NYC Council moves to ban Central Park horse carriages by June 2028

Mayor Mamdani plans worker transition as Central Park carriage ban advances

The New York City Council is expected to vote October 22 on legislation that would phase out horse-drawn carriages in Central Park by June 2028, ending a longtime tourist attraction that has drawn renewed scrutiny after the death of an 18-year-old tourist earlier this year. Mayor Mamdani supports the ban.

The bill — named “Romanch’s Law” for Romanch Mahajan, a visitor from India who died in June after the horse pulling his carriage bolted and he fell — has majority support on the council, according to a spokesperson for Speaker Julie Menin.

“Horse-drawn carriages have long been part of New York City’s history, but in an increasingly busy Central Park, this tradition has become a growing public safety liability,” Menin said in a statement to the BBC. “Next week, the Council will take decisive action by voting on [this bill] to protect New Yorkers, visitors, and the horses themselves.”

Mahajan’s death was the immediate trigger for Menin’s support. His father, Deepak Mahajan, told the council he could not “properly describe to you the real, true fear inside that carriage.”

The latest version of the legislation includes an “industry transition framework” offering potential job placement, training, career counseling, and financial compensation for drivers and owners, and bars carriage horses from being sold for slaughter or for the same purpose. A spokesperson for Mamdani said the administration is “working closely with the City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.”

The current push is not the first. Shortly after his 2014 inauguration, former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to ban the carriages, citing concerns about the horses’ treatment, and proposed replacing them with a fleet of vintage electric cars. The effort ended with new rules restricting where carriages could pick up tourists.

Opposition to the current bill has come from the Transport Workers Union, which says it represents 300 horse-carriage drivers and owners. The union argues the horses are treated well and that the industry employs hundreds of people.

The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the park, announced its support for a ban last year. “We do not take this position lightly,” the conservancy’s president wrote in a letter, “but with visitation to the park growing to record levels, we feel strongly that banning horse carriages has become a matter of public health and safety for park visitors.”

A separate incident this year — the death of a carriage horse named Dennis after eating a toxic plant in Central Park — has further fueled concerns about the industry’s animal-welfare standards.