despite the local Community Board’s concerns<\/a> that the design didn\u2019t fit in with the surrounding landmarked buildings.<\/p>\nIt has an outdoor cabinet that can safely charge 48 e-bike batteries. There\u2019s also a space inside, about the size of two large bus shelters, for workers to rest, get free tune-ups and get free legal advice on topics like wages or what to do after accidents.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aWhat we want to build is a blueprint that can be replicated across the city,\u201d said Ligia Guallpa, the executive director of the Workers\u2019 Justice Project, which helped create the kiosk. \u201cOne of the unique things about [the] Deliverista Hub [is] it was designed by workers, based on their needs, based on their necessities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her group estimates there are 80,000 e-bike workers in the city.<\/p>\n
The kiosk is also a step toward helping prevent lithium-ion battery fires.<\/p>\n
Low-quality or knock-off batteries have been responsible for hundreds of fires, some of them fatal. Last year saw the highest number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries in the past four years, at 296. That\u2019s up from 279 in 2024, according to the FDNY. So far this year, there have been 82 fires.<\/p>\n
Last year, then-Mayor Eric Adams pledged to install dozens of similar charging cabinets where workers could charge and swap out batteries safely around the city. The first ones are expected to open next year.<\/p>\n
Aboubacar Ki, 36, from the Bronx, has been delivering food for Grubhub and Uber Eats in the city since 2019, and said he hopes more kiosks like this will be built across the city.<\/p>\n
Ki said if delivery workers could reliably swap out batteries during their shifts, \u201cwe can go fast and we can go farther.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to have more [kiosks] like this in the five boroughs, bigger than this one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The City Hall hub isn\u2019t open just yet.<\/p>\n
The kiosk doesn\u2019t have power yet, but organizers hope to resolve the issue in the next two weeks. Once the power issue is resolved, it will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unused newspaper kiosk outside of City Hall has been converted into a hub for e-bike delivery workers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-188941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}