Ira Goldstein, Executive Director of The New York Black Car Fund, received two prestigious accolades in recent months: He was named among City & State’s Transportation Power 100, and was recognized in City & State’s Inaugural Class of Above & Beyond Innovators.

The Transportation Power 100 is a list the media outlet calls “the most important figures navigating this complex and complicated transportation ecosystem: the builders behind gleaming new airport terminals, revamped train stations and reconfigured roadways, the activists and advocates speaking out on behalf of cyclists, pedestrians and people with disabilities, and the experts and officials reshaping transit and transportation policies for the next generation.”

In Mr. Goldstein’s bio, City & State noted: “Ira Goldstein’s Black Car Fund serves some 70,000 for-hire drivers in New York, providing safety and health care programs and workers’ compensation insurance. In response to COVID-19, the nonprofit distributed 20,000 personal protective equipment kits to black car and livery drivers, and got the state to pass a surcharge to help the independent contractors access health benefits. Last year, Goldstein partnered with Nexar to install vehicle cameras to protect drivers from attacks. He also lobbied for a three-year extension of benefits like vision coverage and dental exams in Albany this year.”

Mr. Goldstein’s other honor also came from City & State, which gave him an Above & Beyond Innovators award, which is given to “New Yorkers who are disrupting the status quo and driving transformative change.” The list recognizes what it calls “the transformative work that leaders in government, business and the nonprofit sector have done to improve the lives of New Yorkers across the state.”

According to Mr. Goldstein, helping independent workers who may not always have a safety net “also allows the public to have more confidence in the drivers, so that when they’re getting in the car, they’re well taken care of and that it’s safe.”

Source: City & State New York

Article by Black Car News

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