{"id":378946,"date":"2026-10-21T22:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378946\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T22:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:32:11","slug":"twu-planning-lawsuit-to-block-nycs-planned-central-park-horse-carriage-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378946\/","title":{"rendered":"TWU planning lawsuit to block NYC’s planned Central Park horse carriage ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

The union representing the roughly 200 owners and drivers in the city\u2019s embattled Central Park carriage horse industry threatened Wednesday to sue should the City Council vote to end the industry, as is expected, on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The legislation \u2014 which would immediately end the issuance of carriage horse licenses<\/a> and outlaw carriage horse rides entirely by the summer of 2028 \u2014 is expected to pass with a veto-proof majority.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople ride in a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill, as it currently stands, is scheduled for a vote tomorrow,\u201d attorneys Arthur Schwartz and Benjamin Kallos wrote on behalf of the Transport Workers Union in a letter to the city\u2019s corporation counsel. \u201cIt includes a mess of Federal and State constitutional violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is enacted as it now stands,\u201d they wrote, \u201cwe will seek a [temporary restraining order] the minute the ink dries.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The letter was also sent to Mayor Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin.<\/p>\n

The union\u2019s attorneys argue that the bill makes significant investments in equipment and licensing effectively worthless, and seeks to take property from the union\u2019s members \u201cwithout just compensation\u201d \u2014 a violation, they contend, of the fifth amendment.<\/p>\n

Efforts to ban the carriage horse industry have gone one for decades, with animal rights activists long criticizing the work as inherently abusive to horses. The movement gained momentum in recent months after the death of Romanch Mahajan<\/a>, an 18-year-old boy killed in Central Park after he fell from a runaway horse-drawn carriage in June.<\/p>\n

\"NYCLASSNYCLASS Executive Director Edita Birnkrant, speaks during a press conference where family members of Romanch Mahajan\u2019s family and animal rights activist call for the passage of Ryder\u2019s Law, also called (Romanch\u2019s Law) in Central Park near Cherry Hill Monday, July 27 2026 in New York, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In a statement issued Wednesday, the Transport Workers Union\u2019s international president John Samuelsen called the proposed bill \u201ctheft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill is a train wreck of constitutional and due process violations,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cIt offers nothing concrete for blue-collar drivers and carriage owners who will be financially crushed<\/a>, stripped of their jobs, their licenses, expensive city-issued medallions, small businesses and way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not progressive,\u201d he continued, \u201cIt is anti-worker. It\u2019s theft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WASHINGTON,John Samuelsen of Transport Workers Union. (Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Jack Lobel, a spokesperson for Menin, said that the speaker was \u201cclear\u201d that a sunsetting of the industry would include \u201cmeaningful protections\u201d for workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough thoughtful conversations with labor and other stakeholders, the Council developed a framework to ensure better economic opportunities for these New Yorkers,\u201d Lobel said. \u201cAs the Administration implements the plan, Speaker Menin\u2019s office will remain engaged in the transition process, including through a new joint working group that she has invited TWU and the Administration to join.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Mamdani referred comment to the Law Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reviewing the letter. We are confident the legislation is grounded in the law and will be prepared to defend it,\u201d Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesperson for the Law Department, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Also on Wednesday, Councilmember Joann Ariola withdrew her support for the bill, removing her name as a co-sponsor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can no longer support a carriage horse ban that fails to give the same level of consideration to the hardworking carriage drivers whose livelihoods are at stake,\u201d the Queens Republican said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The union representing the roughly 200 owners and drivers in the city\u2019s embattled Central Park carriage horse industry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85,267,9,24,55,54,264,10,12,56,608],"class_list":["post-378946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378946","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=378946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}