The City Council Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards, and Ethics will hold a hearing end of this month to confirm the appointment of transit enthusiast Midori Valdivia as Commissioner of the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
“New Commissioner has to be confirmed by the City Council, and the hearing has not been confirmed yet…likely late February,” Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), here today told ‘TLC Drivers Voice’ correspondent Kamal Ahmed.
Deputy Council Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams, Council members Shekhar Krisnan and Shahana Hanif, newly appointed TLC chair Midori Valdivia, and others are expected to attend the City Council hearing.
Earlier on Jan 13, Mayor Zohran Mamdani nominated Midori Valdivia, tasking her with governing the tens of thousands of rideshare vehicles and taxicabs across the Big Apple.
“Valdivia is no stranger to the TLC, where she previously worked as the deputy commissioner and made ‘historic strides,’ expanding ‘accessibility across our taxi fleet,” Mamdani told the press conference at Laguardia Airport’s Terminal C Taxi Hold Lot on that night.
Approximately 180,000 to 200,000 TLC-licensed drivers are in the city, and they operate one million rides per day and 600 to 612 trips per minute, according to the latest statistics available.
Valdivia currently serves as the chief operating officer of the Coro New York Leadership Center, a civic leadership training organization, and held a previous gig as the senior advisor to the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
She previously worked as an analyst and adviser for the Port Authority for six years before becoming a deputy commissioner of finance at TLC in 2015.
Mamdani joined NYTWA on a hunger strike in 2021 for debt forgiveness for yellow cab medallion owners after the market crashed upon the entrance of Uber and Lyft, and years of over speculation by the city and the private market. To date, the NYTWA campaign has achieved $476 million in loan forgiveness. As Mayor, Mamdani rode up to City Hall for his inauguration in a taxi driven by NYTWA member and hunger striker Richard Chow.
Founded in 1998, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) is a 28,000-member-strong union of taxicab and for-hire drivers in the city. The alliance fights for justice, rights, respect, and dignity for around 180K licensed men and women who often labor 12-hour shifts in the city.