Even though Mayor Bill de Blasio promised "action" on his campaign promise to ban carriage horses in 2014, a ban on the beloved, controversial diversion never happened. Now, it appears the mayor's office is floating a trial balloon, with the NY Times reporting that de Blasio has a new plan to simply reduce the number of carriage horses.
From the Times:
Reviving a cause that some supporters had hoped he would abandon, the mayor has proposed shrinking the number of horses allowed to ply the park from 220 to just a few dozen, and moving their home from the West Side of Manhattan to a stable inside Central Park — minimizing their exposure to traffic on city streets.
The plan, described by people familiar with its details, is an unexpected return by Mr. de Blasio to an issue embraced by some of his most generous political contributors, but unpopular among the broader public. A majority of New Yorkers have consistently opposed the mayor’s attempts to remove the horses.
During the 2013 primary, activists against carriages horses donated heavily to de Blasio's campaign while criticizing then-City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's pro-carriage horse stance. De Blasio said during a mayoral forum, "I would ban the horse carriages in Central Park within the first week on the job."
In the meantime, the carriage horse industry has offered its own studies and enlisted Hollywood's Liam Neeson to support its cause.
A carriage driver told the Post, "I completely disagree with" the new proposal. "To me, that’s going to ruin our business... It’s all or nothing for us."
And some in the mayor's circle aren't happy either: The Times got one telling reaction, "This summer, the ban on carriage horses appeared all but dead after Mr. de Blasio instructed advocates to lobby the City Council directly, arguing that he lacked the power to change the industry on his own. Privately, some mayoral allies greeted those remarks with relief. Told on Tuesday of the revived effort, one aide replied, 'Ugh.'"
New Yorkers are generally pro-carriage horse.
