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If you know anyone who might like this newsletter, send it to them. If this was sent to you by someone else, subscribe here — it's free!  Dear New Yorkers, A judge has affirmed city rules mandating a pay rate of at least $17.96 an hour before tips for Uber, Grubhub and DoorDash workers — making New York the first major U.S. city with a guaranteed driver wage. Because the app companies treat their workforce as independent contractors and not as employees, delivery cyclists and drivers are not entitled to either the federal or state guaranteed minimum wage. The Thursday decision defeated legal efforts by gig economy giants Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub to stop the rule from going into effect. In rejecting the apps’ request for an injunction, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Moyne called any harm to Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub “speculative,” noting that they will be able to pass any increases in costs on to consumers.  Only Relay, a smaller New York-based delivery operation, is exempt under the decision from Moyne, who granted the company’s request for an injunction because it works directly with restaurants and already pays an hourly base rate.  Delivery worker leaders, who have been advocating for better wages and pay standards for more than three years under the banner of Los Deliveristas Unidos, cheered the ruling and vowed to hold the companies accountable. Sergio Ajche, a cofounder of the group who delivers for Grubhub, said on Thursday that he was “contentísimo” — thrilled — with the judge’s decision. “For me it’s important that the most powerful of the companies lost here,” he said in Spanish. “We demonstrated that that change can happen, even if they don’t want it to.” Read more here. Some other items of note: Mayor Eric Adams is looking for an on-call “street team,” an email sent this week to some city employees reveals. The 15 boosters would have to be available in-person 24/7 to do crowd work that supports the mayor and pushes his policy goals at events around the city. The mayor’s Public Engagement Unit asked for 15 volunteers to launch the traveling troupe next month, according to the email viewed by THE CITY. The PEU’s staff of around 150 people usually are focused on door-to-door outreach to help New Yorkers sign up for benefits or connect them with services — like tenant support, or assistance in signing up for free or low-cost healthcare. Dozens of protesters rallied outside police headquarters in downtown Manhattan Thursday to urge NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban to buck the recommendation of an administrative judge that the officers involved in the shooting death of 32-year-old Kawaski Trawick face no discipline. Trawick, a personal trainer and dancer, was shot and killed by officer Brendan Thompson while cooking in his Bronx apartment in April 2019. As THE CITY reported, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Administrative Trials Rosemarie Maldonado last week recommended no discipline for the officers because the Civilian Complaint Review Board had missed a deadline for bringing charges. But Caban has full latitude to make any disciplinary decision — ranging from no penalty to termination. In the interest of helping developers build more housing, both the governor and the mayor are moving to make an end run around the legislature by providing big property tax breaks to selected new residential development projects. Today, more than 10 projects are expected to apply to take advantage of the governor’s plan for Gowanus, a formerly industrial area where a 2021 rezoning now allows 8,500 new apartments to be built, about 3,000 of them affordable. And the Adams administration is working on a similar tax relief scheme for two sites on Staten Island’s North Shore where the mayor recently announced a major housing, green space and commercial development plan. In doing so, they both hope to pressure the legislature to enact a replacement policy for the 421-a tax abatement, which lapsed in June 2022. The new school year has barely begun, and already New York City’s notoriously complex (and often controversial) high school admissions process kicks off next week, lasting through early December. The process can be daunting for the tens of thousands of eighth grade families applying to public high schools. Chalkbeat has a report on everything families need to know. Weather scoop by New York Metro Weather Friday's Weather Rating: 1/10. Good grief. Periods of rain with flooding likely and locally significant flash flooding possible. Damp, humid and cloudy all day with an onshore breeze. The vibes have floated away. Things To Do Here’s what’s going on around the city this week. Friday, Sept. 29: Kameron Neal's Down The Barrel (Of A Lens), a large-scale video installation with charged imagery from the NYPD’s declassified surveillance film collections. Clark Studio Theater at Lincoln Center, noon to 10 p.m. (Limited additional dates through Oct. 3.) Free.  Saturday, Sept. 30: The Soul of Food: Afro-Indigenous Traditions of Harvesting, with discussions followed by harvesting and cooking. Clifton Place Memorial Garden, Brooklyn. 1 to 3:30 p.m. Free with registration. Sunday, Oct. 1: The 50th Annual Third Avenue Festival in Bay Ridge. Third Avenue from 69th to 94th streets. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. THE KICKER: A $50,000 permit may have put the East Village’s annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade on indefinite hiatus. Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Friday. Love, THE CITY P.S. Love THE CITY? Our nonprofit newsroom runs on support from readers like you. Donate here.

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