WELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE OF NEW YORK CITY

Subways make you woke and 6 other key takeaways from Tuesday night's election results, in today's @nygroove.nyc nygroove.nyc/nyc-mayoral-...

“…Mamdani wasn't just running as a "Socialist" — he was running, and winning, as an urbanist.” nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/11/05/c...

Political hopefuls in New York City have long claimed to be "avid cyclists," but few have proven to rack up the miles like Mamdani on a Citi Bike. So one Bushwick print shop created art to celebrate him as their choice for mayor. buff.ly/1P35Ei4

"We have the ink and we have the means of production," said a printer about his hot new Zohran Mamdani poster.

The NYPD's bike and e-bike criminal summons crackdown is still happening, and has increased in recent months, even as Commissioner Tisch doesn't talk about it much publicly anymore. nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/11/01/n...

INBOX: Instacart's astro-turf group "New Yorkers For Affordable Groceries" is back and still fighting against paying grocery delivery workers the same as restaurant workers, even though the group failed to stop the law from passing.

The FDNY issued new guidance today for e-bike charging cabinets, acknowledging that the new UL 1487 was not recognized by OSHA (which I reported yesterday). But at today's Council hearing, the Chief of Fire Protection called the points made in my reporting "erroneous."

The Adams administration's initiatives to incentivize and build outdoor e-bike charging infrastructure has resulted in very few cabinets due to FDNY regulations that are nearly impossible to follow.

DoorDash has come out in support of the new 15 mile per hour e-bike speed limit, but wont say if it will adjust its algorithms for the new, slower speeds.

Yesterday, @streetspac.org put out their list of endorsements for November's general election.

Lots of motorized vehicles advertised as "e-bikes" are already illegal to buy and sell in NYC and are classified in New York State law as "motorized scooters."

You guys aren’t gonna believe this but Tish James really did say “We did not receive official notice. 
We heard about the cutting of MTA funds on Streetsblog“

The Davis Center bike racks in Central Park are finally opened, but they are still in the middle of the park's biggest downhill, and inaccessible to those who would want to bike in from Harlem.

An Uber driver hit someone on a scooter after making an illegal u-turn, but it was Uber's in-app GPS that told him to do it. The ongoing lawsuit shows how Uber's drivers' pervasive fear of customer complaints results in reckless driving and following the app over individual judgement.

Another great post by @sophlebo.bsky.social about the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's seizure of the NYC DOT's great 10th Avenue bike lane. But this great story also comes with a video of me protesting the illegal takeover by taunting DEA with a doobie! nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/10/01/w...

DOT's crusade against a Council bill for universal daylighting was able to peel off support by Council Member Gale Brewer, after agency officials told her it would remove 13,000 parking spots in her Upper West Side district. nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/09/30/g...

"Since the [Delivery Service Partners] are separate companies, Amazon argues that it can't be held liable for union busting, since the workers don't technically work for them." -- via @sophlebo.bsky.social nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/09/25/n...

This is your bike lane on drugs!!

Streetsblog is catching up to my posts a year later, covering the dispute affecting completion of this one block of 10th Ave bike lane. cc @sophlebo.bsky.social nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/09/24/f...

In order to enforce the newest delivery worker minimum pay laws, DCWP needs more funding. The agency's low budget, less than 1% of city total, has left it struggling to respond to worker abuse complaints.

DOT warns against a Council bill which would allow FHVs to park in commercial loading zones. Uber and Lyft have over 80K drivers on the road, in contrast to around 13K taxi medallions. The companies don't provide "bases," all are competing for the few city run Taxi Relief Stands.

The city's first-of-its-kind "deliverista" minimum wage is working: previously underpaid gig-workers are taking home more money per hour and delivery app companies are getting more orders than ever.

The city's first-of-its-kind "deliverista" minimum wage is working: previously underpaid gig-workers are taking home more money per hour and delivery app companies are getting more orders than ever, reports @sophlebo.bsky.social nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/09/09/h...

NEW: The police officer who fatally struck a man in Flushing Meadows Corona Park was not even looking at the road while driving on the usually car-free path, two witnesses said — confounding the pain of a grieving family that says it has been completely left in the dark by the NYPD. buff.ly/LEy1XIh

Instacart is now claiming it "supports" minimum wage for its workers, abandoning its (unsuccessful) argument that the policy would raise grocery prices for low income families. But the company still doesn't really support a fair wage, experts say.

More than 150 injuries from traffic crashes could have been avoided. Nearly a quarter-million bus riders could have had faster commutes. Instead, Eric Adams’s City Hall stymied several redesigns at the behest of powerful interests. nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/08/28/s...

I looked into all the other projects Mayor Adams has stalled, reversed, or watered down in favor of those with outsized influence. Ingrid Lewis-Martin allegedly accepting bribes to stop the McGuinness Blvd redesign is an outlier in a political system where legal bribery is easy to pull off.

Vet of famously fast-to-publish ProPublica checks has thoughts

End your day with our funny Friday video of cops entrapping cyclists at the Williamsburg Bridge. Come for the bad road design, stay for the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo of Streetsblog editor Gersh Kuntzman:

BREAKING: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams eviscerates Mayor Adams — and cites Streetsblog's @sophlebo.bsky.social — in her promise to override his veto of a delivery worker minimum wage bill:

Spoke to researchers in the labor and food justice spaces who said the mayor and Instacart's arguments against minimum pay don't carry any water.

Speaker Adams says she'll override the mayor's "senseless" vetoes of expanding minimum wage: "Despite [Instacart's] efforts to deceive the public, these bills do not increase the cost of groceries. Any added fees are about padding their own profits and not the cost of groceries, be not deceived."

In a quarterly earnings call last week, executives for the publicly traded company told shareholders that business was indeed booming. The key? Reducing the amount the company spends on pay to workers — which it calls "shoppers" — by "batching" orders.

Went to Wegmans and got a few things, spent $27.25. Replicated the order on Instacart and the total was $47.84. Instacart is arguing that it's a lifeline for low income families, and that a worker minimum wage would force them to raise prices for consumers... how does this make sense? It doesn't!

Construction has begun on NYC's "deliverista hub," converting an abandoned City Hall newsstand into a place for workers to charge their batteries, access resources, and park their bikes. The hub will be a small piece of a larger patchwork of city infrastructure these 80,000 plus workers rely on.

The mayor wont confirm whether or not he will sign a package of bills which would close the "Instacart loophole" and expand delivery worker minimum wage to all workers. But in 2022, his administration put out a report that promised to do just that.

"She became confused when Streetsblog pointed out that the group was funded by Instacart and was specifically addressing grocery delivery while opposing a minimum wage for workers." — ‪via @sophlebo.bsky.social nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/08/05/i...

Imp by @sophlebo.bsky.social: "Inside Instacart’s Astro-Turf Group Opposing Worker Minimum Wage" -- nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/08/05/i...

Wrote about a thing I noticed near my office this week that is deeply fucked up and upsetting but also inspiring: People have started plastering a fence in front of a downtown ICE office with photos of immigrants disappeared by ICE nygroove.nyc/lower-manhat...

As with every East River bridge, the answer lies in the past.

Hundreds of delivery workers who live at the Ebbets Field Apartments can now have access to fully charged e-bike batteries right outside their building thanks to PopWheels's newest swap location, which opened with funding from a ConEd micromobility program.

I think the title says it all here. biketalk.org/2025/07/2528... @sophlebo.bsky.social @obcycler.bsky.social @bikinginla.bsky.social #bikesky

Talked to Council Member Justin Brannan about his new bill, which would block delivery app companies from deactivating or “locking out” workers without a reason. This is something delivery workers have been organizing for since the minimum wage started in 2023.

New: In a complaint filed on Wednesday, former NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon alleged widespread corruption leading to a string of deadly high-speed chases.

The city was set to begin demolition on three blocks of the Bedford Avenue protected bike lane last night, but an appellate court judge blocked it with another temporary restraining order after the plaintiffs filed an appeal:

Over 200 cyclist have signed a pledge, sent to the administration this morning, that they will sue if anything happens to them after the Mayor removes a protected bike lane in Bedford Avenue.

A "car condo" (a parking spot) sold in Park Slope for $250,000!

New from @kevinduggan.bsky.social: The Mayor shelved a street safety redesign of Third Avenue in Sunset Park, and now two New Yorkers are dead, killed by a hit and run driver.

On Monday, the City Council is expected to pass a package of bills that would further regulate the delivery app industry, closing the "Instacart loophole" that we reported on last year.