Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the leader of the City Council have agreed on legislation that would eliminate the use of horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, a goal of animal rights activists for more than 150 years.
The legislation, which would ban the carriages by June 2028, will be voted on by the Council next week. Julie Menin, the Council speaker, said she believed the bill would pass the 51-member Council with a veto-proof majority.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Mamdani declined to say whether the mayor would sign the bill into law but added that “a deal had been struck” with Ms. Menin over the legislation.
The use of horse-drawn carriages has long been a hot-button issue, and the pressure to ban the rides escalated this summer, when Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist from India who was riding in a carriage with his family, died in a fall from a carriage.
In July, after Mr. Mahajan’s death, Mr. Mamdani said he supported “the spirit” of the legislation but added, “We are, however, critical of the insufficiencies of the worker protections.” The bill as written would allow the city to “consider” compensating drivers, providing job placement training and career counseling.
On Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani said on social media that his administration “will make sure workers and owners are protected and the horses are safe.”
The Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents the carriage drivers, said that the current legislation did not go far enough to protect workers.
John Samuelsen, the president of Transport Workers Union International, accused Ms. Menin of “disgraceful political opportunism” and using Mr. Mahajan’s death to “contrive a public safety crisis” about horse-drawn carriages.
He said the bill failed to protect the carriage work force. According to the union, there are 68 medallions for horse-drawn carriages, about 150 active and licensed drivers and about 160 licensed horses.
“Council Speaker Menin’s bill has no meaningful economic relief for workers,” Mr. Samuelsen said in a statement. “It only says the city should prepare a worker transition plan by April 2027 and include weak measures like job fairs and job counseling.”
The bill, he continued, “says the city should ‘consider’ financial compensation for carriage owners who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy city-issued medallions and build up their businesses.”
Ms. Menin said Romanch Mahajan’s death spurred action on the legislation, now known as Romanch’s Law. News of the agreement between City Hall and the speaker’s office on the proposed legislation was first reported by Politico.
“When Romanch was killed, it was, to me, a breaking point where we have to do something,” Ms. Menin said in an interview.
New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, the animal rights group that has fought against the carriages for years, applauded the “long-overdue ban on cruel and dangerous horse-drawn carriages.”
The bill includes language that would require drivers to dispose of their horses humanely, meaning they could not be sold for slaughter, transported for slaughter or sold for use in the horse-drawn carriage industry elsewhere.
Both Ms. Menin and the mayor said they were considering plans to compensate drivers for the loss of their livelihoods.
Ms. Menin has proposed a working group with one representative each appointed by her office, the mayor and the union to develop a plan. She said there were many possibilities to protect drivers, including transitioning to hospitality work or even a job with the city.
A spokesman for Mr. Mamdani said the administration was actively exploring a plan to compensate drivers.
“We have been working closely with the City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders,” said Sneha Choudhary, a spokeswoman for the mayor, “to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all.”
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