The City Council could decide Thursday whether to advance Romanch\u2019s Law, a proposal that would end horse carriage rides by June 2028.<\/p>\n
The bill, which is named for an 18-year-old who died after a runaway carriage incident in Central Park, would also create a program to help owners find humane placements for the horses.<\/p>\n
Its sponsor has said the measure is about safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing we need is to fear that a horse is going to be spooked and we\u2019re going to lose another life,\u201d Council Member Christopher Marte said at a rally last week.<\/p>\n
For carriage driver Alexus Lawson, the proposal could affect both her job and her relationship with Starlight, the 7-year-old horse she works with.<\/p>\n
Lawson has driven horse carriages for 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re trying to rip away my livelihood with my best friend, my family, and you won\u2019t even look me in the eye while you try to do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lawson and Starlight finished another shift in Central Park before heading back through Hell\u2019s Kitchen to the stable on 52nd Street.<\/p>\n
She said the rides remain meaningful for visitors, especially children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe children are always pointing and saying, \u2018Horsey, Horsey,\u2019\u201d Lawson said. \u201cAnd that is adorable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters of the ban rallied with chants of \u201cCarriage ban is on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawson said she worries about what would happen to the horses if the industry can no longer operate in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we cannot work here, how can people afford to keep those horses?\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n
The bill calls for a program to help owners find humane placements for their horses if carriage rides end.<\/p>\n
Lawson said the change would erase the work she has known for a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of this would be gone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lawson said she is not ready to give up as the City Council considers the proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am never one to put my hands up and admit defeat unless it\u2019s directly in front of my face, and I will still find a way to go right back at it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council could decide Thursday whether to advance Romanch\u2019s Law, a proposal that would end horse carriage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[25,388,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,27,200],"class_list":["post-379242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-top-stories","tag-louis-finley","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379242","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=379242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}