NY: Mamdani to name Midori Valdivia new head of Taxi and Limousine Commission

Mayor Mamdani nominated Midori Valdivia as commissioner and chairwoman of the city’s Taxi &  Limousine Commission on Tuesday night, as first reported by the Daily News.

The mayor made the announcement at LaGuardia Airport — a major hub for taxi and rideshare drivers — surrounded by members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Mamdani described Valdivia as a “forceful champion” for working drivers.

Valdivia, who currently sits on the board of the MTA, is a former deputy commissioner at the TLC, which regulates the city’s yellow cabs, liveries, Ubers and Lyfts. She served as the TLC’s commissioner for finance and administration from 2015 to 2017.

“Few New Yorkers can boast the extensive transportation background that Midori possesses,” Mamdani said. “She deeply loves transit in this city, and she sees it as the foundation of the vibrant place that we call home.”

“I have appointed her not only for her experience, but frankly also for her vision,” he added. “It is a vision of a New York City where those who drive our people are not passengers in their own life.”

Valdivia must be confirmed by the City Council before she can lead the agency. If she is, she will replace outgoing TLC Chairman David Do.

“I’m honored to be nominated today,” Valdivia told reporters. “If confirmed, I commit to an agenda that works to provide a for-hire economy that serves all New Yorkers.”

Valdivia’s TLC appointment comes after she was also under consideration to become Mamdani’s deputy mayor for operations or transportation commissioner, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Ultimately, Mamdani picked Julia Kerson, a former infrastructure adviser to Gov. Hochul, as his deputy for operations, and transit expert Mike Flynn as transportation commissioner.

In Valdivia, Kerson and Flynn, Mamdani has three advisers with extensive experience in public transit — a deep bench that could be key for him as he seeks to make good on his promise to make the city’s public buses fast and free.

But Mamdani also has a history of fiercely backing taxi workers — a reputation that will put a close eye on his pick to lead the industry’s regulation.

As an Assembly member, Mamdani was among the half dozen elected officials arrested while rallying for better debt relief for taxi drivers in 2021. During those protests he also joined the drivers on a hunger strike, a tactic that ultimately drove then-Mayor Bill de Blasio to cap debt payments for the drivers suffering under the taxi medallion crisis.

Bhairavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, lauded Valdivia from the lectern Tuesday.

“I believe in the moral fortitude of Midori Valdivia,” Desai said. “The TLC looms large in the lives of ever single driver. We finally have a TLC under a mayor who has our back.”

In addition to serving on the MTA board and the TLC, Valdivia has held many roles in New York City-area transit.

She cut her teeth at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, starting as a fellow in 2008 before rising to become a senior adviser to the bistate agency’s executive director.

After leaving the TLC in 2017, Valdivia served as the chief of staff to two MTA chairmen, Joe Lhota and Patrick Foye, before departing in 2020.

Valdivia then opened her own transportation and urban planning consultancy firm in 2020. She has kept running that firm since ex-Mayor Eric Adams named her to the MTA board in 2022.

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