Guest Opinion: Putting 150 Carriage Drivers Out of Business is a Scary Step in a Scary Direction

BY ARTHUR SCHWARTZ | You wouldn’t have known it till late October, but there are two sides to the controversy over banning horse-drawn carriages in Central Park—or anywhere else in New York. In October, I found myself meeting with drivers represented by Transport Workers Union Local 100, who were aghast at what was happening to their livelihood. And do you know what? They have quite a case—so much so that I wrote a letter on their behalf to NYC Corporation Counsel Steven Banks threatening to sue the “minute the ink was dry” on an approval of a bill passed by the City Council on October 22. When I looked at their complaint, I found that the city was establishing a precedent which would let it close down any other lawful business in NYC—not based on some public health emergency—but based on noise being made by a small sector of the public. One of my clients, Medet Fidan, is a former yellow cab driver.

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