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

Mayor Mamdani is expected to name Midori Valdivia as the commissioner of the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, the Daily News has learned.

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.

Mamdani is expected to make the announcement Tuesday night at LaGuardia Airport, a major hub for taxi and rideshare-app drivers.

Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec declined to comment ahead of the expected announcement, as did Bhairavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance and a member of the Mamdani transition team.

Valdivia herself could not be reached.

Valdivia’s TLC appointment comes after she was also under consideration to become Mamdani’s deputy mayor for operations or Department of 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 DOT 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 de Blasio to cap debt payments for the drivers suffering under the taxi medallion crisis.

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 bi-state agency’s executive director.

After leaving the TLC in 2017, Valdivia served as the chief of staff to two MTA chairmen, Joe Lhota and Pat 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.