A beloved Bronx newsstand will no longer become a hub for delivery workers, and the newsstand's owner will be able to bid to keep operating it, Parks Department sources and elected officials said Tuesday.
The owner of the Nabila Newsstand, near the corner of East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue in Fordham Manor, recently received a call from the department informing him that his concession agreement with the city would expire on March 14, meaning his stand would close, he told NY1 on Sunday.
The city had planned to turn the newsstand into a "Street Deliveristas Hub" as part of its initiative aimed at transforming vacant newsstands and unoccupied public spaces into rest stops for delivery workers.
But Parks Department sources on Tuesday said Los Deliveristas Unidos/Workers Justice Project, an app delivery worker collective working to maintain and staff the spaces used as hubs, was no longer considering the Nabila Newsstand site as a hub location.
In a joint statement released Tuesday, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and Bronx Councilman Oswald Feliz said the Parks Department would allow Nabila Newsstand's owner to put in a bid to continue operating the stand.
Parks Department sources said Nabila Newsstand's owner most recently secured the right to keep running the newsstand in 2019, when the city put out a "Request for Bids" as part of a competitive selection process.
"The Nabila Newsstand is a staple in the Fordham community. Every day, hundreds and hundreds of residents visit it for necessities, including food, medication, MetroCards, and much more," Gibson and Feliz said in their statement. "We are thankful to learn that the Parks Department will re-open the Request for Proposal process and provide them with the opportunity to continue operating in our community."
The newsstand "has been operating for nearly 15 years by immigrants who immigrated to the U.S. two decades ago and have spent their time giving back to the Fordham community," they added.
It wasn't immediately clear Tuesday how many delivery worker hubs the city plans to open.
In a statement, the Parks Department said that the "selection of Deliverista Hubs is not yet final, and conversations are ongoing between City Hall, the Community Board, and relevant stakeholders."