Hold your horses, Mr. Mayor
The Teamsters have spoken, as have parks preservationists, fellow lawmakers and many New Yorkers. Your quixotic quest to curb the horse-carriage industry in Manhattan has failed and it’s time to direct your focus to the real problems bedeviling the city.
If we believed this was a noble effort to save the working horses, then your determination to push the carriages off the street and into Central Park might be understandable. But your mayoral crusade was rooted in political giving and beholden to the powerful pro-animal group that helped underwrite your journey to Gracie Mansion.
This has been a costly blow for a first-term mayor, who led a questionable campaign to banish an industry that has widespread support among residents and employs a significant number of drivers from Queens.
After the Teamsters union pulled its support for the deal late last week, the City Council canceled its vote on the bill to reduce the number of horse carriages by about half and build a $25 million stable in the park. Some Council members balked at supporting the bill without the Teamsters’ blessing amid the outcry that a commercial enterprise should not be located on parkland in Central Park.
It was a lose-lose situation and now, Mr. Mayor, the city needs your full-time attention on more pressing issues such as building more affordable housing, getting guns off the streets and reducing bloated class sizes in western Queens.
The city is facing major public transportation problems, which have evolved well beyond the horse-and-carriage era. Your proposal for a streetcar between Brooklyn and Queens sounds promising if it is practical. The idea of linking public housing areas and the richer neighborhoods along the East River on a single line would be a happy ending to your tale of two cities. Add the promised ferry lines to the mix and riders might actually get a seat one day on the No. 7 train as it rumbles through Queens.
There is also a lesson for Queens in the horse carriage bill defeat. The opposition, particularly the founder of the Central Park Conservancy, spun a powerful argument that parkland should not be used to make a profit for private enterprise. Developers of the retail and entertainment complex planned for Willets Point have appealed an appellate ruling that blocked the project because it is on parkland. The mayor has refused to join the appeal.
So our message to you, Mr. Mayor, is to leave the horses behind and move on.
