New York City officials are moving ahead with a plan to convert a defunct newsstand outside City Hall into a hub for delivery workers — despite protests from the local community board.
Delivery workers with e-bikes could access the space 24 hours a day through an app. The charging stations would be run by the company Oonee, which runs bike parking storage lockers in public spaces across the city. “We are committed to working with communities throughout the entire development process so that we can build this first-of-its-kind station,” Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker's Justice Project, wrote in a statement. “Infrastructure development of this kind is a collective effort that requires feedback from everyone involved, and we look forward to strategically and thoughtfully working together to prioritize and meet the needs of the community.
The company Fantastica would build the kiosk and has released renderings that show a retrofitted 300-square-foot space that change the newsstand — which has been abandoned since the COVID-19 pandemic — into a welcoming space for delivery workers.