Food delivery app companies spent $3.2 million in the recent City Council elections, and Council members rejected a bill that would require apps to provide delivery workers with safety equipment or risk losing their operating license. DoorDash labeled the proposal "extreme" and warned it would jeopardize delivery services. Several influential Council members received significant contributions from app companies, including seven-figure and six-figure sums tied to Uber and DoorDash. Bill sponsor Gale Brewer emphasized that apps should be held accountable and that currently there is nothing to hold them accountable. Additional local news items note opposition to street redesigns and concerns about increased Midtown traffic from a proposed Times Square casino.
DoorDash has called the proposal "extreme" and said it "puts delivery and the benefits it brings at risk." And "when app lobbyists talk, many Council members pay close attention," writes The City's Claudia Irizarry Aponte.
Top Council members responsible for overseeing the app industry received significant contributions from the industry this year, according to the report: Consumer Committee Julie Menin and Labor Committee Chair Carmen De La Rosa, who are vying to be the Council Speaker, raised, respectively, $143,129 and $156,787 from Uber. Current Council Speaker Adrienne Adams took in $150,000 from DoorDash for her failed run for mayor.
"I don't know if the apps have been saying that to colleagues, or where they got that," Brewer said, adding that "the apps should be held accountable." "Right now there's nothing to hold them accountable," Brewer said.
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