Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that New York City has sent cease-and-desist letters to more than 40 online retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target and Wayfair, demanding they immediately stop selling e-bikes and motorized scooters that exceed the city’s legal speed and power limits. The retailers have until August 18 to comply or face civil penalties of up to $2,000 for each infraction.
Mamdani announced the letters at a press conference on Center Street in Lower Manhattan, steps from where a 17-year-old was killed one week earlier. Gabriel Nacato was riding a Deep Power QS7 e-bike from Bensonhurst into Manhattan to meet a career counselor and fill out summer job applications when he was struck by an SUV coming off the Brooklyn Bridge, the mayor said. The bike is capable of reaching more than 30 miles per hour.
“Gabriel should still be with us today,” Mamdani said. “He should be submitting his summer job applications and practicing for an upcoming interview.”
The mayor said the letters, sent through the city’s Law Department, also ask the companies to meet with the Department of Transportation, the New York Police Department and city lawyers to develop measures to keep illegal vehicles from reaching city streets. Other retailers he named included Temu, Walmart Marketplace, Segway and D-Power.
“Our dream is that by August 18, we are not collecting a single fine because every one of these 42 companies is now in compliance,” Mamdani said. He said the vehicles at issue are not marginally over the limit. “We’re talking about vehicles that can go sometimes more than double the legal limit of the speed,” he said.
Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flint said an e-bike that can exceed 25 miles per hour is illegal, as is a stand-up scooter that can exceed 20 miles per hour and a moped without a visible vehicle identification number and license plate. “These are motorcycles being marketed to New Yorkers as bicycles,” Flint said. He said two New Yorkers were killed earlier this year when an illegal scooter capable of traveling more than 50 miles per hour collided head-on with a cyclist.
Attorney General Tish James, who issued a consumer alert about the vehicles the previous Friday, said her office was tracking a rise in deaths. “Last week, we lost a teenage boy in Lower Manhattan. And last month, we lost a woman on the Upper West Side,” she said. James urged residents to report sellers of illegal e-bikes and scooters to her office at 1-800-771-7755. She credited City Council Speaker Julie Menin with launching a review of e-bike and scooter safety.
Asked why the city would give retailers a grace period and whether a $2,000 fine would deter billion-dollar companies, Corporation Counsel Steve Banks said the penalties were only part of the plan. “For a very large corporation, $2,000 isn’t that much, but facing an injunction to comply with the law is enforcing the law and protecting New Yorkers,” Banks said. He said the city could seek injunctions and sue to stop the advertisements if companies do not comply.
Mamdani said inspections would cover physical stores and online sales. He said he did not support requiring e-bike riders to register or license their vehicles because he did not believe it would improve street safety. He said the city would work with the City Council and Albany on further legislation but wanted to act immediately. “We cannot afford to wait because we know the consequences of this are fatal,” he said.
The mayor also addressed a Department of Buildings report issued the previous day in connection with the buckled beam at the Pfizer Building. A reporter, citing the report, said inspectors checked 180 buildings tied to contractors that may have been responsible. Roughly 10 percent required a partial stop-work order. One required a full stop-work order. Mamdani confirmed the 180 inspections and said some required partial or full stop-work orders. None were deemed an immediate public safety threat. He said the inspections found no innate cause for concern about office-to-residential conversions. “We have not found a reason to be concerned with those conversions innately,” he said.
On the city’s new pied-à-terre surcharge, Mamdani said the Department of Finance had assessed that 17,000 households may owe the tax and had sent them “you may be subject to” letters. Recipients have until September 18 to appeal, either directly to the Department of Finance, by calling 311, or at in-person centers in each of the five boroughs. The surcharge applies to secondary homes worth more than $5 million owned by non-residents, he said.
Asked about reports that retired city paraprofessionals on disability pensions had been told this summer their pensions were miscalculated for as long as 10 to 15 years, would be cut in half, and that some must repay benefits, Mamdani said the city’s Law Department identified the miscalculation as a mistake. “The law department has come forward and identified this as a mistake that took place over many, many years,” he said. He added that the city is one of many parties overseeing the pensions and would monitor the issue.
Asked about a reported death in custody at Delaney Hall, the privately run immigration detention facility, Mamdani said the facility should be closed and that he believes ICE should be abolished. “This is just one symptom of a federal administration’s approach to immigration enforcement that has foregrounded cruelty and inhumanity,” he said. “And I do believe that ICE should be abolished.” He said he had protested outside Delaney Hall as a candidate after Mayor Baraka was arrested and detained there.
The mayor also congratulated Abdul El-Sayed on a primary victory in Michigan the night before. Responding to a post by House Speaker Mike Johnson attacking progressive Democrats, Mamdani said the remarks showed “how deeply out of touch the Republican Party is with the concerns of working class Americans.”
Featured image: NYC Mayor's Office
