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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?
Locating the hub at the entrance to City Hall adds dangerous congestion to the frequently crowded gathering place for 1st Amendment expression and active Broadway sidewalk. It is a short-sighted, disappointing, unfortunate anti-pedestrian action. It is true that our modern city needs more e-bikes and that deliveristas deserve better working conditions. It is also positive and impressive that our new Mayor can “get stuff done” quickly and efficiently. However this unattractive, deficient structure in a detrimental location was rushed through despite articulated community opposition! Why doesn’t NYC Parks protect its land for needed recreational space?
@Skip —
The placement of the deliverista hub leaves 13 1/2 feet — yes, I measured — of passageway from the City Hall Park wall. That’s ballpark what we have on West Broadway in prime SoHo (around 11 1/2 feet btw Prince and Houston; 14 to 17 feet btw Prince and Broome). People and businesses there seem to do fine.
It’s hard to square your harsh criticisms of the structure with your generous sentiments toward deliveristas and the mayor. You know as well as anyone that living in our bustling, contested city demands constant accommodations.
It’s not only that it is a very busy pedestrian thoroughfare including to the subway entrance across the driveway, the NYPD entrance gate backs up with cars and people when there’s large numbers of approved visitors to City Hall plus the entrance attracts protestors held back by NYPD barricades.
Sympathy for the delivery workers, accolades for the Mayor’s efficiency, and the unattractive, deficient design aside, adding any additional congestion by speedy messengers at that historically-crowded sidewalk is daft!
Can’t wait for this to get clogged with people “just hanging out”. Wish people who live down here can have a say on things.
Like most of downtown nyc this will be trashed in no time. Why not build something for the illegal counterfeit bazaar a few steps north where Soho, Tribeca and Chinatown intersect? Those men also need to relieve themselves and take breaks from their hard work peddling illegal goods, and their number seem to be multiplying all the time. These days every time I come back from abroad the degree of degradation of the city appears to be nothing less than shocking. Filthy chaotic and lawless. Who is in charge here?
It does seem like a downward slide between the pandemic and last couple administrations. If we are going to live in lawless urban decay, it should be cheap to live here! But no.
But at least we will satisfy the weird nostalgia of those who long for the old “gritty” NYC of days gone by.
The counterfeit sellers are quite happy to relieve themselves on whatever car or wall is nearest.