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A century-old tradition is at stake in New York, and horse-drawn carriage drivers are wondering who will ultimately pay the price if Mayor Zohran Mamdani succeeds in ending the iconic industry.
Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Tuesday that they had reached an agreement to phase out horse-drawn carriages in the Big Apple, with a vote expected next week on a bill that would ban horse-drawn carriage operations starting in June 2028.
A long-running source of controversy, horse-drawn carriages lined up in Central Park to take families and tourists for rides are at the center of a debate over public safety after Romanch Mahajan, 18, was killed in a fall in June. The bill was later renamed the “Romanch Law”.
Animal rights activists have targeted the industry, accusing horse-drawn carriage drivers of mistreating horses and even heckling some in the streets over concerns about proper care, food and water. Viral videos showing horses collapsing and escaping into traffic have prompted a permanent end to the industry.
MAN KILLED AFTER HORSE-CART BOLTS AND FLIPS NEAR POPULAR NEW YORK CITY TOURIST DESTINATION
Frank Riccobono, right, spoke with Fox News Digital after Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin reached a deal to end New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry by June 2028. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images; Frank Riccobono)
But Fox News Digital spoke with industry executives who pushed back against the criticism and claimed that the New York tradition was being unfairly maligned and that livelihoods would be destroyed thanks to Mamdani’s efforts.
“You have pedicabs flying everywhere, so why are they allowed to have a business? » Frank Riccobono, owner and director of NYC Horse Carriage Rides, told Fox News Digital. “And now it’s a 168-year-old tradition, the attraction is being forced out, which is very taboo. I want my investment to stay there for the next 20, 50, 100 years.”
Riccobono, who owns 12 horses and three carriages, said raising horses is like raising a child, and “non-horse people” will never understand that connection.
“I’ve had horses give birth in front of me,” he said. “I own their mother and I have their baby and it’s like taking a child away from me.”
The bill would not take horses from their owners. Owners could keep, sell, or give them away as long as they were not sent to the slaughterhouse, another carriage company, or for “inhumane purposes,” but Riccobono could no longer use his horses for carriage rides around town.
He called the criticism “brainwashing,” adding that his horses enjoy the “most perfect lifestyle” and regularly see certified veterinarians.
“That’s what this bill shows,” he said. “It shows they are trying to criminalize us because a horse is working.”
Riccobono said he would also lose a huge investment after purchasing a medallion for nearly $400,000. Medallions are licenses that allow horse-drawn carriage drivers to operate legally in New York.
“I’m going to take a very, very big loss here and there’s no reimbursement in this bill,” he said.
MAMDANI AND CITY COUNCIL DECIDE TO END NYC’S ICONIC HORSE CART INDUSTRY AS WORKERS FACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of NYCLASS, speaks during a news conference Monday, July 27, 2026, where members of Romanch Mahajanâs’ family and animal rights activists called for the passage of the Ryderâs Law, also called the Romanchâs Law, in Central Park in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The ban means more than just the loss of a business, according to Riccobono, who said it threatens a family legacy with horses that span generations. Riccobono spent more than two decades driving horse-drawn carriages after falling in love with the career through his father, who spent 47 years in the business.
“I have a father who suffers from health problems,” he said. “I have colleagues who are on dialysis. These people depend on these medallions for their income, for their retirement. But they are trying to take that away from us and they don’t even know how much they are going to give us.”
Riccobono’s wife, Natalie, said that without her husband’s income, the family would not be able to “maintain what we have right now.”
“By taking these businesses away from us, they are literally taking food off our table and possibly shelter over our heads,” she said.
However, what happens next remains up in the air for drivers who say their voices have not been heard. Mamdani, who has made waves with his socialist agenda, and Menin have pledged to help the city’s roughly 200 car drivers transition to new jobs.
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Frank Riccobono, owner and operator of NYC Horse Carriage Rides, poses with one of his horses. (Frank Riccobono)
“I think we have a civic responsibility to ensure that we leave no one behind,” Mamdani told reporters Wednesday. “They shouldn’t just be left in the background of what comes next.”
Christina Hansen, a veteran New York City horse-drawn carriage driver and union representative for Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, told Fox News Digital that the drivers had not yet heard directly from Mamdani and were being treated “like we don’t matter, like we don’t count.”
“The only cruelty in the New York car hauling industry has always been the way the people who work there, the way the car drivers, the car owners and the stable owners are treated,” she said.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokeswoman for Menin said she would remain involved in the transition that “must include meaningful protections for workers” and said she had invited TWU and the administration to join a new task force.
“Through thoughtful conversations with unions and other stakeholders, the Council has developed a framework to ensure greater economic opportunities for these New Yorkers,” she said.
While the city expects horses to be sent to shelters or sanctuaries, Hansen warned that those facilities are already struggling to care for their horses due to declining donations and a lack of resources.
Once the national attention fades, Hansen fears the horses will be left behind.
“There’s no funding from the city or anything like that to say, we’re going to make sure that, you know, the city pays for the horse’s retirement,” she said.
MAMDANI COMMITS MILLIONS TO FIGHT ANTI-SEMITISM WHILE LEFT KEY ISSUE UNRESOLVED
A horse-drawn carriage driver waits for customers in Central Park, New York, Tuesday, October 13, 2026. New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Tuesday that she and Mayor Zohran Mamdani have agreed to a deal to abolish the horse-drawn carriage industry in Central Park starting in 2028. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News via Getty Images)
This isn’t the first time that car drivers have feared the industry’s demise. Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to ban horse-drawn carriages after taking office in 2014 and supported vintage-style electric cars as an alternative. This effort, like others over the years, failed.
Hansen encouraged Mamdani to sit down to lunch with the drivers or meet their horses to get a different perspective.
“He hasn’t done it and he probably won’t, because he would get a lot of backlash on social media or whatever,” Hansen said.
Riccobono said the fight doesn’t stop there and he will continue to oppose the “unconstitutional” bill.
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“We’re going to fight for our rights, number one, we’re going to fight for our horses, and we’re going to fight for fairness and justice,” he said.
Fox News Digital has contacted Mamdani’s offices for comment.
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