Transport Workers Union planning lawsuit to block NYC's planned Central Park horse carriage ban

Evan Simko-Bednarski and Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Oct 21, 2026

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NEW YORK — The union representing the roughly 200 owners and drivers in the city’s embattled Central Park carriage horse industry threatened Wednesday to sue should the City Council vote to end the industry, as is expected, on Thursday.

The legislation — which would immediately end the issuance of carriage horse licenses and outlaw carriage horse rides entirely by the summer of 2028 — is expected to pass with a veto-proof majority.

“The bill, as it currently stands, is scheduled for a vote tomorrow,” attorneys Arthur Schwartz and Benjamin Kallos wrote on behalf of the Transport Workers Union in a letter to the city’s corporation counsel. “It includes a mess of Federal and State constitutional violations.”

“If it is enacted as it now stands,” they wrote, “we will seek a (temporary restraining order) the minute the ink dries.”

The letter was also sent to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin.

The union’s attorneys argue that the bill makes significant investments in equipment and licensing effectively worthless, and seeks to take property from the union’s members “without just compensation” — a violation, they contend, of the fifth amendment.

Efforts to ban the carriage horse industry have gone one for decades, with animal rights activists long criticizing the work as inherently abusive to horses. The movement gained momentum in recent months after the death of Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old boy killed in Central Park after he fell from a runaway horse-drawn carriage in June.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the Transport Workers Union’s international president John Samuelsen called the proposed bill “theft.”

“This bill is a train wreck of constitutional and due process violations,” Samuelsen said. “It offers nothing concrete for blue-collar drivers and carriage owners who will be financially crushed, stripped of their jobs, their licenses, expensive city-issued medallions, small businesses and way of life.”

“It is not progressive,” he continued, “It is anti-worker. It’s theft.”

Jack Lobel, a spokesperson for Menin, said that the speaker was “clear” that a sunsetting of the industry would include “meaningful protections” for workers.

“Through thoughtful conversations with labor and other stakeholders, the Council developed a framework to ensure better economic opportunities for these New Yorkers,” Lobel said. “As the Administration implements the plan, Speaker Menin’s office will remain engaged in the transition process, including through a new joint working group that she has invited TWU and the Administration to join.”

A spokesperson for Mamdani referred comment to the Law Department.

“We are reviewing the letter. We are confident the legislation is grounded in the law and will be prepared to defend it,” Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesperson for the Law Department, said in a statement.

Also on Wednesday, Councilmember Joann Ariola withdrew her support for the bill, removing her name as a co-sponsor.

“I can no longer support a carriage horse ban that fails to give the same level of consideration to the hardworking carriage drivers whose livelihoods are at stake,” the Queens Republican said in a statement.

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