These workers offer food delivery without contact, but have many contacts with each other.
A group of couriers, many carrying red and black Grubhub bags, were packing into the small West Village square to wait for their next escape, sitting shoulder to shoulder – some without masks – and often joking or arguing.
Some residents are enough.
“I said, it was a nightmare,” said a woman whose apartment faced Mulry Square on the corner of Seventh and Greenwich.
Neighbors said as many as 20 deliveries and their bikes crammed into the park from around 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. He said he heard them scream and watched them without masks, sometimes sneezing, and getting too close to each other.
“They certainly do not push away, which is outrageous,” he said, adding that he would never order food through the Grubhub application.
Other residents said workers also collected a block away on Bank Street and Greenwich Avenue.
“It is very troublesome if my road becomes an employee waiting room for Grubhub,” said the woman. “Grubhub needs to regulate it.”
The food delivery application is already in jeopardy due to restaurant fees, with the City Council choosing this month to cover costs.
Mulry Square, which is across the street from St. Hospital. Old Vincent, is a memorial site called Tile 9/11 for America. Warning tiles hang on the fence at the location and are stored on a bus parked on Seventh Avenue which functions as a kind of museum.
Workers also hang out at the New York City AIDS Warning Park across the street. Some residents said they tried to avoid it.
“I certainly will not sit near them,” said Barbara Chernick, 72, a retiree, heading to the AIDS Memorial. “They don’t wear masks. There is a large group.”
Others preferred the meeting, saying that crowds outside the Village restaurant serving take-out cocktails were more of a nuisance.
“That’s worse,” one woman said. “These people are walking.” These people are just waiting to be called. “
A group of sending workers refused to answer any questions on Thursday or even confirmed they were working for Grubhub.
Grubhub did not respond to requests for comment.
