Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday nominated Midori Valdivia as the next chair of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the agency that regulates the tens of thousands of cabs and for-hire vehicles on New York City’s streets.
Valdivia previously worked as an analyst and adviser for the Port Authority for six years before becoming a deputy commissioner of finance at the TLC in 2015. More recently, she served on the board of the MTA, where she earned a reputation during public meetings as a leading transportation policy wonk.
“ From City Hall, we will deliver meaningful change in the lives of the working people, too often forgotten by our politics and in the day-to-day existences of the taxi drivers who deserve a forceful champion at the TLC,” Mamdani said during a news conference at a LaGuardia Airport taxi stand. “That champion, my friends, is the woman to my left, Midori Valdivia, who I’m so proud to nominate today.”
Valdivia’s appointment is subject to City Council approval. As TLC chair, she’d be tasked with determining policies that govern the more than 84,000 Uber and Lyft vehicles licensed to operate in the city, as well as the city’s beleaguered yellow taxi industry.
“Transportation is freedom,” Valdivia said. “How we move, how we navigate this great city of ours, it’s our lifeline. It’s critical. It’s essential, and that’s why I’ve been so committed to improving transportation in New York City for my entire professional career.”
Mamdani formed a political alliance with many yellow taxi drivers in 2021, his first year in the state Assembly. He joined taxi medallion owners on a hunger strike outside of City Hall that year as they protested for debt relief. Yellow taxi medallions — which give drivers exclusive rights to pick up people hailing a cab on the street in most areas of the city — were once valued at $1 million, but have since dropped to less than $200,000 in value.
After the hunger strike, former Mayor de Blasio and Sen. Chuck Schumer cut a deal with lenders to give debt relief to thousands of medallion owners. Still, banks continue to foreclose on several medallions every month, city data shows.
David Do, the TLC chair appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams, allowed for more Uber and Lyft vehicles to be licensed in the city, so long as they were fully electric vehicles. And last year, the commission under Do imposed new worker rules for rideshare app drivers that bumped their minimum wage, and also codified new protections that aim to prevent the companies from locking workers out of the apps to comply with the new pay rules.
Last year, thousands of yellow cab drivers also reached a $140 million settlement with TLC that resolved a decades-long federal lawsuit over the agency’s unduly revoking taxi drivers’ licenses.
