NYC Reaches Deal to End Horse Carriages by June 2028 as 200 Drivers Face Uncertain Transition
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 18
NYC Reaches Deal to End Horse Carriages by June 2028 as 200 Drivers Face Uncertain Transition
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 18
Summary
A City Council vote is expected next week on a bill that would ban New York City horse-carriage operations starting in June 2028, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Speaker Julie Menin struck a deal.
The phaseout follows years of animal-welfare criticism and a renewed public-safety push after 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan died in a June fall; the measure was later renamed Romanch’s Law.
About 200 drivers have been promised help moving into new jobs, but carriage operators say they have not been directly consulted and that the bill offers no reimbursement for medallions that can cost nearly $400,000.
Owners could keep, sell or transfer horses as long as they are not sent to slaughter, another carriage business or other inhumane uses, though drivers warn rescues and sanctuaries may lack funding to absorb them.
The deal revives a fight that defeated earlier mayors, with drivers now preparing legal and political resistance while arguing a 168-year-old Central Park tradition and family livelihoods are being erased.