A century-old tradition is on the line in New York City, and horse carriage drivers are speaking out about who will ultimately pay the price if Mayor Zohran Mamdani succeeds in ending the iconic industry.
Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Tuesday that they had reached a deal to phase out horse-drawn carriages in the Big Apple, with a vote expected next week on a bill that would ban carriage operations beginning in June 2028.
A longtime source of controversy, the horse-drawn carriages lined up at Central Park to take families and tourists for rides are at the center of a public safety debate after 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan was killed from a fall in June. The bill was later renamed “Romanch’s Law.”
Animal rights activists have targeted the industry, accusing carriage drivers of mistreating horses and even heckling some on the streets over concerns about proper care, food and water. Viral videos of horses collapsing and escaping into traffic have prompted calls to terminate the industry for good.
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But Fox News Digital spoke to leaders in the industry who pushed back on the criticisms and argued that the New York City tradition is being unfairly maligned, and that livelihoods will be destroyed thanks to Mamdani’s efforts.
“You have pedicabs flying around, so why are they permitted to have a business?” Frank Riccobono, owner and manager of NYC Horse Carriage Rides, told Fox News Digital. “And now a 168-year-old tradition, attraction is being forced to surrender, which is very taboo. I want my investment to stay there for the next 20 years, 50 years, 100.”
Riccobono, who owns 12 horses and three carriages, said raising horses is like raising a child, and that “non-horse people” will never understand that bond.
“I had horses give birth in front of me,” he said. “I’ve owned their mom and I have their baby and it’s like taking a child away from me.”
The bill would not take the horses away from their owners. Owners could keep, sell or transfer them as long as they are not sent to slaughter, another carriage business or an “inhumane purposes,” but Riccobono could no longer use his horses for carriage rides in the city.
He called the criticism “brainwashing,” adding his horses receive “the most perfect lifestyle” and regularly see certified veterinarians.
“That’s what this bill shows,” he said. “It shows they’re trying to criminalize us because a horse is working.”
Riccobono said he will also lose a huge investment after purchasing a medallion for nearly $400,000. Medallions are licenses that allow horse carriage drivers to legally operate in New York City.
“I am going to take a very, very big loss here and there’s no reimbursement in this bill,” he said.
The ban means much more than just losing a business, according to Riccobono, who said it threatens a family legacy with horses spanning generations. Riccobono has spent more than two decades driving horse-drawn carriages after falling in love with the career through his father, who spent 47 years in the business.
“I have a father that has medical conditions,” he said. “I have colleagues that are on dialysis. These people rely on these medallions for income, for retirement. But they’re trying to strip this away from us and they don’t even know how much they’re gonna give us.”
Riccobono’s wife, Natalie, said that without her husband’s income, the family will not be able to “sustain what we have right now.”
“By taking away these businesses from us, they are literally taking food off of our table and possibly a shelter from over our heads,” she said.
However, what comes next remains up in the air to drivers who say their voices have been left unheard. Mamdani, who has made waves with his socialist agenda, and Menin have vowed to help the city’s roughly 200 carriage drivers transition into new jobs.
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“I think that we have a civic responsibility to ensure that we are not leaving anybody out to dry,” Mamdani told reporters Wednesday. “They should not be ones that are simply left as an afterthought of what comes after this.”
Christina Hansen, a veteran New York City horse carriage driver and Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 shop steward, told Fox News Digital drivers have yet to hear directly from Mamdani and are being treated “as if we don’t matter, as if we don’t count.”
“The only cruelty in the New York City carriage industry has always been the way that the people in it, the way the carriage drivers and carriage owners and stable owners are treated,” she said.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Menin said she will remain involved in the transition that “must include meaningful protections for the workers” and said she invited TWU and the administration to join a new working group.
“Through thoughtful conversations with labor and other stakeholders, the Council developed a framework to ensure better economic opportunities for these New Yorkers,” she said.
With the city anticipating the horses will go to rescues or sanctuaries, Hansen warned those facilities already struggle to care for the horses they have because of declining donations and a lack of resources.
Once the national attention fades, Hansen worries the horses could be left behind.
“There’s no funding from the city or anything like that to say, we’re going to make sure that, you know, the city pays for the horse’s retirement,” she said.
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This isn’t the first time carriage drivers have feared the industry could disappear. Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to ban horse-drawn carriages after taking office in 2014 and backed vintage-style electric cars as an alternative. The effort, like others over the years, failed.
Hansen encouraged Mamdani to sit down for lunch with the drivers or meet their horses to get a different perspective.
“He hasn’t and he probably won’t, because he’d get so much blowback on social media or whatever,” Hansen said.
Riccobono said the fight doesn’t end here and he will continue pushing back on the “unconstitutional” bill.
“We’re gonna fight for our rights, number one, we’re gonna fight for our horses, and we’re gonna fight for fairness and justice,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s offices for comment.