The "Progressive" Bill DeBlasio

Bill De Blasio, New York City's new Mayor, will be a continuing source of poorly reasoned policy pronouncements if the following is any indication.  Jillian Kay Melchior has reported these comments: 

“‘We are going to get rid of horse carriages, period,’ Bill de Blasio said Monday. ‘We are going to quickly and aggressively move to make horse carriages no longer a part of the landscape. . . . They are not humane. They are not appropriate for the year 2014. It’s over. So, just watch us do it.’ … De Blasio has suggested that the horse carriages, which have been an iconic Central Park attraction since 1858, should be replaced with electric cars.”

This brought to mind the case of Connally v. McDermott, 162 Cal. App. 3d 973, 208 Cal. Rptr. 796 (1984), in which the California Court of Appeal concluded that an easement for "access by men and horses for livestock herding operations" did not include motorcycle access.  Said the court: 

    "Anyone who does not think there is a significant difference between horses and motorcycles may wish to ponder why it is that carriges in Central Park are pulled by horses, not Hondas."

There is nothing like the romance of touring Central Park in the back seat of a Volt. 

More substantively, Melchior explodes the myth that the Central Park horses are mistreated.  Abolition of horse-drawn carriages will likely produce the slaughter of the unemployed horses.  Given the option, I'll bet the horses would like to have the job.  Good luck, New York. 

Comments

[Cent Rieker]

I'm neither a PETA member nor an Equine speaker, so not sure how horses feel about the issue. I am a human being that would like to run in the Park or get to the softball fields during the summer without smelling obscene amounts of horse excrement thank you very much. If tourists, or conservatives at the National Review object, all the merrier! Better yet, they can stay downtown and complain about the "Ground Zero Mosque" at the sacred ground of an old Burlington Coat Factory next to a dive bar and shady strip club. Hizzoner is already doing a great job!

[Anon]

By "poorly reasoned," I assume you mean reasoning that you disagree with.

[E]

Slave labor or death, what do you prefer, Calvin? Some captive dolphins have committed suicide to escape the forced "fun shows" for tourists. Shall we let the horses decide rather than speak for them?

[anon]

ANyone who owns a cat knows how desperately it wants to get out of the gilded cage in which it is forced to live.
Sure, the cat will purr, but also dash for the door every time it opens. THat cat wants out of that paradise you have created for it (and, of course, we know that not all cat owners create a paradise, treat their pets well, etc.)
Birds are kept in little cages. Think of all the big dogs forced to live in tiny NY apartments with about as much time out as the prisoners get when sentenced to serve time in a high security prison (leading to all sorts of horrible ailments).
ALl this to gratify human need for unconditional love, to be important to and for someone or something, to give children a living toy to play with, etc.
To the high-minded folks jumping on Calvin (and raising irrelevant issues to boot), I ask: Ban all use of animals for human pleasure?
Or, use bags to contain the refuse? Dog "dirt" is highly regulated as well, from what I read.
It seems that NY has some detailed regs regarding the horses, and the police use them too.
Perhaps it is wrong, but then, isn't human use of animals for pleasure almost always so? Is use of animals for food also wrong?

[Jake Stevens]

What is this point of this grumpy old man semi-post? De Blasio was elected promising to get rid of the horse draw carriages in central park. Are you surprised he is going to follow through on his promise?

[lgv4444]

The electric carriage can be equipped with a speaker belting out the clippety-clop of hooves on pavement, a la Monty Python's "The Holy Grail". It will all work out just fine.