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De Blasio Promises To Ban NYC Carriage Horses When He Gets Around To It
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 12, 2014
Modified Apr 12, 2014
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 12, 2014
Modified Apr 12, 2014
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Back in September, Mayor de Blasio was raking in funds from opponents of Central Park's carriage horses, promising to abolish the tradition "within his first week in office." Considering the fact he's now about 13 weeks in, that plan clearly didn't work out as he was expecting. But de Blasio swears he is working to ban carriage horses by the end of the year: "There’s a bill that’s being drafted in the City Council that will lead the action, and we expect action on it this year," he said Friday during a Google Hangout session focusing on his first 100 days in office.
"It’s just about as common-sense as you could possibly think, that a horse in the middle of the streets of Midtown," he added on the topic. "It doesn’t belong, it isn’t going to be able to live the kind of life that it should, and it’s going to create a dynamic for everyone that creates problems." As for the delay, well, other stuff got in the way: "I think everyone came in and looked at all the other things we had to do and we had to prioritize," de Blasio said. "It will take time to implement, like everything else in the world."
That is totally reasonable—Rome wasn't built in a day, and large sodas weren't banned in a day either—but what's not reasonable, or at least not good politics, is making promises you in no way can keep. So now de Blasio has kicked the ball on the issue to later this year, but he's still promising to get it done...even though they don't have the votes whatsoever: "It is not at all clear that the votes are there for an outright ban," a one member told the News. "There’s support in the Council for the industry."
And in some stable in NYC, Liam Neeson is roused from sleep, and whispers to Andrea Peyser in a thick Irish brogue, "Everything's going to be alright, darlin'."
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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