Barring some short of shock or miracle, the City Council is considered almost certain to pass the mayor’s noxious new bill, which would decimate the carriage trade, destroy many jobs and force many drivers to send their horses away and into peril. The mayor’s legislation is now widely understood to be another effort to ban the horses, just a sneakier and even more dishonest one, if that is even possible.
The people in the carriage trade say the bill could destroy their business and way of life. Their elected leaders don’t care.
Is there good news here? Yes, absolutely, the stable owners and drivers are furious, they are awakening, and beginning to stand in their truth.
The time for angry e-mails and letters to the editor and social media debates is passing.
It is now, and after all, time to fight. It is a moment many knew had to come.
And if you have ever met a stable or horse owner or carriage driver, you know it will be one hell of a fight, and only a foolish or blind man (maybe a mayor) would think it hopeless. These people love to fight, and they know how.
A healthy, popular, profitable and law-abiding industry appears on the verge of being drastically downsized and threatened because a real estate developer who is also an animal rights activist gave the mayor a truckload of money to run healthy, safe and much loved horses out of the city.
No one has put forth any other valid reason to cripple the carriage trade in this way. This is a manufactured crisis, it is not real. The horses are well cared for and safe.
Yesterday, the animal rights groups that had bitterly opposed the mayor’s bill because it didn’t ban the horses outright, suddenly found religion and decided they would enthusiastically support the bill, which would move the horses into Central Park, reduce their hours and the number of horses (and even the hours the carriages themselves could be on the street). If ever the fix was in, here it is.
I wonder how the mayor and the animal rights groups justify the idea that a business they say is immoral, inhumane and abusive to animals should be moved to Central Parka and kept on forever, even in reduced form?
This is a marriage made in hell, a coalition of convenience that smells far worse than any horse stable. What binds them is this: they are assertively ignorant about horses, reject science and expertise, are abusive of people, and dislike democratic process.
The city says it will spent more than $20 million to renovate former stables in the middle of Central Park to make room for only 75 horses. There are many hoops to jump through before that could possibly happen. The restrictions on the carriage trade would go into place long before any stables could or would be built, if they are really to be built at all. The carriage trade would die from a thousand cuts, not just one.
More and more, the legislation appears to be a trap. The public, whose money will be spent to build a new stable in the park have been excluded from the process and kept out of the closed door meetings and secret plans.
The new landlord for the carriage trade would be the city’s most powerful politician, who has promised to ban the industry altogether as soon as he can. Would you move your family into a home like that?
For me, from my somewhat removed perspective, there is a silver lining in this cloud.
Some carriage trade leaders have long wanted to go to court to stop the extra-legal campaign against them. Very few of the drivers and owners would agree. This is a conservative, cautious and somewhat insular group of people. They seemed to hang onto the idea that there was someone reasonable to negotiate with. Maybe for too long.
But the thing with legal action is this: You can’t go to court to stop a false accusation, you have to wait until something is done. You can’t stop an illegal behavior that hasn’t occurred. Now, that is happening, the dynamic is changing, and when the knobby-kneed members of the City Council pass this bill, they are paving the way to the courthouse.
Now, there is no choice but to go to court, and I am no lawyer, but I know some lawyers, and I am optimistic a judge will come to see that these new regulations are not rational, as the law requires, and that the city has no legitimate interest in forcing this arbitrary and clearly punitive regulations down the throats of the city, it’s people, and the carriage horse owners and drivers.
A successful and well -known attorney in New York acknowledged to me that lawsuits are never easy or predictable, “but this is a very strong case, they are seeking to take apart an industry that is law-abiding, profitable and popular, and for very dubious reasons. This is a good case to try.”
I’ve talked to several people close to the politics of the story, and they all say the notoriously weak City Council will almost certainly pass the mayor’s bill. The hearings scheduled to begin Friday at 10 a.m. are a charade, the mayor did his wheeling and dealing back in December, and this seems to be a done deal. Lots of good people will stand in the cold and wait in line to speak to politicians who aren’t listening.
It is easier for the council members to hide behind this disguised ban than an obvious one.
The mayor’s actions seem arrogant, unjust and indefensible. It is not easy to go to court, good lawyers are always reluctant to do it. The carriage trade has two good lawyers, Norman Siegel and Ron Kuby, they are experienced fighters for civil rights and troubled causes. They very often win. I think they will give the mayor some hurting, perhaps even force him to reveal just how much money he took and what for.
If truth and justice matters at all – I believe it does – this is a very strong case. And as importantly, a very just case. The mayor has grossly overreached, hardly anyone credits him with being honest, sincere, fair or knowledgeable in this instance. I imagine this will ultimately tar him and his growing national political ambitions.
My heart goes out to the horses, it is always the animals, who cannot speak for themselves, who suffer first and most. I hope the mayor is held accountable for every horse who dies because the people who say they speak for the rights of animals betrayed them.
Mayor deBlasio is not only seeking to damage the carriage trade, but he is also undermining the lives of animals everywhere by sending more than 100 safe horses out into peril. These are the luckiest horses in the world. At best, they will end up on farms or rescue preserves, at worst to slaughter. Carriage drivers will be forced to make awful decisions, to choose from among horses they have loved, trained and worked with for years.
Stable-hands, drivers, many others will lose their jobs. Their stables will be forced into sale to real estate developers waiting hungrily in line.
Instead of working to save animals and keep them in our every day lives, the mayor has joined forces with the animal rights movement to drive them away, and for no reason other than to pay off a campaign debt. I am eager for the day the mayor has to account in detail for what he has done.
I’m sorry to see the carriage trade endure more harassment and suffering, yet I can’t say I am sorry to see this issue headed to the courts. If there is to be any rational solution or justice to this, it will come from a judge, not from the elected leaders of the city. This was the inevitable outcome, there were never any rational or well-meaning people for the carriage trade to deal with.
I believe the horses and the carriage trade will now get their long overdue day in court. I believe the time for impassioned e-mails, pleading Facebook posts and angry letters to the editor – valuable and important – is over.
I’m not going down to New York City for the council hearings. I’m saving my energy and my pennies for legal fee contributions.
There won’t be any justice for the horses or the people in the carriage trade from the mayor, his supporters in the animal rights movement, or his toadies in the City Council.
Time to let go.
Time for court.