The Tenant from hell...

It took a while, but finally the Central Park Conservancy is advocating for a ban of the horse-drawn carriage trade

The campaign to end horse-drawn carriages in New York has been ongoing for decades. In 2006, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages was formed in response to the death of Spotty, a young horse who spooked and bolted at 9th Avenue and 50th Street, crashing into a station wagon. But while this was the first campaign dedicated to shutting down the carriage trade, activism had existed for decades prior.

The Political Power of NYC’s Carriage Business — a bare-bones history excerpted from the Carriage Horse Action Committee covers the highlights from 1935 to 2006.

The Coalition was very active from 2006 to 2016 and for several years after. NYClass has been keeping the issue alive.

For all that time, the Central Park Conservancy took a neutral stance on the carriage horse business, even though the horses worked most of the day in Central Park, where there were many accidents.

Now things have changed, and the Conservancy has finally come out officially as opposed to the carriage horses in Central Park.

This news got a lot of media coverage, but some of the best coverage was in w42st. com - by Catie Savage and Phil O'Brien - “Central Park Conservancy Urges City to ‘turn the page on Horse-Drawn Carriages.”

from the article …

The Central Park Conservancy — manager and steward of New York’s most visited public space — has ended years of neutrality and formally called for a ban on horse-drawn carriages, saying the practice is “no longer compatible with the realities of a modern, heavily used and shared public space.”

In a letter sent Tuesday to Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Conservancy President and CEO Betsy Smith said the growing number of incidents involving carriage horses, the damage they cause to the park’s roads, and repeated violations of city rules have reached a breaking point.

“Central Park welcomes more than 42 million visitors each year, a number that continues to grow,” Smith wrote. “As manager and steward of the Park, the Central Park Conservancy is responsible for ensuring this treasured landscape remains safe, clean, and accessible to all. The public safety risks, infrastructure damage, and repeated violations of city regulations caused by horse-drawn carriages can no longer be ignored.”

“We do not take this position lightly,” Betsy Smith, the conservancy’s president, wrote in a letter to the mayor and Council speaker, “but with visitation to the park growing to record levels, we feel strongly that banning horse carriages has become a matter of public health and safety for park visitors.”

“Simply put, this practice is no longer compatible with the realities of a modern, heavily used and shared public space,” Ms. Smith said in a separate statement. “We believe it’s time to turn the page, as most major cities already have.”

NY Times: by Ed Shanahan 8/12/25 - Central Park Leaders ask NYC officials to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages

“The public safety risks, infrastructure damage, and repeated violations of city regulations caused by horse-drawn carriages can no longer be ignored.” - This is like a landlord who has put up with a bad tenant forever and now wants to cut the ties.

From the NYDaily News - Central Park Conservancy calls on NYC to end horse-drawn carriages in park

Mayor Eric Adams is running for reelection, but is running last in the polls. It will be interesting to see how he handles a meeting with stakeholders.

In his four years in office, as far as I know, Mayor Adams has never met with advocates who want to ban horse-drawn carriages. Speaker Adrienne Adams, who also received the letter, has not supported a ban and has not allowed a hearing of Ryders Law - Intro 967.

Animal Matters’ recent substack

THE NYC CARRIAGE HORSE ISSUE and CENTRAL PARK