Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Tuesday that she and Mayor Zohran Mamdani have agreed to abolish the Central Park horse carriage industry starting in 2028. That would close the book on a tradition that has been around since the 1830s.
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Romanch’s Law honors Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old who died in a carriage horse accident in Central Park in June. It’s a reworked version of an earlier measure. That one was called Ryder’s Law, after a carriage horse that collapsed and died in 2022. So the legislation now carries the memory of a young man and a horse, and that’s a heavy thing to hang a policy on. If the Council votes the way everybody expects, the last ride around the park happens by June 2028.
The Mayor even tweeted, “The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City.
Our administration will make sure workers and owners are protected and the horses are safe.”
Anybody who has tried to cross Central Park South on a nice Saturday knows exactly what she means. Tourists, bikes, scooters, cars, and a few thousand pounds of nervous animal all in the same traffic.
Of course this isn’t just about horses. Hundreds of carriage drivers earn their living in this business, and fights over jobs hit different in this city. Unions backing those drivers have fought any ban for years, and the Transport Workers Union has hinted it could sue to block one. Menin says the deal answers that worry. The administration agreed to develop a plan to employ the drivers.
This fight is also older than a lot of the people reading about it. Since 2010, mayors and legislative leaders have tried to outlaw the carriages. Bill de Blasio even promised to end them “on Day One” back in 2013, and it never got done. He later settled for a compromise that would have cut the number of horses and moved stables into the park. So credit where it’s due: Mamdani and Menin got across a finish line that others only stared at.
Animal welfare advocates are celebrating. Steve Nislick, co-founding president of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, said the bill “means so much to those who have spent years fighting with us.” The Central Park Conservancy is also on board, per CBS New York.
The full Council is expected to vote at its next meeting, which should come next week. Until then, keep your eyes on the fine print about who gets hired, where, and for how much. A ban is easy to cheer for. A real landing spot for the drivers is the part that proves this deal was about more than optics.