18-year-old Romanch Mahajan<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe legislation \u2014 which Menin said she expected the 51-member council to pass with a veto-proof majority next week \u2014 includes vague language about sending the 160 carriage horses to rescue farms and sanctuaries.<\/p>\n
Adamski, here with horse Scout, fears she\u2019ll be homeless in a few years. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
The bill states the city must create a workforce transition program involving career counseling and job referrals in the public and private sectors \u2014 but falls short of offering compensation for the workers, some of whom have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to build up their businesses, according to their union.<\/p>\n
When pressed on the issue Wednesday, Mamdani remained ambiguous, only promising that \u201cwe are not leaving anybody out to dry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are having a broad conversation about what that can look like so that none of these workers and owners are the ones who are made to pay for the sunsetting of an industry,\u201d Hizzoner said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be very clear that our commitment to the workforce is going to be one that will become more explicit than what is broadly gestured at in the legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony Moran devoted four decades of his life into his horse carriage career. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
But some horse-drawn carriage operators griped that they were largely ignored during discussions over the bill, saying they\u2019ve lost faith in politicians, including Mamdani \u2014 whom many of the industry\u2019s employees excitedly voted into office for his promises to uplift the working class.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really upset to hear about the ban. I love my work, I love horses, I love Central Park, I love people,\u201d said Emrah Eogru, 48, an immigrant from Turkey who has worked as a hansome cabbie for four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have any idea after this work. I don\u2019t know, but we\u2019ll see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fellow cabbie Tony Moran, 63, said the drivers \u201cdon\u2019t even know what\u2019s going on\u201d with the bill \u2014 despite workers like himself investing 40 years to support his family of six.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoliticians are dirty people,\u201d another carriage driver, who asked to remain anonymous, said as he and horse Apollo pulled tourists around Central Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love my work, I love horses, I love Central Park, I love people,\u201d said driver Emrah Dogru. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
Mayor Mamdani remained vague about the future for carriage horse drivers, but promised they wouldn\u2019t be left \u201cout to dry.\u201d Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy you have to take my job now? You want to ban the horse because somebody died? How many people get hit in the street? You want to ban that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another driver, who also asked for anonymity, fumed: \u201cI\u2019m not educated. I\u2019m not skilled to do another job. City council members said, \u201dWe\u2019re going to give you another job\u2019\u2026 they lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s illegal what they\u2019re doing. They don\u2019t negotiate with us, they\u2019re not negotiating for anything, they want to get rid of us,\u201d the 67-year-old carriage operator said.<\/p>\n
The Transport Workers Union has vowed to fight the legislation ahead of the October 22nd council vote, saying the bill would be economically devastating and accusing Menin of using \u201cthe tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil Speaker Menin\u2019s bill has no meaningful economic relief for workers. It only says the city should prepare a worker transition plan by April 2027 and include weak measures like job fairs and job counseling,\u201d TWU President John Samuelsen said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families\u2019 livelihoods are being destroyed,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cThis entire situation is reprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re being sent out to pasture. Central Park\u2019s horse-drawn carriage drivers said they feel \u201cbetrayed\u201d and forgotten Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[301,8395,11634,57,9,24,55,197,54,56,3555,58,82],"class_list":["post-373328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city-council","tag-horse-carriages","tag-horses","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-unions","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}