As Mayor de Blasio takes the reins, he sullies up to New York’s Horse Drawn Carriage Trade to embark on his first scandal as NYC Mayor.
Horse Drawn Carriage rides have been a part of the fabric, history and charm of New York City since the 1850’s. For over a century, there has been nothing more romantic than a Horse Drawn Carriage ride through Central Park. Perhaps the occasion being a marriage proposal, an anniversary or simply the perfect end to a romantic evening. The carriages have peacefully coexisted reasonably well with vehicles and humans of all types over time.
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Mayor de Blasio has emphatically announced that his first and most urgent priority as Mayor of NYC is to swiftly and aggressively remove the historic Horse Drawn Carriages from the streets and paths in Central Park. Here’s why that plan appears to be a big, smelly pile of manure.
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It turns out that high-powered real estate developer, Steve Nislick, is one of de Blasio’s top campaign financial backers. And Nislick wants the land where the horses are stabled for development.
As far back as 2008, Nislick circulated an anti-Horse Drawn Carriage pamphlet that pointed out, amongst other things, that the stables where the horses are housed (some 64,000 square feet) in Mid-Town West could accommodate up to 150,000 square feet of valuable real estate development. Nislick, in the pamphlet, urged that the lots be sold to accommodate new development.
More recently, Nislick founded a group called New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets (NYCLASS) that spent hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars. First, to defeat de Blasio’s rival, Christine Quinn. Then to push Mr. de Blasio to victory. It’s no wonder Mr. de Blasio’s burning #1 agenda item is to clear out those horse stables. Likely the land will be quietly sold to some nameless shell corporation controlled by a far-removed Steve Nislick.
De Blasio’s plan is to replace the historic, romantic Horse Drawn Carriages with electric powered replicas of antique cars. He does not have a plan for the newly unemployed horses, carriage drivers and stable hands – nor the small business owners who own and operate the Horse Drawn Carriages.
