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It’s Tuesday. Hold on to your wallets. The Amazon Go store opening today in Lower Manhattan will accept cash, the first of its kind to do so.
Weather: There’s a chance of rain this afternoon and thunderstorms tonight. But it’s May, so at least it’ll be warm. Temperatures will start in the mid-50s and reach a high in the low 70s by late afternoon.
Alternate-side parking: In effect until May 27 (Memorial Day).
When Uber starts selling its shares to the public for the first time on Thursday, the ride-hailing app could be worth as much as $91 billion. Those who already have a stake in the company could become very, very rich.
But the drivers who rely on the app for income won’t.
Drivers in New York and other cities have complaints about the company, and they’re planning a strike tomorrow morning to raise awareness about their grievances.
How will drivers strike?
Drivers who work for Uber and similar ride-hailing apps, like Lyft, Juno and Via, plan to sign off the apps from 7 to 9 tomorrow morning. Customers will be able to log on to the apps, but they may not find many drivers nearby.
After 9, drivers will resume picking up passengers.
What are the drivers protesting?
In short, they want better pay and working conditions.
The drivers’ demands were outlined in a statement from the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. One request is a limit on how much money drivers have to share with the apps per ride. The group also opposes what it says is Uber’s practice of arbitrarily removing drivers from the app, effectively terminating them.
Do the drivers work for Uber?
It’s complicated.
Initially, Uber called the drivers who use its app independent “driver-partners.” But in 2017, the State Department of Labor ruled that the drivers in New York were, in fact, employees.
Didn’t New York City already do something to help drivers?
Last year, city lawmakers limited the number of for-hire-vehicle licenses they would dispense, capping the number of drivers who could flood the market and congest the streets.
The lawmakers also guaranteed that full-time drivers would earn at least $17 an hour, and that the city would provide financial and mental health resources after several for-hire drivers killed themselves.
Uber declined to comment about the strike but pointed to perks it is offering some drivers, including cash bonuses, reimbursement for gas, and tuition for online undergraduate courses administered by Arizona State University.
Will the protest affect my commute?
Possibly.
Most people in New York City take mass transit, but a significant number of people rely on for-hire vehicles for rides into areas that are underserved by trains and buses. If you’re one of those commuters — or if you’re trying to get a ride to the airport or need to make an unexpected trip — you might want to plan ahead.
Yellow and green taxis will still be around, and they use several apps, including Waave, Curb, Myle and Wapanda.
See the celebrity arrivals at the Met Gala
In the opening minutes of the Met Gala, Lady Gaga — a native New Yorker and one of five hosts of the event this year — may have stolen the show, wrote The Times’s Valeriya Safronova and Jonah Engel Bromwich.
The theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion.” Lady Gaga arrived in a fuchsia dress with an enormous train, but then she morphed, revealing two additional dresses and, finally, her undergarments.
But was she the campiest of them all?
See more photographs from the Met Gala red carpet.
From The Times
Another way the subway fails riders: broken escalators.
Jail guards performed illegal strip searches on women, prosecutors said.
Ethics clouds hang over Mayor de Blasio as he weighs a presidential run.
A burning car with doors chained shut, and a 3-year-old victim, in Queens.
[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]
The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.
What we’re reading
New York lawmakers are remembering former City Councilman Lew Fidler of Brooklyn, who died over the weekend. [Politico NY]
Ron Darling, an announcer and former pitcher for the Mets, announced that he has thyroid cancer. He said that it was treatable and that he hoped to return to work soon. [Daily News]
A Staten Island newspaper is trying to identify every speed camera in the borough. (The city’s Transportation Department wouldn’t confirm locations, the paper said.) [SILive]
A “Game of Thrones” producer confirmed to WNYC that, yes, there was a misplaced Starbucks coffee cup in the show’s latest episode. [WNYC]
Coming up today
The Frick Collection in Manhattan hosts a screening and panel discussion of “Citizen Lane,” a documentary about the art collector Hugh Lane. 5 p.m. [$15]
Polish your résumé at a workshop at the Macomb’s Bridge Library in Manhattan. 11 a.m. [Free with R.S.V.P.]
Enjoy board games, networking and music at 333 Lounge’s Afro-Caribbean Tuesdays event in Brooklyn. 6 p.m. [Free with R.S.V.P.]
— Ana Fota
Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.
And finally: On your way to prison, a store that ‘feels like a five-star hotel’
Nate Schweber and The Times’s Corey Kilgannon report:
Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal lawyer, arrived yesterday at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., to begin his three-year sentence on fraud charges, and a good vantage point to see him enter the grounds was a nearby Sunoco gas station and convenience store — a go-to stop for people entering and leaving the facility.
“Everyone stops there, especially after getting released,” said Lawrence Dressler, a former inmate at Otisville, which is 75 miles northwest of New York City. “It’s the first place you can go to get some food or a cold drink or use the bathroom.”
Mr. Cohen did not stop at the Sunoco, but other prominent prisoners and visitors have. The boxer Mike Tyson got some change before visiting a friend, said Donna Simpson, who works at the store’s deli.
When the Iowa meatpacking executive Sholom Rubashkin was released in 2017 — his 27-year prison sentence was commuted by President Trump — a video posted on YouTube showed some of his supporters holding an impromptu dance party in the parking lot.
Other newly freed inmates head straight inside to devour a sandwich, grab cigarettes and change into street clothes in the store’s bathroom. They sometimes throw their prison garb into a donation bin on the premises.
Some visitors also use the bathroom to change after being told by prison officials that their clothing is inappropriate under the visiting guidelines.
[Read more about the Otisville prison, where the Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland and “The Situation” of “Jersey Shore” fame are also incarcerated.]
The store features a modest but diverse assortment of goods: fishing reels, Dinty Moore stew, diapers, candy bars and lottery tickets.
The store’s owner, Sneha Patel, said the last purchase many people make before reporting to prison is cigarettes. They generally don’t buy beer.
Upon their release, longtime inmates are often bewildered by the price increases.
Mr. Dressler recalled leaving prison and entering the store. “You’re wide-eyed and looking around at all this food, and drinks. You can’t believe you’re really out of prison,” he said. “You can actually use the bathroom and lock the door. It feels like a five-star hotel.”
It’s Tuesday — appreciate your local stores.
Metropolitan Diary: Familiar sound
Dear Diary:
I live in a small town in western Massachusetts. Last summer, a good friend of mine was lamenting how her daughter, a recent college graduate, was going off to live in Manhattan.
“I told her she’s never going to run into anyone she knows,” my friend said. “It will be full of strangers all the time.”
Imagine my surprise when, walking on the Upper East Side one evening last fall with a friend who lives in New York, I heard someone call my name. It was my friend’s daughter. She was rushing to ballet class and had thought she heard my voice.
— Catherine Sanderson
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/nyregion/newyorktoday/nyc-news-uber-lyft-drivers-strike.html
2019-05-07 09:40:07Z
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