Taxi Clubhouse offers respite for drivers

May 30, 2023

Veteran yellow cab driver Richard Chow, of Staten Island, sometimes drives up to 14 hours in a day. So taking a break in a massage chair at the Taxi Clubhouse in Chelsea is much needed after hours behind the wheel.

The clubhouse on West 22nd Street opened around six months ago to cater to drivers like Chow.

"I start at 9 o'clock, go to JFK, and after, get a fare, come into the city, I work all straight through 11 p.m.," said Chow, a member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.

The 3,000-square-foot space was developed after surveying drivers. It features bathrooms, free coffee and tea, games, exercise equipment and a prayer room. The clubhouse was developed by Marblegate Asset Management, the largest owner and operator of New York City taxi medallions."These men and women are out doing it for many, many hours every single day of the week, six, seven days a week, so the idea behind the Taxi Clubhouse was to provide some modicum of dignity to that work, give them an opportunity to step out of the can, to take their meals, use the restroom, find community," said Andrew Milgram, managing partner at Marblegate. To celebrate six months of being open, the clubhouse held a Driver Appreciation Day. Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Do was there to check it out."We do 800,000 trips per day, and we keep New Yorkers moving, and this is something that we need to reinvest into our drivers, because they work so hard, they work long hours and they need a place to rest and take a break just like the rest of us," Do said.There is access to health care too. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center visits regularly as part of a program where they provide outreach for taxi drivers."We do health assessments, needs assessments, we see whether or not people have primary care providers, health insurance, what their health status is like and what their health needs are," said Dr. Francesca Gany, service chief for the Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparity Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering.Among those taking advantage is Martin Palefsky of Brooklyn, who has been driving a cab for around 40 years. "This is very nice when they come over here and help the cab drivers," Palefsky said. "That's something new. We never had that."