It's one small hub for a few humans, but what's needed is a giant leap for humankind.
The city has begun construction on the first federally funded “Deliverista Hub,” transforming a long-abandoned City Hall news stand into a place for workers to charge, relax, and access other services.
It's "a breakthrough in how cities support app delivery workers and advance just climate transitions," the Worker's Justice Project said in a statement.
But one small spot in Lower Manhattan isn't enough for the estimated 80,000 delivery workers in New York City. Even with the absence of dedicated infrastructure from the city for delivery workers, the group has turned to newly designed public space which builds on the ways that people used outdoor space during the pandemic.
One example is DOT's "Broadway Vision" project, which Adams announced in 2021, built on work from his predecessors Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg to turn Broadway into a linear plaza with protected bike lanes, seating, and slow street infrastructure.
Between Union Square and 23rd Street delivery workers flock to the shady tables, sit on the concrete blocks with friends, and take a load off after the lunch rush.
“A lot of that is naturally occurring, which is kind of the beauty of public spaces,” said Elana Ehrenberg, the director of strategic partnerships at the Design Trust For Public Space.
On Broadway between 22nd and 23rd streets, Mamadou Saliou Barry and some fellow delivery workers set up in a shady spot to eat lunch and feed the pigeons.
For Barry, finding a bathroom is among the greatest challenges of his work. He told Streetsblog he often has to buy something at a store simply to relieve himself — a constant burden that is often forgotten by the elites who order food through an anonymized app. Worse, not all restaurants let Barry use their facilities, even when he is making a pickup at that restaurant.
He likes the “Deliverista Hub” idea.
“It would be easier for us to have that,” he said. For now, Broadway is his home base.
Further downtown on Broadway, Gomez Perez sat with his friend, another delivery worker from Guatemala, on lounge chairs put out by the Union Square Partnership as part of the Broadway Vision pedestrianization.
Perez is from Guatemala and now lives in the Bronx. He uses an e-bike with a battery life of about five hours, he told Streetsblog, but goes all the way home when he needs a charge.
“Usually, we charge the batteries in our houses,” said Perez in Spanish.
When it came to what the government could do for delivery workers, for Perez, safety and security were number one.
“The government could do more to help with the problem of battery theft,” said Perez, who had his battery stolen on the street. “I believe that is the number one problem. When you report it, normally they do nothing. I also think it would improve things if there were more lanes only for bikes. When the bike has its own lane it’s more safe.”
To Ehrenberg the city should look at how the delivery workers are using the existing public spaces in order to design responsively to reflect the needs of those already using it.
“Generally we can always use more public space. And if there's ways that we can convert spaces that are being used informally into more public spaces, that's also a benefit. Addressing specific needs [of delivery workers] can help the broader public too,” said Ehrenberg.
One small hub
The hub has been a long time coming. The project was first announced in 2023, when Sen. Chuck Schumer took a bike ride with Los Deliveristas Unidos, and later announced that the federal government would kick in $1 million to fund the creation of two “hubs” for delivery workers at old city-owned newsstands.
At the time, the city's delivery workers, who spent all day out on the street delivering food primarily for restaurant apps like Uber, DoorDash, Seamless and GrubHub, were often denied bathroom access from restaurants and had no dedicated place to charge their devices, keep warm, or escape the rain.
Delivery workers exist in a relatively new space within New York City society. They are not technically employees of the app-companies they work for, instead, the gig-workers are private contractors. Because of this, the companies don’t have to provide the workers with anything in order to do the job.
So, the city becomes the workplace. In the time since the mayor and Schumer announced the hub project, the delivery worker population of the city has grown by an estimated 20,000 workers. In the absence of specific city-planning for the workforce, deliveristas have utilized the city’s public realm which has grown rapidly in the past five years thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. On Open Streets, pedestrian plazas, and bike corrals placed at intersections delivery workers can be seen hanging out and waiting for work.
For Los Deliveristas Unidos, the hubs are about dignity – a proof of concept to show what could be done if the city planned for the workforce’s needs.
“The city loves to use delivery workers,” said April Herms, the deputy director of Workers Justice Project, which includes Los Deliveristas Unidos. “There's been all this pushback about delivery workers and e-bikes and people on the streets. And we want to show you can create infrastructure for this essential city service that will address a lot of these issues.”
Herms has been leading the organization's coordination with the city to create the hubs. Initially there were meant to be two locations, one near the 72nd Street subway station on the Upper West Side, and the City Hall location that is breaking ground this week. But, Herms told Streetsblog, the $1 million was really only enough for one hub. And the community pushback on the Upper West Side has led the organization to rethink the location and delay plans until next year.
“Our focus right now is to launch City Hall really as proof of concept that this can work and then focus on the Upper West Side,” said Herms.
The City Hall hub
The City Hall hub had to be approved by the local community board and the Landmarks and Preservation Commission, which gave the okay in April 2024, soon after design/build company Fantástica unveiled the renderings and plan for the hub.
The hub will have e-bike charging facilities, outlets, bike racks, and an indoor area staffed by Los Deliveristas Unidos to help workers access services. It won't have any bathrooms, which are notoriously expensive and arduous for the city to install.
Herms sees the hub as an extension of the work that Los Deliveristas Unidos already does to educate and assist deliveristas at its Sunset Park and South Williamsburg locations.
“We want to educate folks about street safety, about safe battery charging, connect people with bike and battery exchange programs,” said Herms. “All of the things we do with delivery workers we would be providing at this hub as well as at our centers, because we see it as a good way to be able to provide the services we already offer to this workforce.”
