Bill De Blasio: Horse Drawn Carriage Industry ‘Over’
Mayor Bill de Blasio will be sworn in tomorrow as New York City’s 109th Mayor. He has an aggressive agenda including tax hikes on the rich, police reform and ending horse drawn carriage rides around Central Park. Wait a minute, really? Yes you read that right. Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio has put New York City’s horse drawn carriage owners on notice that their industry is going to be done.
Bill de Blasio was at a press conference announcing his pick for schools chancellor on Monday when he was asked about Central Park’s horse drawn carriages.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio said:
“We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period. It’s over”.
De Blasio says that he is going to work with the owners of the horse drawn carriages to come up with alternative vehicles to use to bring tourists on scenic visits of Central Park, but that will not include live animals. Mayor-Elect de Blasio an various animal rights activists have long said that it is completely inhumane to force horses to walk on dangerous Manhattan streets. They say with the noise and the cars that the horses are constantly at risk for injury and stress.
The Central park horse drawn carriage drivers wildly disagree with de Blasio though. The drivers claim that the horse are well cared for, housed in beautiful stables and that they are not threatened by the city life.
The Daily News reported on Sunday that tourists are flocking to Central Park to get a ride in a horse drawn carriage before it is too late and the industry is relegated to the trash can of history.
How do you feel about the horse drawn carriage industry and is this really an issue that should be given such priority by a new incoming mayor like Bill de Blasio?
