab. That driver also refused to take Marinos and her dog.

The Amtrak worker tried to convince Marinos to get into the cab anyway, despite the driver’s protestations.

Marinos refused, for good reason: Once in Los Angeles a taxi driver at first refused to take her and her then seeing-eye dog, Remy, a large black poodle, as a fare, but finally was convinced by others to take her.

“It was the worst ride of my life,” she said.

Finally, they approached a fourth cab, this one a Broadway Cab taxi containing what appeared to be driver and driver in training. When Marinos realized that it was a Broadway cab, she again hesitated.

But the two Broadway drivers told her, “Come on, we’ll take you.”

Marinos said while being refused a ride is usually a rare and isolated experience for people with service dogs, it can be humiliating.

The City of Portland is looking into the matter.

“I can tell you that we are aware of these allegations and have opened an investigation,” said Patrick Kramer, a regulatory program specialist with the City of Portland’s

“We will have more information next week.”

Marinos is hoping her story will open people's eyes.

“It’s hard to get that kind of rejection and explain it all the time,” she said. “I just want to live my life like anyone else.”

Broadway Cab officials were unavailable for comment Friday, a dispatcher said.

--Stuart Tomlinson