The city will start transforming vacant newsstands and other unoccupied public spaces into rest areas for delivery workers as part of a pilot program aimed at providing them with “essential services,” officials said Monday.
A bevy of new “Street Deliveristas Hubs” will serve as sites where food couriers can rest, charge their e-bikes and cell phones and access bike repair services, Mayor Eric Adams and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference.
Schumer included $1 million for the program in the budget that is set to pass in December, he said. Part of that funding will go toward renovating a worker center for food couriers in Williamsburg, he and Adams said in a press release.
What You Need To Know
- The city will start transforming vacant newsstands and other unoccupied public spaces into rest areas for delivery workers, Mayor Eric Adams and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday
- The new “Street Deliveristas Hubs” will serve as sites where food couriers can rest, charge their e-bikes and cell phones and access bike repair services
- The pilot program, which aims to serve the city’s approximately 65,000 delivery workers, will be the first of its kind in the country, the mayor said
“Deliveristas are out there doing the hard work, day in and day out, and are essential to New Yorkers’ way of life and to our city’s economy, and essential workers deserve essential services,” Adams said in a statement. “While most people have a break room to rest while at work, app-based food delivery workers do not.”
The program, which aims to serve the city’s approximately 65,000 delivery workers, will be the first of its kind in the country, the mayor said.
The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation will analyze vacant city sites to decide on hub locations, Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said at the news conference. Officials have not yet determined how many hubs will open, she noted.
.@NYCMayor and @SenSchumer announce first-of-its-kind hubs for delivery workers that will be developed around NYC using existing infrastructure like abandoned city newsstands.
— Fabien Levy (@Fabien_Levy) October 3, 2022
These locations will give the 65,000+ deliveristas a place to rest, charge devices, and more. pic.twitter.com/Ik2Ooh3EAX
“We at Parks, along with City Hall, have always looked to see how we can revitalize spaces that are in our parks or adjacent to our parks and we see this as a great use of these empty spaces,” Donoghue said.
The head of Worker’s Justice Project/Los Deliveristas Unidos — an app delivery worker collective — praised the pilot program in a statement on Monday.
“We are proud to be partners in developing the concept of Street Deliveristas Hubs and to be transforming app delivery jobs into a profession that deserves a living wage, safe working conditions and new deliverista infrastructure,” the collective’s executive director, Ligia Guallpa said.