48 THE QUEENS COURIER • QUEENS BUSINESS • MAY 9, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
queens business
Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
Delivery workers, such as Jinhua Li, coalesced in Corona Plaza to support a new state bill on e-bikes and scooters which they claim will counteract city policies viewed as discriminatory.
Delivery workers cry foul over city’s e-bike policies
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Mengba Lee, a 58-year-old food delivery
worker, says that without an e-bike, he
would be left with few options to earn a
living as an immigrant in New York City.
Eduardo Perez-Torres is also in the
same situation, where serving customers
without a motor to help him along is tiring
and frustrating.
Th ese two men share the same distress
that many other food delivery workers
share with the added burden, they claim,
of being unfairly targeted by law enforcement
under the de Blasio administration
over the use of e-bikes. Th ey shared
their stories on May 3 in Jackson Heights
during a press conference held by two
Queens lawmakers who seek the legalization
of e-bikes.
“In the past year and a half, the police
have issued me four e-bike tickets at
$500 each,” Lee said through a translator.
“Which means I have paid $2,000 in fi nes.
Th e police also confi scated my e-bike
once which made me miss a lot of work.
Delivery workers don’t understand why
the government has such a law to punish
us when we are just trying to delivery food
that people order.”
Perez-Torres’ experience does not fall
far from this, he said, but when his bike
was confi scated there was only more
hardship.
In order to get his bike back, he was
forced to shell out over $900. But upon
leaving the bank, he was robbed by an
individual pretending to be a cop.
When he fi nally got his pike back over
a month later, it had been damaged under
the care of NYPD and repairs had to be
made.
Make the Road NY and Transportation
Alternatives are pushing back against
a policy put in place by the de Blasio
administration under the administrative
code 19-176.2.
Mayor Bill de Blasio took action against
e-bike and scooter users in 2017, granting
NYPD and Department of Parks and
Recreation to issue civil penalties of $500
and even impound the property until all
fi nes and fees are paid for.
Since bicycles and scooters are not
required to be registered with the state,
they are prohibited from using a motor of
any kind, according to the law.
Marco Conner, deputy director with
Transportation Alternatives, called the
mayor’s policy a “draconian” hypocrisy
that allows the police to harass the city’s
poorest immigrants.
“Th e mayor is recreating the darkest
legacies of this city’s policing and betraying
the very values upon which he was
elected,” Conner said. “Th is policy is racist
and it is classist. Th e racial disparity of
who is stopped and who has their bikes
confi scated are racist… He was elected
pledging to end stop-and-frisk, to end
broken windows policing against immigrant
workers in New York City.
Conner also took aim at Vision Zero
claiming that the policy that aims to make
the city safer for bicyclists and pedestrians
is undermined by the hobbling the ability
of immigrants to work.
Tiff any Chang claimed the average
Chinese delivery worker is 46 years old
with three out of fi ve claiming they have
been assaulted at least once.
Taking the issue on at the state is Senator
Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman
Nily Rozic, whose districts cover heavy
Hispanic and Asian immigrant populations.
Advocates say they are most
impacted by the policy.
Th eir bill introduced in Albany just days
ago would establish four new non-auto
vehicle categories: pedal assist e-bikes,
throttle-powered e-bikes, pedal-assist
e-bikes and e-scooters.
“We have a great opportunity not just
for the neighborhoods that are transit deserts,
those that are overcome with traffi
c congestion impacting our environment,
but also an opportunity to deliver
economic and social justice for the workers
standing here today with us who have
been disproportionately impacted by the
lack of judgement in the current law,”
Rozic said.
At the Friday press conference in
Corona Plaza, Rozic and Ramos said New
York is one of the last states to make
changes its laws to permit the use of
motorized bikes.
“For far too long already, City Hall
has been cracking down on our immigrant
delivery workers. It’s not fair and it
does not work,” Ramos said. “We depend
on our small businesses, particularly
our restaurants to ensure that we have a
vibrant economy right here in our district.”
Th e Legal Aid Society is also challenging
the Offi ce of Administrative Trials
and Hearings in the state Supreme Court
for approving authorization for NYPD to
issue the $500 fi nes to food delivery workers,
claiming it goes against a diff erent
code which places the fi nes on the business
instead of the delivery workers.
Th e two legislators are attempting to get
the legislation through the fl oors of both
chambers by the end of the next session.
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