Mayor Bill de Blasio’s quixotic quest to ban horse carriages from Central Park appears to have ended with a quiet fizzle after he made it his top priority on “Day One” of his new administration.
Embarrassing, yes, for the City Hall chief, but not surprising as the saga widened to include federal and state investigations into the mayor’s fund-raising practices. NYClass, the animal rights group promoting de Blasio’s anti-carriage agenda and a major donor, says it is a cooperating witness in the pending probes.
Last week the city Department of Consumer Affairs issued the death warrant for the buggy ban, raising the cost of a carriage ride by about 8 percent as part of a City Council bill that passed during the Bloomberg era.
It was the first rate hike in six years for the drivers, many of whom live in northeast Queens. The cost-of-living raise had been on hold as de Blasio did battle with the carriage industry in a campaign opposed by a majority of New Yorkers.
In fact, the mayor’s crusade died in February, when the Teamsters dropped their support for a bill to reduce the number of horses on city streets and build a stable in Central Park. The City Council canceled a vote on the legislation in a defeat for de Blasio.
In March, City Hall began renewing the drivers’ licenses in what the administration termed a legal obligation and the industry viewed as a victory.
On the losing side, NYClass has been defeated in its bid to rid Manhattan streets of the carriages and is now caught up in the inquiries into the mayor’s campaign finance tactics. NYClass directed hundreds of thousands of dollars to de Blasio’s election campaign back in 2013 and to an independent organization the mayor set up to foster his own causes.
At issue is whether there was a quid pro quo.
NYClass unleashed attack ads at Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who lost to de Blasio in the mayoral primary, after she refused to join the anti-horse carriage camp. Gov. Andrew Cuomo just named Quinn the vice chairwoman of the state Democratic Party Committee. Cuomo and de Blasio have been at odds over many matters involving the city, which may have had no bearing on the Quinn appointment.
What is clear is that the horse carriage ban was a doomed cause from the beginning. The motivation to protect the horses from danger was beyond reproach, but the mayor stumbled by putting the ban at the top of his agenda when homelessness and other social ills cried out for the same spot.
Queens and the rest of the city tired of the issue long before the mayor woke up to the fact that many New Yorkers back the horse carriage drivers. We hope the horses agree.
(NYClass says it is a cooperating witness, not a target of the federal and state investigations into the mayor’s campaign funds.)
