U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer cutting the ribbon on a new deliverista hub outside of City Hall. Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
In October 2022, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer stood in front of an abandoned newsstand in City Hall Park alongside then-Mayor Eric Adams and delivery workers to announce a federally-funded network of rest stops for delivery workers.
Over three years later, Schumer was back at the same site on Tuesday with delivery workers once again, as well as representatives of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration, to finally cut the ribbon on the long-promised “City Hall Deliverista Hub.”
“After all these years, we are fulfilling the promise of better critical infrastructure for delivery workers,” Schumer said.
The announcement came at a time when delivery workers were stretched thin during the COVID-19 pandemic. They had no dedicated spaces to charge their devices and rest between shifts, and many restaurants denied them bathroom access.
Although Schumer announced in 2022 that he had secured $1 million to build the hub, it was stymied by over three years of navigating bureaucratic hurdles and community opposition. But New York’s senior senator and Senate minority leader said that changed when Mamdani took over the mayoralty at the start of this year.
“For years, my office pushed and prodded the previous administration, overcoming bureaucratic hurdles, overcoming inertia,” Schumer said. “I want to congratulate the new administration. They moved quickly to expedite this process.”
The structure, built on the footprint of the demolished empty newsstand, will serve as a place where any of the city’s 80,000 delivery workers can rest and recharge figuratively and literally — both themselves and their battery-powered bikes — in between shifts.
During the April 7 event, Parks Department Commissioner Tricia Shimamura said the hub will be the first of its kind in the country.
“Eighty-thousand delivery workers move this city each and every day, and they deserve the infrastructure that works just as hard as they do,” Shimamura said. “This hub is now a place where delivery workers and cyclists can rest. It’s a place to safely recharge your bike and recharge your energy.”
The hub, which will open in the coming days, is a square, single-level metal structure that takes up part of the sidewalk, not much larger than a parking spot.
The area inside will be staffed by members of the Worker Justice Project — the group that organized the delivery workers’ union Los Deliveristas Unidos — between 12 and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The interior will both serve as a resting space for deliveristas and a place where Workers Justice Project staffers can connect them with resources related to street safety, wage theft, and app deactivations — when delivery workers are suddenly kicked off of an app.
The hub also features battery charging cabinets, where delivery workers can swap depleted e-bike batteries for others fully charged. 40 charging cabinets, accessible via an app, are located on two pillars on the back wall of the structure.
Workers will also be able to get basic e-bike repairs at the hub.
Gustavo Ajche, a delivery worker and co-founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, said the hub will be a special space for deliveristas — who are independent contractors beholden to apps like Uber and Grubhub that employ them.
“Deliverista hub is a space led by workers, for workers, not controlled by any corporation or any private company,” Ajche said. “Any day if your battery is low or you need a quick repair for your bike, this gonna be the place [sic].”
Asked about other locations for hubs previously announced by the prior administration, Shimamura said she “not going to be able to share any other status updates, besides the fact that we’re still very much in conversation on all of these.”
“Deliveristas are delivering in all five boroughs, so it’s really important for us to think creatively across the boroughs, around spaces that could be come online,” she added.
