Patricia N. Saffran
There is no logical basis for banning the horse drawn carriage industry in New York City. Notwithstanding, the NY City Council is holding a hearing based on “Romanch’s Law,” attempting to do exactly that. The event could wind up being a ‘show trial’ with a predetermined negative outcome. The two fairly recent deaths of Lady and Ryder were only natural deaths. The death of carriage horse Deniz from poisoning was due to toxic yew plants placed by the Central Park Conservancy at 90th St. These plants don’t belong in the park at all, and there was no warning sign such as – yew plants, poisonous to some animals.
As to the unfortunate accident involving tourist Romanch Mahajan, the Central Park Conservancy can probably be blamed for that as well. They recently changed their rules to allow reckless speeding e-bikers and motorized pedicabs in what had been the horses only lane. Now that is asking for trouble, which is exactly what happened. The horse Samson, involved in the accident, is intelligent and will not spook without a reason. The NYPD has not released an investigative report which they may or may not have done. A question, was the accident with the horse spooking caused by a zooming e-biker in the horse’s lane going 40 miles per hour?
Motorized vehicles don’t belong in the parks at all according to the original parks’ regulations. Further, when the Central Park Conservancy changed the rule, they knew that the new rule was unsafe as they never asked the NYC Department of Health equine veterinarians to approve it, which the veterinarians would never have done.
In addition, the City Council does not care at all about the 20 deaths on average per year from e-bike accidents. They have no plans to eliminate the dangerous e-bikers, whereas the City is on the rampage after the first death ever from a carriage horse accident, likely caused by the rule change by the Central Park Conservancy. The Conservancy has attempted to bolster their desire for a ban by
funding a poll which says a majority agree with the ban.
Unfortunately, the public is not informed about the issues and is being swayed by confusing press coverage with inaccurate statements from the animal lobbyists and some NY City Council members. The poll does not seem accurate either. It says 68% of 800 people are for the ban and they consider frequent use of the park to be just a few times a year! It’s indicative of the Conservancy’s drive to ban the horses.
As to the horses’ staging areas at 6th and 7th Avenues, it’s the motorized pedicab drivers who have been scamming tourists in what should be the horses only staging areas, not the carriage drivers. The pedicab drivers have also been attacking and bullying the carriage drivers without any help from the NYPD to intervene.
There’s also the issue of the NY City Council ban effectively eliminating the carriage drivers’ livelihood. While they claim to offer the carriage drivers alternative employment, no jobs in the city are comparable to carriage driving. Driving a motorized vehicle of any kind, that had once been proposed, has no affinity whatsoever with equestrian skills. If successful with Romanch’s Law, the NY City Council would be putting 300 hundred blue collar workers out of business without any parachute, and it was thought that Mayor Mamdani, as a socialist who supports the ban, was for workers’ rights.
The ultimate goal of the ban by the City Council, joining with animal lobbying groups, has always been for their real estate backers to obtain the valuable stables, sitting on land they’ve been longing to develop.
Tourist Scott Mate of Rochester, NY, said recently, “Every time we come to New York we take a carriage ride. I love it. I’d be very upset if they ban the carriage horses. They’d be destroying part of New York’s history and culture.”
Posted for Patricia:
Just received the Daily News article below. One reaction to my articles on the carriage horses – “money talks.”
Now Speaker Julie Menin is revealing that her billionaire real estate husband and the greedy real estate developers, who want the stable properties on the sly, are likely motivating her actions. The arguments are so weak for the carriage horse ban. If you read my articles you would have seen that the City Council along with the Central Park Conservancy and NYPD made Central Park unsafe and may have been the cause of the unfortunate fatal accident of tourist Romanch by allowing motorized pedicabs and zooming e-bikers in the same lane that had been exclusively for horses.
Council member James Gennaro’s bill, while well intended, never addresses going back to the original parks rules of not allowing motorized vehicles in the parks, which are totally unsafe. Julie and many on the City Council and mayor are simply unethical, covering up for their real estate backers. They also seek to destroy New York and Central Park history with their ignorant, uncultured leftist ideas and actions. – Patty Saffran
NYC Council speaker backs ban on horse carriages ahead of hearing/NY Daily News
By Josephine Stratman: Evan Simko-Bednarski
UPDATED: July 14, 2026 at 6:41 PM ET
City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced her support late Tuesday for a bill that would end the New York City carriage horse industry — with the Council set to hold a hearing on the legislative effort Wednesday morning. The legislative effort — nicknamed Romanch’s Law, after the teenager killed by a bolting horse last month — would ban the issuing of new licenses for carriage horse operators, and would fully end horse-drawn carriage tours by June 2028. “Last month, 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan was killed after he was thrown from a horse-drawn carriage while visiting New York City to celebrate his high school graduation. His death was heartbreaking, and it was preventable,” Menin (D- Manhattan) said in a statement.
Speaker Julie Menin is pictured during a press conference at City Hall on June 30, 2026. (Emil Cohen / NYC Council Media Unitt)
“That tragedy is why I have decided to support Romanch’s Law, legislation that would begin the transition away from horse-drawn carriages as a tourist attraction in Central Park — for the safety of New Yorkers, visitors from around the world and the horses themselves,” she said. The bill is the latest in a years-long effort by animal rights activists and others to ban the carriage rides, which have long been associated with tourism in Central Park. Opponents of the industry have characterized the work as inherently abusive to the horses and dangerous to bystanders. The bill, previously named Ryder’s Law after a horse that died in 2022, has received a groundswell of additional support since the June death of Mahajan. A photo of Romanch Mahajan hangs from the lectern among news microphones… More
Mahajan, 18, had traveled to New York City with his family from India. He, his little brother and their parents were sitting in a horse-drawn carriage during a sightseeing tour when the driver offered to take their photo. While the driver was out of the carriage, the horse bolted — tossing Mahajan’s mother from the vehicle. The teen jumped after her, but hit his head along the way, knocking him unconscious. He died a short time later. The death — the first recorded human fatality in Gotham’s carriage-horse industry — shocked the city. Mahajan’s family called on the City Council and Mayor Mamdani to ban carriage horses immediately. Menin scheduled a hearing on the proposed carriage-horse ban, while a separate piece of proposed legislation — a bill put forth by Council Member James Gennaro (D-Queens) intended to improve driver training, install hitching posts in the park and study industry best practices — appeared to be on ice.
The aftermath of an out-of-control horse-drawn carriage is pictured in Central Park on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Obtained by Daily News)
In the weeks since, two Council members who had signed on as co-sponsors of the Gennaro bill — Health Committee Chairperson Lynn Schulman (D-Queens) and Oswald Feliz (D- Bronx) — signed on to be co-sponsors of Romach’s Law. Kamillah Hanks (D-Staten Island) and Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn) have also signed on in the past week. “I’m obviously supportive of both, but I think given what we continue to see, including the real public safety risks that are being created due to these rides, I think it’s time to take the broader approach, which is just to ban the rides,” Feliz told The News. In all, 21 of the city’s 51 Council members, not including Menin, had signed on as co-sponsors as of Tuesday evening. Council member Christopher Marte, the sponsor of Romanch’s Law, praised the speaker for backing the bill. “I want to thank Speaker Menin for her support of Romanch’s Law and for her leadership in recognizing the urgency of this moment,” Marte said in a statement. “Romanch’s death was preventable, and the speaker’s leadership brings us closer to finally ending an industry that has put passengers, workers, parkgoers and horses at risk for too long.” Mayor Mamdani, both on the campaign trail and as mayor, has been supportive of a ban on horse carriages. Mamdani told reporters Tuesday that he supports “the spirit of the bill,” but said he was “critical of the insufficiencies of the worker protections” The mayor said his office would be working with the Council “to address those concerns.”
A representative of the Transport Workers Union, which represents some 150 carriage horse owners and drivers, said Tuesday that “the mayor is right to be concerned about worker protecti.” Alexander Kemp, TWU Local 100’s administrative vice president, argued the bill had no protections for the carriage owners and drivers. The proposed legislation would require the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to administer a workforce development program for those who currently own or drive carriage horses. But in a statement to The News Tuesday, Kemp said such a program “would do nothing to put food on the tables of drivers and their families, or alleviate the debt they went into so they could obtain medallions from the city” In a letter to the City Council Tuesday, Kemp asked the Council to reconsider taking up Council member Gennaro’s bill, which would require safety studies and greater enforcement, but allow the industry to continue. “Instead of rushing to discard workers’ livelihoods and an age-old New York tradition, I urge the City Council to pause efforts to ban this industry, which would cause so much collateral damage.” Kemp wrote. “The Council can instead govern and enact new safety measures, including enhanced driver training, tougher driver exams and installation of hitching posts.”
Originally Published: July 14, 2026 at 5:58 PM ET
Keericed, Jim…even the writer of an article cannot log on and make a comment. “I’ll try to do better” ….yeah right. What the hell is the sense of a comment section if no one can comment…..and then, on that recent thread, “comments are closed”. Stop blaming it on the bots and get a better webmaster or whatever. No offense, Jack….but this has gone on FAR too long.
Geez!!!
Close…..1st choice .. nun and put it all together.
Toni, I tried to comment on your post, but it says, “comments are closed”
You were very fortunate to see Bob….last I caught him was in Orlando in 2018. He did not come to Florida this year. Trust your mom is doing well.
Why would the comments be closed? Never saw that before.
My mom is still having small strokes, but seems fine in between, though weaker. I don’t know what’s going on. She’ll see her doctor this week.
Yesterday was 100 degrees, but it’s downhill, temperature-wise, from here. You should see my tomatoes which I put under shade this year. They are beautiful!
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Yeah…..comments closed”…beats me. I am only commenting to communicate with you, otherwise it’s not worth the hassle. Good to hear your mother is
raging against the dying of the light.
Temp wise, this summer has been ridiculous. My neighbor has gotten me into hydroponics…you would not believe the abundance and lack of labor. BUT, you have to do it in a greenhouse or the rain dilutes the mixture and you have to keep re-doing it. That will be my next years project
One of my favorite shots of Dylan. My neighbors daughter has seen him 6 times this year in various places.
If you care to use email, new one is “love never ends” (in latin) @proton.me.
I tried the google translation in your email, but I must have got it wrong because I got a failure notice back.
This is what I used: amor numquam finitur
Maybe this is really it? caritas numquam excidit
Amornunquamfinitur