Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin have struck a deal to ban horse-drawn carriages across New York City’s five boroughs starting in June 2028.
The City Council is set to vote on the legislation on Oct. 22, and a spokesperson for Menin said Tuesday that the bill already commands the support of a council majority. The measure, dubbed Romanch’s law, takes its name from Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist from India who died in Central Park last June after the horse pulling his carriage bolted and he fell.
Mamdani announced the breakthrough on Twitter, writing: “The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City. Our administration will make sure workers and owners are protected and the horses are safe.”
Menin has championed the ban since the teenager’s death. “The tragic and preventable death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable,” she said in a statement. She added: “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.”
Romanch’s father, Deepak, addressed the City Council in emotional testimony, saying he could not “properly describe to you the real, true fear inside that carriage.”
The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the park, threw its support behind a ban last year. “We do not take this position lightly,” the conservancy’s president wrote in a letter, adding that record visitation had made banning the carriages “a matter of public health and safety for park visitors.”
The proposed legislation includes safeguards for the animals themselves: the bill explicitly prohibits the horses from being sold for slaughter.
For the roughly 200 carriage drivers facing displacement, the latest version of the bill establishes what lawmakers call an “industry transition framework,” Menin said the legislation will require the Mamdani administration to develop a plan to connect laid-off carriage drivers with “new economic opportunities,” including potential job placement, training, career counseling and financial compensation.
The Transport Workers Union, which claims to represent 300 horse-carriage drivers and owners, has resisted the measure. The union maintains that the horses are treated well and emphasizes that the industry provides employment for hundreds of people.
Mamdani spokesperson Sneha Choudhary said in a statement Tuesday: “We have been working closely with the City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.”
This is not the first attempt to eliminate the trade. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced soon after his 2014 inauguration that he wanted to ban the carriages from Central Park, citing poor treatment of the horses, and floated replacing them with a fleet of vintage electric cars. He ultimately settled for new rules restricting where carriages can pick up tourists rather than an outright prohibition.
The 168-year-old carriage tradition has survived repeated challenges, but the June fatality shifted political momentum. The horse pulling Romanch Mahajan’s carriage bolted in Central Park, causing the visiting teenager to fall and die, an incident that drew international attention and renewed urgency to a long-stalled reform.
The City Council vote is scheduled for Oct. 22.