City Loads Bronx Newsstand to Make Room for NYC Couriers

The city is ditching the Bronx newsstand to make way for a “street center” of delivery workers, despite Mayor Adams’ claims that recreation centers for thousands of delivery workers in the city will be housed in empty and abandoned newsstands.

“I don’t know why they do it,” said Mohammad Ulla, co-owner of the Nabila newsstand in Rose Hill Park, off Fordham Road. “I can’t answer why they do it, but I know this business is good for society and this business is good for me. I don’t know why they want to close it. … I’m sad.”

Ulla and Mostak Bhuyan have owned the newsstand since 2008. Both immigrants are from Bangladesh and have built successful lives for themselves, their families and two employees, providing what they describe as essential services to the area.

Nabila newsstand employees Mahbub Khan (left) and Zahidul Zahid at the newsstand at 413 East Fordham Rd.  Friday, January 27, 2023 Bronx, New York

The public and customers are outraged. On Friday morning, word spread that the store was closing.

“Oh no, no, no, no,” said Nolma Kampell. “The store is very convenient! And necessary too. Nice place and these people are good people too. You come to play loto, have a cup of coffee, the train station is nearby. It doesn’t make any sense.”

In October, Adams promised to turn empty newsstands into “street hubs” where cyclists can rest, recharge their e-bikes and repair their gear. The program is funded by a $1 million infrastructure initiative provided by U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.).

“How do we turn decline into a tool that can be used to secure work? The newsstand business has evolved and changed, and we know this is the best way to do it,” Adams said at the time.

Two other newsstands slated for refurbishment, at City Hall and on the Upper West Side, are empty.

The Nabila newsstand is pictured on East Fordham Road.  Friday, January 27th in the Bronx.

The Nabila Newsstand in Rose Hill Park is not. The owners’ concession agreement, which operates like a multi-year lease, expires in March. A source at the Parks Department said the application process for using the space after March was closed to the Nabila newsstand or anyone else. This prevents the newsstand from occupying the building after March.

“I was contacted by City Hall and was told there was an empty, underused newsstand that they would like to use,” said Rafael Moore-Pannett, district manager for the 6th Bronx Community Council. – I said: “But he is not free!” … “It looks like they had this mission from the start and they weren’t about to let the facts get in the way.”

Moore-Pannett wrote to the Parks Department asking why the Parks weren’t renewing their lease.

“The contract with this kiosk is ending very soon. Parks is looking for another use for this object,” a department official wrote in an email reviewed by Daily News. In a separate email, a Parks Department official confirmed that the newsstand site is being considered as a site for a delivery center.

“The selection of Deliverista hubs has not yet been finalized, and discussions between City Hall, Community Council and relevant stakeholders are ongoing,” Parks Department spokesman Dan Castanis said in a statement.

Schumer’s office has reached out to the Parks Department for comment.

Nabila newsstand employee Zahidul Zahid helps Andrew Gray buy a newspaper on Friday.

Hundreds of people – passengers rushing to get coffee on their way to the train, police officers on patrol, women carrying groceries hoping to get lucky with a lottery ticket, students grabbing cigarettes on their way to classes at Fordham University, and retirees chasing newspapers. headlines – go to the newsstand every day.

Nakhian Bhuyan, 21, is the son of Mostak. Some of his favorite childhood memories are keeping his father company in the store, sitting on stacks of water bottles and flipping through magazines.

“It’s a little emotional,” he said. “I don’t like seeing my father in a state where he has no control. And, you know, he’s 51 years old, he’s an overworked immigrant who came here and built his life and all that, but it had its consequences, and it still does.”

The store helped Nakhian pay for his tuition at Hunter College, where he is in his senior year and is preparing for a degree in computer science. Now he is looking for a job to support his father.

“If I find him, then my father can retire and relax a bit, but until then, the job market is very bad right now. So my dad is really stressed, I’m stressed. My dad is also the only breadwinner in the house.”

Nabila newsstand employees Mahbub Khan (left) and Zahidul Zahid pose for a photograph at the newsstand at 413 East Fordham Rd.  Friday, January 27, 2023 Bronx, New York

Jack Tillery, 66, left his phone on a stack of chewing gum at the store and returned an hour later to find it – the owners noticed the phone and hid it in a safe place for him. Tillery is retired and has been shopping for 10 years.

“Why? There are so many other places where they could do this. … They talk about people being out of work, but they are trying to take their business away from them. It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“Why do you want to replace it? People need this business, it is important for this community, Mostak Bhuyan said. “Everyone needs help, comes here for fast service, MetroCard, Lotto, change, drinks, ATM, all these things are important to us. We also consider this work important. We’ve been doing this for a long time. And all four of us work here together. Four families depend on it.”

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