New York officials reach deal to shut down Central Park horse carriages

New York City leaders have struck a deal to end the horse-drawn carriage industry, with a Council vote set next week, even as drivers warn immigrant family businesses will be wiped out.

A city official says the agreement is in place to close out the long-running carriage trade that has drawn tourists to Central Park for more than 160 years, and the City Council is scheduled to vote on the bill on Oct. 22, with passage expected.

The mayor is pushing for worker protections in the legislation and is expected to support it, according to reporting from abc7NY. City Hall cast the move as a “just transition.” Carriage owners and their union call it something else: a political shutdown of lawful small businesses with thin promises and no clear plan for the animals.

Councilman Chris Marte is sponsoring the bill. He framed it as protection for horses, workers, and the public after a deadly stretch that intensified pressure on the industry.

Marte sells a “win win” while the vote looms

Marte said city agencies would have to deliver a transition plan to the mayor and the Council speaker. That outline, he said, would cover potential new jobs, financial assistance, and even compensation for medallions and horses.

"We're going to have agencies create a plan that they have to deliver to the mayor and the speaker, outline a potential new jobs for these workers financial assistance, even compensation for their medallion and horses as well. We wanted to make sure that this bill was a win win, that we protect horses, workers and the public at large,"

City Hall issued its own statement the day before the abc7NY report, claiming broad consultation.

"We have been working closely with the City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all."

Those words land against a hard date. The Council is set to vote Oct. 22. The industry that has operated in the park since 1858 is on the clock.

Progressive city leadership has already drawn national scrutiny in fights over taxes and accountability, including when a judge blocked NYC’s pied-à-terre tax rollout while federal officials weighed intervention. Ending a regulated tourist trade fits the same pattern of City Hall choosing ideology first and livelihoods second.

Union chief says the “transition” is job fairs and maybes

Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen tore into the bill’s worker language. He said it does not deliver meaningful economic relief.

"It only says the city should prepare a worker transition plan by April 2027 and include weak measures like job fairs and job counseling. It says the city should 'consider' financial compensation for carriage owners who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy city-issued medallions and build up their businesses,"

April 2027 is months after a vote expected this month. “Consider” is not a check. Medallions that cost carriage owners hundreds of thousands of dollars would sit in limbo while agencies draft plans.

Samuelsen went further on motive. He accused officials of using a tourist’s death to manufacture a crisis and warned against going along with it.

"the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis. This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families' livelihoods are being destroyed. This entire situation is reprehensible."

He named Menin in that criticism and told Zohran not to rubber-stamp the push. The mayor, the reporting shows, already agrees with ending the rides and is expected to back the bill.

When Democratic power centers move fast against working families, the political class rarely slows down for the people who hold the licenses, a habit voters have also watched in backlash over AOC and Mamdani’s conduct on solemn civic ground.

Drivers built lives on city licenses the city now wants void

Ahmet Bilici has driven carriages in Central Park for nearly 25 years. He came from Turkey as a trained veterinarian, found work in the trade, and now faces a medallion that could become worthless if the ban takes hold.

"No way. I will fight for my horses, my family, my child. This is not cheap,"

Christina Hansen of the horse carriage union stressed the basic point City Hall prefers to skip: the trade is licensed and regulated by the same city now racing to erase it.

"We are a lawful, regulated business that's been in business here in the park since 1858. We're licensed and regulated by the city. And you cannot just take people's medallions, their property, their small businesses, their licenses, horses and shut them down,"

Joshua Sausville, a carriage owner, rejected the idea that a ban helps the animals.

"The horses are getting a better life here than they'll ever get anywhere else. That much I can promise. I don't know who they think they're helping, but they're not helping any horses,"

The reporting is blunt on one gap the bill does not close: it is not yet clear what will happen to the horses.

Immigrant households in this trade are being told to trust a future agency memo. That is cold comfort in a city and state where Democratic officials have spent years prioritizing favored causes over ordered enforcement, from Hochul’s pardon aimed at a deportation case to courtroom fights that weaken clear rules.

Deaths raised the heat; the bill still leaves the hard parts vague

Efforts to end the rides intensified after the death this summer of a horse named Deniz and the death of 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan. Mahajan was riding with his family when a horse became spooked.

Those tragedies are real. So is the structure of the response. Marte promises agencies will outline jobs and possible compensation. Samuelsen says the text points to job fairs, counseling, and a duty only to “consider” paying owners who sunk huge sums into city-issued medallions.

A deal to end the industry is not the same thing as a funded off-ramp. A vote expected to pass is not the same thing as a placement for every driver or a home for every horse.

Carriage service has been a Central Park fixture for tourists across more than a century and a half. The city regulated it, licensed it, and collected on that system. Now the same apparatus is preparing to strip the medallions and call the process compassion.

Lawful workers who followed city rules are again first in line for the bill, while officeholders draft press lines about a clean break. National fights over who belongs under the law and who gets shielded from it, including battles over noncitizens and federal election rules, follow the same habit: revise the bargain after people have already built their lives inside it.

On Oct. 22, the Council can rubber-stamp the deal. Drivers like Bilici say they will not go quietly. Owners say the horses are not being rescued. The union says the compensation language is a shrug dressed up as policy.

When city power decides a regulated trade must vanish, the people who bought the licenses learn first what “just transition” is worth, and it is usually the speech, not the paycheck.