taken steps<\/a> to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and Con Edison, saying that stray voltage caused the horse to become agitated.<\/p>\nBy last week, Julie Menin, the Council speaker, and Mr. Mamdani had agreed on the legislation.<\/p>\n
Gaurav Mahajan, Romanch Mahajan\u2019s uncle, fought back tears on Thursday, describing the Council vote as \u201cincredibly bittersweet.\u201d It will not bring his nephew back, he said, but it will \u201censure no other family goes through what we are experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union argues that not only are the horses well cared for and heavily regulated, but that the bill\u2019s provisions for addressing the economic fallout, which include creating a \u201chorse-drawn-cab-industry transition plan\u201d by next April, amount to empty promises.<\/p>\n
John Samuelsen, the T.W.U.\u2019s international president, said on Wednesday that the bill did \u201cnot have any protections in it\u201d for workers. The industry employs roughly 150 drivers, a couple of dozen stable hands and farriers who shoe horses, according to the union.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to give up,\u201d one of those drivers, Onur Altintas, a 41-year-old father from New Jersey, said after the vote. He owns one carriage medallion, which drivers need to operate and for which he said he had paid more than $300,000, and four horses: Shadow, Trigger, Gix and Starlight. He described the city\u2019s carriage horses as cared-for \u201cdomestic animals\u201d who would \u201call go to the slaughterhouse\u201d if the industry was abolished.<\/p>\n
Mr. Samuelsen reiterated his belief that Ms. Menin was using a \u201ccontrived public safety crisis\u201d to cater to real estate interests eager to develop Manhattan parcels now occupied by horse stables. Ms. Menin has denied that accusation.<\/p>\n
Mr. Samuelsen and other critics have repeatedly noted that Mr. Mahajan\u2019s death, while tragic, was the first known death of a carriage passenger in Central Park in the industry\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Those critics include President Trump, a New York native who lamented the Council\u2019s move in a social media post on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Horse-drawn Carriage in New York City is a quintessential New York experience,\u201d Mr. Trump wrote. \u201cSo sad that, for political reasons, we will see it go!\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who oppose the ban have also said that speeding cyclists, including those on e-bikes and pedicabs, pose far greater hazards. Since Mr. Mahajan\u2019s death in June, a cyclist died trying to avoid colliding with an unleashed dog, and a pedestrian was killed after being hit by a cyclist.<\/p>\n
Jim Gennaro, a councilman and self-described equestrian, has argued that provisions for the care of the horses to be retired are inadequate and that finding appropriate homes for them will not be easy. He estimated the cost of caring for a horse at $25,000 a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it takes months to find suitable lifelong accommodation for even one 26-year-old retired horse,\u201d Mr. Gennaro, a Queens Democrat, said in a statement on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
In their letter to city officials on Wednesday, the union\u2019s lawyers said they had ample grounds for a legal challenge, including the absence of any provision in the bill to compensate those who had spent \u201cmany thousands of dollars\u201d to buy carriage medallions from the city.<\/p>\n
The 68 medallions have cost owners as much as $400,000 a piece, according to the union. Should the bill pass, the lawyers wrote, the union would seek a court order blocking it \u201cbefore the ink dries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city\u2019s Law Department, said officials were \u201creviewing the letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident the legislation is grounded in the law and will be prepared to defend it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ms. Menin said on Wednesday that setting the ban\u2019s effective date two years from now gave city officials enough time to help drivers and others employed in the industry to find new jobs and that she was committed to working with the Mamdani administration to achieve that goal.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the mayor said the administration \u201chas been working on a detailed plan for the transition of the work force and industry, and we have begun discussion of compensation for medallion owners.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr. Altintas scoffed. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to find a new job for the 60-years-old person?\u201d he asked. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense, because that person they invested their past and future for that business. That person cannot do that. You know what they\u2019re going to do? They\u2019re going to suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York City Council voted on Thursday to banish horse-drawn carriages from Central Park in two years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,373643,373646,373641,373640,28244,159413,111712,177020,72416,228742,144809,373645,3,21897,361911,270070,373644,373642,21,19,22,20,25,24,146234],"class_list":["post-891412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ariola","tag-central-park-manhattan","tag-city-council-nyc","tag-city-councils","tag-horses","tag-joann","tag-julie","tag-law-and-legislation","tag-layoffs-and-job-reductions","tag-mahajan","tag-mamdani","tag-menin","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-organized-labor","tag-parks-and-other-recreation-areas","tag-romanch-d-2026","tag-transport-workers-union","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zohran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}