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History of Tribeca Buildings
Deliverista Hub at City Hall will open soon
There was a crazy number of people and press at the opening of the deliverista hub on Broadway at City Hall and just about every outlet covered it. I don’t quite get why this is such a giant deal? But maybe it’s one of those things that is totally obvious and easy but still it took government ages to get it done.
Senator Chuck Schumer got the $1 million for it in 2022 through a Department of Housing and Urban Development grant; the Adams administration then sat on it for all those years. In the end it got built in a couple days!
The hub, designed by Brooklyn-based urban design firm Fantástica, includes two exterior charging cabinets, each with 19 charging cubbies, with 24-hour public access. E-bike riders can drop off their battery and track its progress via a mobile app, which will also unlock the cubby once the battery is ready for pickup. (A section of the street has been protected for this process by a Jersey barrier.)
It will be staffed by the Worker’s Justice Project five days a week and will also be open to the public.
Nearly everyone gave credit for the idea to the workers themselves, who got to talking about the problems of the job and organized. The facility directly addresses safety risks in what turns out to be one of the city’s most dangerous jobs: one in five workers is injured on the job and the fatality rate is five times that of construction. NYC Parks provided the location and NYC DOT provided the bike parking and the street access zone to the cubbies on Broadway.
The city wants to build more — according to the mayor’s office there are 80,000 delivery workers in the city.
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What an awesome addition to City Hall. Really makes the place look exactly like the center of the world should. Stately and austere.
How about:
1. Rehabbing the dead lawn in City Hall Park
2. Getting the broken fountain to work
3. Removing the graffiti on the benches
4. Getting rid of the vendors that clog the east side of the park
5. Fixing the broken lights in the park
Allowing the city to fall apart one block at a time.
Priorities.
I too am surprised by the hullabaloo around this. Maybe I shouldn’t be — it’s civic architecture, after all, in a prominent (if overlooked) location, and first of a kind. Regardless of one’s feelings about this sector of the economy and its workforce, food-delivery and deliveristas are a constant topic for discussion.
I think TC’s coverage has been fantastic. Thanks, Pam, for taking this matter so seriously and offering up so much detail. The photos in this post are informative and ennobling. Bravo!
I don’t love what it does to the sidewalk there. Then again, deliveries to the City Hall neighborhood will now be fast as heck.
From all the things that City Hall could worry they went for this? so now we are going to have more loitering for sure, and people just standing there? we REALLY need to get better people elected.
It makes absolutely zero sense to put what will become a heavily trafficked bicycle facility on a sidewalk, a place where it is illegal to ride bikes (a law that “deliveristas” completely fail to abide by). This creates a major safety hazard for the thousands of pedestrians who walk there daily, who will now gain the benefit of getting to dodge even more e-bikes whizzing around the sidewalk where they don’t belong.
Just more special interest nonsense from NYC that cuts directly against the quality of life of the average New Yorker.
Amen! When you ride around in an SUV all day and play act at filling potholes, why worry about sidewalks or garbage or schools or being accosted by insane people? There are photo ops to be had!
You do know this project predates this administration, correct?