A Green Apple Taxi in the Boroughs New Yorkers have been trying to describe the color of the new taxis for the outer boroughs. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it's "apple green." David Yassky, the taxi and limousine commissioner, calls it mint, instead of Shrek or bile or sea-foam green. This light-ish, lime-ish green, as it turned out, was about the only color left for official city vehicles. Red is best for firetrucks; blue is mostly reserved for the police. Orange wouldn't work because, as Mr. Yassky explained, it is hard to get an orange that doesn't look like yellow in some light. Black is mostly for limos and hearses. Forget white or gray; those are the favorite colors for private vehicles (which could cause confusion). So green it is. The first of these 18,000 cabs should start appearing on the streets in June. Under an agreement worked out in Albany last year, the new cabs will not be allowed to pick up customers in most of Manhattan or at the city airports. Those areas will be exclusively yellow cab territory for pickups. If the city moves rapidly, up to 6,000 of the new verdurous taxis will be on the streets by the end of the year, with 20 percent of them outfitted especially for the disabled. The green taxis are still controversial in the yellow cab world. The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents the yellow cab industry, has filed suit arguing that their million-dollar medallions give them the exclusive right to operate in the city. The problem is that they can't be easily found everywhere (just ask anybody in the Bronx or Queens). For millions of New Yorkers outside Manhattan, the green cabs will be a welcome sight.