New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s PETA-backed plan to end horse-drawn carriages by June 2028 heads to a council vote, with critics vowing lawsuits over lost livelihoods.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council leaders have locked in legislation to shut down New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry, and carriage workers and their allies say they will take the fight to court the moment it passes.
The bill, known as Intro 943 or Romanch’s Law, would ban the carriages citywide starting June 1, 2028, create a transition plan for drivers, and require what officials call the humane disposition of the horses. Animal-rights groups including PETA back the move. The union side and City Council critics call it an unconstitutional hit on a working-class tourist trade.
Fox News Digital reported that the City Council was set to vote on the phaseout, with legal challenges already telegraphed by opponents if the measure becomes law.
Mamdani reached a deal with City Council Speaker Julie Menin to advance the ban after years of failed attempts built around animal-welfare and safety arguments. The New York Post reported the measure would outlaw horse-drawn carriages in all five boroughs beginning in June 2028, with a full council vote scheduled for October 22 and language the Mamdani administration reviewed and approved.
Menin tied the bill directly to a Central Park tragedy involving an 18-year-old tourist.
Speaker Julie Menin said:
"The tragic and preventable death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable."
She also framed the old industry as a growing hazard in a crowded park.
"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."
Just The News reported that efforts to kill the industry date back to 2010, after deaths linked to accidents and exhaustion, and that the current package includes career counseling and job referrals for drivers plus possible compensation for owners’ businesses, horses, equipment, and licenses. A major transport union has opposed earlier ban pushes on behalf of the drivers.
The legislation would also establish a transition plan for carriage drivers and require humane disposition of the horses. Roughly 200 drivers would be displaced under the phaseout described in the council deal. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist, died after jumping from a runaway carriage in Central Park. His mother was injured in the same incident. The family’s related claim, flagged in coverage of the case, seeks $105 million from New York City. Lawmakers named the phaseout bill Romanch’s Law after the teen.
That tragedy is the political fuel. Carriage operators say the answer is not erasing an entire trade that has long been part of the city’s streetscape and tourist draw.
Councilwoman Vickie Paladino told Fox News Digital the measure will not survive legal scrutiny and that suits will follow passage at once.
Paladino said:
"Intro 943 is unconstitutional. Lawsuits are going to be filed immediately after this effort is passed. They're going to be tangled up in legalese."
She warned again that litigation is coming because the bill, in her view, crosses a constitutional line.
"There will be a lawsuit coming up because this is unconstitutional."
The union representing carriage workers has said it plans to challenge the ban in court if the legislation becomes law. Frank Riccobono, owner and manager of NYC Horse Carriage Rides, and Christina Hansen, a veteran carriage driver and TWU Local 100 shop steward, spoke about what a 2028 shutdown would mean for people whose paychecks depend on the trade.
Paladino cast the owners as ordinary New Yorkers, not a disposable lobby.
"Let’s remember that these owners represent a melting pot. Their livelihood exists in and around the city. It’s a tremendous tourist attraction. People come in from all over the world to take those carriage rides."
Supporters of the ban argue that horses and heavy carriages do not belong in a packed modern park. Opponents flip the public-safety claim back on City Hall.
Paladino pointed to unregulated electric scooters and motorized bikes racing through the same park without licenses, registration, or insurance, and she asked why that industry escapes the crackdown.
"These scooters and these motorized bikes that go 20 miles an hour, these scooters that go 30 and 40 miles an hour, zigzagging throughout the park, with no license, no registration and no insurance. How many people get run over by those people? If the Mamdani administration truly cared about public safety, why don’t they get a handle on the scooter and bike industry?"
That contrast is the political core of the fight. City leaders are moving to extinguish a regulated, visible tourist business on a fixed 2028 clock while critics say faster, uninsured micromobility still cuts through Central Park with far less official urgency.
Under the deal, horse-drawn carriages would be illegal starting in June 2028. The package pairs the shutdown with workforce transition help and talk of owner compensation, a nod to the jobs at stake after more than a decade of ban campaigns. PETA and other animal-rights groups are in the coalition pushing the end of the industry. Carriage drivers and their union are on the other side, with court papers promised if the council implements the ban into law.
A photo of a carriage horse pulling an 1,800-pound carriage with tourists and a driver in Central Park on June 18, 2024, still captures the image visitors know. Mamdani has pressed the phaseout as mayor, including in public appearances tied to the broader push. The council calendar now puts the question to a vote, with the legal battle lined up right behind it.
When City Hall sides with activist groups to erase a lawful trade and working people have to sue to keep their jobs, voters can judge whose interests came first.
