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A long-vacant newsstand outside of City Hall has been transformed into the country’s first “deliverista hub,” a service and rest stop for NYC’s 80,000 app-based delivery workers.
The hub, which was unveiled at a ceremony on April 7, will provide deliveristas a place to rest during long shifts, shelter from the elements, repair their bikes, charge their batteries and receive education on their rights from staff at Workers Justice Project, an organization that advocates on behalf of delivery workers.
The ribbon for the hub was cut by Senator Chuck Schumer — who secured $1 million in federal funding for the project — alongside Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Gustavo Ajche, founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, a subsidiary of WJP. Ajche’s organization represents the city’s deliveristas, who work as independent contractors of companies like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub.
“Today is a historic day for the deliveristas and the beginning of a new era, a moment where the city recognizes our dignity and the value that we bring,” Ajche said.
He and Schumer were joined at the opening by deliveristas, Commisioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation Tricia Shimamura, representatives from City Hall and the Department of Transportation, as well as elected officials from across the city.
The hub comes as a relief for Abou Bacar Ki, who has delivered in lower Manhattan since 2019 and became an organizer with LDU last year.
“Sometimes I work like 13 hours in the cold weather and I don’t have anywhere to rest,” said Ki, who hails from Burkina Faso. Many restaurants and stores ask deliveristas to wait for orders outside, only allowing them to sit inside if they order food themselves, he said. Many places don’t allow them to use the bathroom either.
Even the companies for whom deliveristas like Ki deliver do not provide a space for them, he said. Ki often works for Grubhub, but is not allowed to linger inside Wonder food halls, the chain that owns Grubhub and accounts for a growing share of the city’s online orders.
The battery charging station marks another significant step for deliveristas, Ki said, as restrictions and proposed bans on storing and charging lithium-ion e-bike batteries following spikes in deadly fires have left drivers with fewer charging options.
“Some drivers are trapped,” Ki said. “They can’t charge at home, they can’t charge on the street, they can’t start at the bike shop — so where can they charge?”
The hub is a response to the city’s history of building public infrastructure for cars and the wealthy, said Ligia Guallpa, Executive Director of the WJP.
“This is the time to redesign our city around the people who actually make it run,” Guallpa said. “This hub is a blueprint of how cities can respond to the new gig economy not after the fact but in real time, along with workers, centering their safety, their dignity and their humanity.”
The project has been in the works since 2023, when Ajche and other deliveristas brought Schumer along on food deliveries in uptown Manhattan. Schumer said the ride opened his eyes to the “grueling” conditions faced by deliveristas, from long hours and harsh weather conditions to “mean” store owners.
An initial plan to build another hub on the Upper West Side was nixed after funding constraints and community pushback.
The City Hall hub, which was designed by the Brooklyn-based firm Fantástica with input from deliveristas, was approved in April 2024.
Schumer credits the WJP and LDU for getting the project across the finish line.
“Delivery workers dreamed of this vision, they had the political know-how to get it done, and here we are,” Schumer said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated the hub in a statement, calling it “a dedicated place for the city to take care of its own.”
Oumar Barry, who spends 10 to 12 hours a day on his bike, is thrilled about the weather protection the hub will provide him.
“If it's cold, we don't have a choice, we have to go out,” he said. With few places to warm up in the winter, he often reduces his hours to seven or eight.
“I am very, very happy for this event,” he told The Chief, in French. “I hope that it will bring a little change to the suffering we meet in our work.”
The speakers at the ceremony agreed that this hub has to be a blueprint for others across the city in order to drive true change for deliveristas. A representative from the Parks Department told The Chief that it's working with WJP on future hubs.
Ajche posited that this is just the beginning for deliverista hubs.
“I want to say thank you to every worker who refused to give up: this is yours. To every deliverista who's not here today, this space exists because of you,” he said “Today, we make history, and tomorrow, we have to keep building and fighting. We have the power.”
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