Tech:NYC Digest: March 7

Tech:NYC Digest: March 7

March 07, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

A happy Purim to all celebrating today, and a happy Holi to all those celebrating tomorrow! In today’s digest, NYC takes on scaffolding, welcoming asylum seekers as permanent New Yorkers, and how New York will continue winning the EV race. 

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  • Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine has introduced a new proposal that would prevent scaffolding from staying up for longer than necessary. According to his office, there are more than 4,000 sidewalk sheds in Manhattan alone, and more than 200 have been up for more than five years, creating a blight on neighborhoods and sidewalk space. (NY1)

  • NYC is creating a new agency that will run a 24/7 arrival center to manage the ongoing needs of migrants staying in emergency shelters. The agency will focus on legal and housing services, as well as coordinating the 92 emergency shelters and seven emergency response relief centers already in operation. (Gothamist)

  • If you’re traveling with kiddos soon: the Dept. of Transportation is launching a new online dashboard for travelers to see which airlines guarantee seating families with children age 13 and under together. (New York Times)

In other reading:

  • See inside Warby Parker’s new museum store opening uptown (Time Out New York)

  • Is A Coney Island Casino a Good Idea? (Curbed)

  • NYC’s Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings of Spring 2023 (Eater NY)

EV adoption is accelerating in New York. (New York Times) According to new data, ownership rates of electric cars have more than doubled in NYC and the surrounding suburbs.

  • Today, there are about 158,000 electric vehicles in the NYC metro region, with the largest share of those being within the five boroughs.

Various factors are propelling the growth: more varied models, significant government incentives, and for the first time, prices that are competitive with gas-powered vehicles — without the expense of gas.

But EV adoption will only expand as quickly as charging infrastructure can. What’s new:

  • itselectric, a Brooklyn-based EV curbside charging startup, today announced its $2.2 million pre-seed round to provide curbside charging specifically built for cities.

  • Earlier this year, Revel announced it would build five new public “superhubs” to open up 136 more charging ports across the five boroughs.

  • And a larger crop of startups has emerged in New York — Gravity, Stak Mobility, and HEVO, to name a few — to bring electric technologies to taxis, parking garages, and more.

"Cities are not ready for a future of EVs,” said itselectric’s co-founder and COO Tiya Gordon. “While efforts are underway, there is limited interest from other charging providers to create publicly-accessible, curbside charging that considers the neighborhoods they are installing within. itselectric embraces the challenge of curbside charging with our design and community-centered approach that disrupts the status quo." 

The good news: EVs have come to represent a promising example for how government policy goals and startup tech solutions are lining up to meet mutual clean energy and climate markers:

  • Gov. Kathy Hochul has pledged that by 2035 all new vehicles sold in New York must produce zero carbon emissions. (AP)

  • In NYC, Uber and Lyft will transition to 100% zero-emission fleets by 2030, and Mayor Eric Adams announced commitments to transition the city’s own fleet of vans, pickup trucks, and street sweepers to all-electric. (The Verge)

What else to work on: It’s clear EV adoption is moving faster than ever, but we need to ensure its benefits are reaching the communities disproportionately impacted by traffic congestion and pollution. 

  • Lyft’s racial equity policy manager Brian McClure wrote last week this will mean addressing the “unique barriers, built over generations of structural and institutional racism” that leaves communities of color behind in making EVs accessible.

In other reading:

  • The Surprising Parenting Effects of Remote Work (The Atlantic)

  • A new email tool proves the AI revolution has already arrived (Insider)

  • How to Answer ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ in a Job Interview (The Cut)

  • Candidly, a NYC-based student debt and savings optimization platform, raised $20.5 million in Series B funding. Altos Ventures led the round and was joined by Cercano Management.

  • itselectric, a Brooklyn-based electric vehicle curbside charging company, raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding. Brooklyn Bridge Ventures led the round and was joined by The Helm, XFactor, Graham & Walker, Clean Energy Venture Group, and Pericles, among others.

  • March 8: Virtual: Meet the Women Accelerating Change, with BBG Ventures co-founder and managing partner Nisha Dua. Hosted by Fortune. Register here.

  • March 8: In-person: International Women’s Day ClimateTech Showcase, with Future Acres CEO Suma Reddy, Cadence OneFive CEO Bomee Jung, Streetlife Ventures CEO Sonam Velani, and others. Hosted by WE NYC, NY Climate Tech, and others. Register here.

  • March 14: In-person: How and When to Raise Venture Capital, with The Fund managing partner Jenny Fielding, Forum Ventures managing partner Michael Cardamone, NY Ventures investor Momo Bi. Hosted by Stacklist and betaworks. Register here.

  • March 15: In-person: NY Enterprise Technology Meetup, with Haystack partner Semil Shah, Cowboy Ventures partner Amanda Robson, Streamdal CEO Ustin Zarubin, and others. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • March 15: In-person: NY Product Meetup, with Regal co-founder, CTO, and head of product Rebecca Greene. Hosted by Productboard. Register here.

  • March 29: Virtual: Exchange: A New Kind of Investor Conference, with A Starting Point co-founder Chris Evans, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, NYU Stern School of Business professor Scott Galloway, and others. Hosted by Public. Register here.

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