The first legislation seeking to ban the now 168-year-old Central Park horse carriage industry was introduced by former City Council Member Tony Avella nearly 20 years ago, in 2007.

It was the first salvo of nearly two decades of battles between the animal rights groups and lawmakers seeking to end the practice and the unions representing carriage workers and owners defending their businesses. Over that time, incidents in which horses collapsed, died, and broke free — running around the park drives or into traffic just outside the greenspace — continued to pile up.

Up until July of this year, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who spoke with amNewYork in an exclusive interview on Oct. 19, had not said whether or not she supported a ban. But as she told this publication, the "tipping point" for her in the debate took place on June 17, when 18-year-old Indian tourist Romanch Mahajan became the first person to be killed while riding in a horse carriage in recent memory.

"W hen Romanch sadly lost his life over the summer, that tragedy that he was thrown from the horse carriage and hearing the powerful testimony from his family really was, I think, a game changer for so many," Menin said, referring to testimony members of Mahajan's family gave at an emotional July 15 council hearing, the day after she announced her support for the bill.

Last week, Menin announced she planned to break the 19-year stalemate on the issue and pass a bill — renamed Romanch's Law by its sponsor, City Council Member Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan), following the teenager's death — ending the issuance of new horse carriage licences and their operation in the park. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said signaled support for the move in a social media post last week and his office said that it reviewed the bill language before it was final.

The legislation is set to be approved on Thursday. The speaker said Mahajan's death coincided with other recent developments that "changed the equation" for her. Those include the park becoming less safe, with horse carriages having to jockey for space on increasingly crowded park drives, which have seen more cyclist and pedestrian activity since the city redesigned them in 2024 ; and the Central Park Conservancy for the first time, coming out in favor of a ban last year .

"Having 42 million people go to Central Park each and every year and continue to see the horse carriages operate in a very tightly confined area where many horses were getting spooked, breaking free, causing real issues, safety issues for pedestrians, for the horses themselves, w hen the conservancy came out last year against this, it just really all pointed to the fact that the council needed to act, and so I felt strongly about it," Menin said.

But the accord has predictably made waves with carriage industry workers and owners, as well as the union representing them — Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100. Members of the roughly 200-person industry argue that, despite the council's amendments, the legislation still falls far short of providing adequate financial protections for them once they are no longer able to make a living from operating and owning hansom cabs.

The speaker's office amended the bill following the July hearing, a process that included input from City Hall. The tweaks were aimed at addressing concerns raised by Local 100 and carriage workers that the measure did not do enough to ensure drivers can find new employment and that owners are compensated for the costly medallions they had to purchase in order to operate.

The version released last week would require the city to establish a "workforce transition program," a plan for which must be given to the mayor and the speaker by April of next year. Under the bill, the program would have to include job referrals for carriage industry workers to other employment in city and state government or the hospitality industry, as well as the provision of job training and career fairs.

"W e beefed up in the bill the worker protection language to make sure that there are stronger worker protections… to make sure that the workers have a good transition towards employment," Menin said.

Yet the plan did not include a previous proposal to maintain carriage driver jobs by replacing the carriages with vintage electric cars. The speaker said that was due to the conservancy and City Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) standing fiercely against the idea, which they argued would further contribute to crowding in the park.

Moreover, Menin said she is planning to set up a working group — including representatives from her office, the administration, and the industry — to oversee the workers' transition. She said the group will begin meeting "as soon as the bill is passed."

While the administration will take the lead on the worker transition, the speaker said, "With this working group, we obviously want to be part and parcel of those conversations to ensure that the transition is happening and that the workers are protected."

The changes, however, have done little to satisfy Local 100 and the workers they represent. Shortly after the speaker announced a deal last week, the union gathered with workers in Central Park to condemn it. They charged that even with the changes, the bill is still too vague in its language around worker protections, and that it contains no funding for the effort. "T his is not a plan; i t's a concept of a plan," Christina Hansen, Local 100‘s shop steward for Central Park’s carriage horse industry, said during the event.