New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Tuesday that they have reached a deal to phase out the city’s horse-drawn carriage industry, with a Council vote expected next week on a bill banning carriage operations starting in June 2028.
The legislation, dubbed “Romanch’s Law,” follows the death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, who was killed in a fall from a horse-drawn carriage in June. The carriages, a fixture at Central Park for 168 years, have long drawn criticism from animal rights activists over horse welfare, with viral videos showing horses collapsing or bolting into traffic fueling calls to shut the industry down entirely.
The bill would not seize the horses from their owners. Owners could keep, sell or transfer their animals, provided they are not sent to slaughter, another carriage business, or put to “inhumane purposes.” But drivers would lose the right to use those horses for carriage rides within the city.
For the roughly 200 drivers who work the trade, the deal threatens both livelihoods and, in some cases, six-figure investments. Frank Riccobono, owner and manager of NYC Horse Carriage Rides, told Fox News Digital he paid nearly $400,000 for a medallion, the license required to operate a carriage legally in the city, and the bill includes no reimbursement.
“I am going to take a very, very big loss here and there’s no reimbursement in this bill,” Riccobono said.
Riccobono, who owns 12 horses and three carriages and has worked in the industry for more than two decades after following his father, who spent 47 years in the business, disputed claims that the horses are mistreated.
“That’s what this bill shows. It shows they’re trying to criminalize us because a horse is working.”
He said the animals see certified veterinarians regularly and argued the industry has been unfairly singled out compared to other unregulated street businesses.
“You have pedicabs flying around, so why are they permitted to have a business? And now a 168-year-old tradition, attraction is being forced to surrender, which is very taboo. I want my investment to stay there for the next 20 years, 50 years, 100.”
Riccobono’s wife, Natalie, said the loss of her husband’s income would upend the family’s finances. “By taking away these businesses from us, they are literally taking food off of our table and possibly a shelter from over our heads,” she said.
Drivers Say They’ve Been Shut Out
Christina Hansen, a veteran carriage driver and Transport Workers Union Local 100 shop steward, said drivers have not heard directly from Mamdani and feel disregarded in the process.
“The only cruelty in the New York City carriage industry has always been the way that the people in it, the way the carriage drivers and carriage owners and stable owners are treated.”
Mamdani told reporters Wednesday that the city has an obligation to help affected workers find new paths forward. “I think that we have a civic responsibility to ensure that we are not leaving anybody out to dry,” he said. “They should not be ones that are simply left as an afterthought of what comes after this.”
A spokesperson for Menin said she will stay involved in the transition process, which “must include meaningful protections for the workers,” and said she has invited the union and the mayor’s administration to join a newly formed working group. “Through thoughtful conversations with labor and other stakeholders, the Council developed a framework to ensure better economic opportunities for these New Yorkers,” the spokesperson said.
With the city expecting the horses to be placed in rescues or sanctuaries, Hansen warned those facilities are already strained by declining donations and limited resources, and that no city funding has been pledged for the horses’ long-term care. “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.
Hansen said she has invited Mamdani to meet with drivers and their horses directly but doubts he will take her up on it. “He hasn’t and he probably won’t, because he’d get so much blowback on social media or whatever,” she said.
Efforts to ban the carriage industry are not new. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to end the trade after taking office in 2014, proposing vintage-style electric cars as a replacement, but that push and others before it failed to pass.
Riccobono said he intends to keep fighting what he called an “unconstitutional” bill. “We’re gonna fight for our rights, number one, we’re gonna fight for our horses, and we’re gonna fight for fairness and justice,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment.
