De Blasio seeks to ban Horse-Drawn Carriage rides in Central Park

[NewYorkExpress]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/30/us/new-york-horse-drawn-carriage-ban/

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If you were on the New York City Council how would you vote on this proposed measure?

[Lief 🗽]

In favor, obviously.

[Deus Naturae]

I'd vote Nay.

[minionofmidas]

Wut?

[Paul Kemp]

Excellent. Hopefully those awful rickshaws are next.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Nay, I'm in favor of a middle ground. Perhaps a limited horse path within the park, to keep the horses out of traffic and allowing the experience to continue.

[7,052,770]

I believe those are borderline animal cruelty,  so I would vote yes.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Yes.

[bedstuy]

I don't really understand why people are so animated about this.  But, I suppose anything involving animals gets yuppies into a frenzy. 

Is it really cruel to horses to put them in an urban setting?  Aren't urban horses used to traffic and the noise of a city?  Weren't horses a main mode of transportation congested urban streets for thousands of years?  Maybe I'm wrong on those empirical questions.  But, I don't see how this fundamentally different than using a horse to plough a field or run a race.

[minionofmidas]

Is it really cruel to horses to put them in an urban setting? 

Of course not.

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Quite so. Although sudden onset of machine noise next to them (clippers, chainsaw...) can scare the freak out any horse.

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Of course.

This makes exactly as much sense as banning people from Central Park on account of the car exhaust.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Against.  I like Ray's suggestion.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I don't really understand why people are so animated about this.  But, I suppose anything involving animals gets yuppies into a frenzy. 

I'm not really sure who you are, but this statement might jus have made you one of my favourite posters.

This is obvious pandering to vegetarian latte-liberals who know nothing about horses.
The horses who draw these carriages have been bred and trained to do this, and get no harm from it.

Now Rays proposal to give them a more limited area to be in, would probably be a good idea, mostly for traffic reason.

Could someone who knows a bit about NYC local politics give a prediction on how the council will vote on this?

[Maxwell]

Looks like DeBlasio is continuing the Bloomberg tradition of absurdity. Is this the new norm?

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

I don't really understand why people are so animated about this.  But, I suppose anything involving animals gets yuppies into a frenzy. 

I'm not really sure who you are, but this statement might jus have made you one of my favourite posters.

This is obvious pandering to vegetarian latte-liberals who know nothing about horses.
The horses who draw these carriages have been bred and trained to do this, and get no harm from it.

Now Rays proposal to give them a more limited area to be in, would probably be a good idea, mostly for traffic reason.

Could someone who knows a bit about NYC local politics give a prediction on how the council will vote on this?

Unfortunately, it seems likely that De Blasio gets whatever he wants right now, with his hand-picked speaker set to take office.

The horses are inspected regularly and treated well, so it's only hardcore animal activists who have a real problem with it. The one legit problem is that horses have been hit by cars on the outskirts of park, and a few have died. It just seems common sense to me to keep them off the streets. It's a disaster to have large animals that can be spooked in one of the busiest cities in the country. The park is an ideal place for them.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

The horses are inspected regularly and treated well, so it's only hardcore animal activists who have a real problem with it. The one legit problem is that horses have been hit by cars on the outskirts of park, and a few have died. It just seems common sense to me to keep them off the streets. It's a disaster to have large animals that can be spooked in one of the busiest cities in the country. The park is an ideal place for them.

So as I suspected, your solution is the sensible one.
Alas, too bad common sense rarely ever prevails in politics these days.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Looks like DeBlasio is continuing the Bloomberg tradition of absurdity. Is this the new norm?

This is the city that elected Dinkins, Giuliani, Bloomberg, and then DeBlasio. Seeing as New Yorkers are apparently stupid enough to elect these people to begin with, do they really even deserve the economic benefits that these carriages and other tourist attractions bring?

[bedstuy]

One point to keep in mind, if you understand the geography of Central Park, there's no way to keep horse carriages in the park and streets with vehicular traffic.  Horses already are mostly confined to Central Park South, West, 5th Avenue and the interior streets of the park anyway.

Looks like DeBlasio is continuing the Bloomberg tradition of absurdity. Is this the new norm?

In fairness to De Blasio, the animal rights crowd hated Quinn because of this issue.  So this was basically a wedge issue for him and he's just paying off his debt to the animal rights people in Manhattan and white Brooklyn. 

[Oakvale]

Horses are horrible creatures and should be wiped out. I support anything that will make their presence less felt.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Speaking as a horse-lover who gets concerned about their welfare pretty easily, this is a faintly absurd policy. I'm going to go ahead and join the chorus of voices agreeing with Ray's proposed solution.

[Supersonic]

I'm glad I had a horse carriage ride before they are (most likely) banned.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Horses are horrible creatures and should be wiped out. I support anything that will make their presence less felt.

[minionofmidas]

One point to keep in mind, if you understand the geography of Central Park, there's no way to keep horse carriages in the park and streets with vehicular traffic.  Horses already are mostly confined to Central Park South, West, 5th Avenue and the interior streets of the park anyway.

Just keep the cars off those streets then. -_-

Horses are horrible creatures and should be wiped out. I support anything that will make their presence less felt.

The sentiment is reciprocated.

[NerdyBohemian]

I'd vote Nay.

Don't you mean..."neigh."

[DINGO Joe]

Horses are horrible creatures and should be wiped out. I support anything that will make their presence less felt.

What happened bro?  A horse kill your mother?

[badgate]

This makes exactly as much sense as banning people from Central Park on account of the car exhaust.

Awful comparison.