As stress mounts to finish town’s horse-drawn carriage rides as soon as and for all, lawmakers are working to develop a jobs plan for the trade’s drivers — however the proposal on the desk to retire the enduring vacationer commerce is gentle on specifics.
That proposal was on the coronary heart of hours of testimony on the Metropolis Council on Wednesday, as lawmakers heard from the daddy of a teenage vacationer flung to his dying from a horse-drawn carriage final month. Testifying remotely from India, Deepak Mahajan pleaded with Council members to make sure his son is the “final sufferer” of an trade that has been an emblem of Central Park for the reason that 1850s.
He mentioned his 18-year-old son, Romanch, may nonetheless be alive if the Council had acted final 12 months on a earlier legislative proposal to take away carriages from the park.
“We’re asking you plainly: Act now,” Mahajan mentioned whereas his spouse, Priya, held a photograph of their oldest son. “A model of this regulation sat earlier than this Council final 12 months, and if it had handed the carriages would have stopped on June 1, 2026.”
“Romanch died on June 17.”
The listening to on the proposal, now renamed “Romanch’s Legislation,” drew an overflow crowd to each ranges of the Council chamber at Metropolis Corridor.
The teenager’s aunt, Sovia Thurkal, broke down in tears in entrance of the Council as she detailed a June 17 telephone name along with her brother, “anticipating to listen to that they have been having a beautiful day.”
As a substitute, she mentioned she heard Mahajan begging for individuals on the scene to avoid wasting his son.
“These screams, these cries, these sounds of agony and determined sounds haven’t left me and I’m positive they may by no means go away me,” she mentioned.
The newest push to rid the park of 68 horse-drawn carriages and greater than 200 licensed horse-carriage drivers gained momentum this week when Council Speaker Julie Menin got here out in favor of the proposal to wind down the trade inside two years and discover new jobs for affected employees. Transport Employees Union Native 100, which represents most of the drivers, fiercely opposes the ban.
The invoice’s sponsor, Councilmember Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan), mentioned the carnage extends far past Romanch’s dying.
“Each time an incident happens, we’re given an excuse, we’re instructed that is simply an remoted incident and that the trade is totally protected,” he testified. “However the actuality is that previously 34 years, there have been 128 documented horse carriage accidents, 30 horses have died, dozens of horses and other people have been injured and hospitalized.”
The help from Menin and Majority Chief Shaun Abreu got here after the Central Park Conservancy, which oversees the 843-acre park, final August pushed for a ban for the primary time. Such a transfer would put town in step with others, similar to Seattle and Philadelphia, which have outlawed horse-drawn carriages.
‘Simply Transition’ for Drivers
A central tenet of the Metropolis Council’s proposal is that town can be answerable for coaching and connecting drivers and secure operators with new jobs by 2028, when the ban can be in full impact.
However simply what precisely these jobs can be isn’t clear.
In a video posted to her social media account Tuesday, Menin mentioned she is “actively engaged on a plan to ensure them high quality employment alternatives within the hospitality trade.” The announcement apparently shocked leaders of town’s largest hospitality union, which shortly moved to distance itself from the problem.
An official with the Lodge and Gaming Trades Council, which represents hundreds of hospitality employees within the metropolis and area, instructed The Metropolis Reporter the union isn’t concerned in talks with Menin on the proposed ban. HTC has not taken a public place on the invoice.
Horse carriage drivers function equally to taxi drivers: They personal medallions permitting them to function within the metropolis, and plenty of should not have direct employers. The employees are usually not sure by a collective bargaining settlement however pay dues to TWU Native 100.
The native’s president, John Chiarello, mentioned he’s in the dead of night about what different employment might appear to be.
“So far as union jobs, I don’t even know what that appears like and I don’t know what it’s,” Chiarello mentioned. “However when you’re a horse and carriage driver, I don’t suppose you wish to be a bunch at a racino, I don’t suppose you’re seeking to do resort bellhopping or reception.”
Lawmakers have been working behind the scenes with the mayor’s workforce improvement workplace to provide you with a jobs and coaching plan for the drivers, a supply conversant in the talks instructed The Metropolis Reporter.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has mentioned he favors the ban however desires the proposal “to ship a simply transition that protects employees.”
‘A Means of Life’
In entrance of the West Facet Livery Stables on West thirty eighth Road on Wednesday, carriage driver Louis Kammer, 60, mentioned he’s sweating his future after working as a carriage horse driver for 32 years.
“I really like the horse, I really like the individuals, I really like Central Park,” he mentioned. “I feel it’s a lifestyle.”
However Kammer mentioned he’s at a loss about what else he may do for a dwelling.
“I simply wish to hold doing what I do,” he mentioned.
In its place, union leaders are pushing a separate proposal from Councilmember James Gennaro (D-Queens) that might hold the horse carriages and save employee jobs, however amend morning hours when carriages function and set up hitching posts all through the park.
“We went into the pandemic with 68 carriages and three stables and we got here out with 68 carriages and three stables,” mentioned horse-carriage driver Christina Hansen, a TWU Native 100 consultant. “Consider all of the New York Metropolis companies that we misplaced and now you’re sitting right here and making an attempt to lose one other one.”
David Saltonstall, the Central Park Conservancy’s vp for presidency relations and coverage, pointed to eight incidents within the park which have concerned working horses since Could 2025.
“The park isn’t constructed for the amount of individuals we welcome daily to share safely with half-ton animals whose pure intuition is to bolt when spooked,” he mentioned. “No quantity of regulation and no single piece of {hardware} can appropriate for an animal’s primary instincts.”
Further reporting by Carol Chen.
