Council Member Brewer on pedicab regulation bills and summer interns
Council Member Brewer introduces three pedicab bills: Intro 992 (city-approved meters and ID), Intro 993 (moving oversight to TLC), and Intro 994 (insurance requirement). She notes 850 pedicab plates with 1,500 operating and 172 complaints, and recognizes her summer interns.
Council members Brewer and Hankerson.
Thank you very much.
I do want to thank the amazing interns during the summer.
Phoebe Adler, Jane Blue, who's an Alvan fellow and going off to Taiwan.
Rebecca Chen, Mateo Gregario, Julia Hrenich, Arianne Chanumat, Sadie Alvarez, Sophia Figueroa, and Veronica Hunter here.
And there are many more.
Make sure you pick up the most recent city and state.
It's called Gale's Interns Are on the Case.
And it's a fabulous article about the work that they've been doing.
I cannot thank them enough.
On pedicabs, Intro 992, which I hope you support, would strengthen the current pedicab law.
It would require city-approved meters and ID and signs and things that they don't have now, like scannable codes on their registration plates.
Intro 993 would make a...
bigger change, moving the pedicab oversight from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to the Taxi and Limousine Commission, where they would have the same oversight as taxis, which I think is really important.
There are now 850 pedicab plates, maybe 1,500 operating in 2024, many of them having bogus credentials.
172 complaints recently, and they need to have a better industry, and that's what this legislation calls for.
Intro 994 requires that they have insurance.
It's a complicated bill, but you should look at it, and I hope you support it.
There are so many people who should be thanked.
Certainly, Judge Wang, who's with the Midtown Community Justice Center, everyone at the Central Park Conservancy, the Times Square Alliance, and most importantly, the New York Pedicab
Alliance, which works with the pedicab, the council legislative team, Elliot Heisler, Margaret Lieford, Wellesley Jones, and Nell Beckman, and from my office, Shula Puder and former staffer Sam Goldsmith.
I hope this legislation passes because it will help in making an industry more responsive, but also help tourists see Central Park in a way that they can if the horses disappear.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And Councilmember Hankerson, is anyone else who would like to speak for general discussion that hasn't spoken yet?