New City Council bill would require delivery apps to provide worker hubs

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

The ongoing delivery bike congestion on 11th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A has prompted a proposed citywide solution.

At a press conference yesterday morning at First Avenue and 11th Street, City Councilmember Harvey Epstein announced legislation that would require third-party food delivery companies to provide rest areas, secure bike storage and charging facilities for their workers. 

The bill would direct the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to establish rules requiring delivery companies to provide hubs with bathrooms, places to rest, e-bike charging stations and bike storage. 

The facilities would be available to delivery workers regardless of which app they use. The city would determine how many rest areas companies must provide and where they could be located. 

The proposal comes after years of complaints about the concentration of delivery bikes along 11th Street, where workers gather between orders. Residents and businesses have raised concerns about blocked sidewalks, sanitation, and safety, while delivery workers have faced repeated enforcement operations and bike confiscations. 

Epstein said delivery platforms should be responsible for addressing these problems rather than workers, neighborhood businesses, and public streets.

"I support delivery workers' right to make deliveries in our neighborhood, and delivery app platforms must be held accountable for the hazardous working conditions that impact both deliveristas and our neighborhoods," Epstein said. 

He pointed to existing delivery operations that provide indoor bike storage, charging facilities and rest areas as examples of what could be done on a larger scale. 

Cellou Balde, a delivery worker and organizer with Los Deliveristas Unidos and the Worker Justice Project, described the difficulties workers face finding a safe place to park, eat or take a break.

"We want to be part of the solution, not treated as the problem," Balde said. 

Assemblymember Keith Powers, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and representatives of community organizations also spoke in support of the proposal. 

Powers said officials have been discussing alternative locations with the Department of Transportation where delivery workers could gather without creating the same congestion on residential blocks.

Community Board 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer said the board has been dealing with the 11th Street situation for two years and nine months. 

Nearly two years ago, CB3 passed a resolution calling for additional infrastructure and greater accountability from delivery companies. 

"We got nothing," Stetzer said of the response. 

She called the proposed legislation the first concrete action toward addressing the underlying problem.

"Mr. Mayor, you talk often about dignity and workers' rights...about how immigrants keep the city running," she said. "Please work with the city council to implement this legislation, and please stop persecuting the workers until they have a way to comply."

Stetzer also criticized the ongoing confiscation of delivery bikes, which she said happens two or three times a week, and urged the mayor to stop enforcement operations until workers have somewhere else to park. 

The existing bike corral on 11th Street was intended to help organize the growing number of delivery bikes, but Epstein acknowledged that it hasn't resolved the congestion. 

The proposed legislation would shift responsibility for providing those facilities to delivery companies.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• On 11th Street, residents and businesses seek solutions to delivery bike congestion

• Deliveristas confront new hurdles after 11th Street bike sweep 

• Mass e-bike seizure sparks tensions and debate on 11th Street 

• Deliveristas face new enforcement in the East Village