Horse carriages are free to fully remain on New York City streets, at least for now.
A compromise that would have limited — but not eliminated — the carriage horse industry has fallen apart just a day before it faced a city council vote.
According to George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, the union that represents workers in the horse-drawn carriage industry, Mayor Bill De Blasio's plan to reform the carriage industry is not good enough.
"The Teamsters' first priority is always our members and their livelihoods. With the legislation now finalized, our members are not confident that it provides a viable future for their industry," Miranda said in a prepared statement. "We cannot support the horse carriage bill currently before the City Council."
The city council vote scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled.
De Blasio's original plan was to completely ban horse-drawn carriages from operating in the city. Later on, the mayor agreed to a plan that would limit the number of horses working (from 220 to 75) and keep them confined to Central Park. His plan would have also gotten rid of the competition from pedicabs in the southern part of the park.
The backing of the union was considered critical to winning the council’s approval, and up until mid-week, the Teamsters were on board. But it became clear early today union leaders changed their mind.
“We had a good-faith agreement with them that was worked on for many weeks, and they didn’t keep their agreement,” de Blasio told reporters at City Hall. “It’s as simple as that.”
The union's move put a halt to the scheduled Friday vote for the measure.
But Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens) disputed that. “There were a lot of folks who were unsure about this bill and about some of the portions of the bill,” he said.
“Once [the union] pulled that support, my support went with it, and so did others, and then the votes weren’t there," City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens) told the New York Post.
"I firmly believe that this issue has been discussed, it has been attempted, it has not been successful and it is time now for us to move on," he said.
