Heritage or Humane Progress for Horse Carriages?

MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

A push to ban New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry is intensifying with Ryder’s Law, legislation that would phase out the practice by June 1, 2026, and replace the carriages with electric vehicles.

The bill, formally titled Intro 0967, was introduced by City Council Member Robert Holden and has more than a dozen co-sponsors. It would also require humane disposition of carriage horses, prohibiting their sale for slaughter or transfer to other carriage businesses.

The proposal follows years of controversy and repeated incidents of horses collapsing, bolting into traffic, or dying while working in Manhattan. Public outrage surged in August 2022 when Ryder, a 26-year-old underweight horse, collapsed on Ninth Avenue in the summer heat. He died weeks later.

Chris Green, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), said the case highlighted the dangers horses face daily.

“This is important because well, they keep dying on New York streets, that would be top of my list. I mean, it’s just this horrific anachronism. You know, horses were not meant to walk on pavement and just being in traffic and it’s happening pretty regularly,” Green said.

He pointed to multiple incidents in recent years, including crashes and heat-related collapses, as evidence that regulation has failed.

“Records show that children, cyclists, pedestrians, carriage drivers, passengers, and even New York Police Department and police officers had all been physically injured by accidents involving New York’s horse carriages,” Green said. “In one of those instances, a child was rushed to the hospital after falling out of the carriage and being run over by the wheel.”

Under current law, horses can be worked nine hours a day, seven days a week, and are housed in cramped midtown stalls with no pasture access. Green said the conditions compound the risks.

“Heat, you know? I mean, New York City gets hot, and that’s when it’s high tourist season,” he said. “And again, they’re doing that nine hours a day, seven days a week, and they’ve got no access to anywhere else to get through any other sort of just normal exercise or run or… it’s not just an animal welfare issue, although the animal welfare concerns are huge, you know, it’s a really public safety issue as well.”

Courtesy Animal Legal Defense Fund

Ryder’s Law has been referred to the Council’s Committee on Health, but advocates say progress has stalled under pressure from the Transport Workers Union, which represents carriage drivers.

“So, it’s just, it’s really frustrating when you have something that’s very obvious, animal cruelty and public safety issue, and you’ve got 70% of New Yorkers wanting it, but you’ve got these sorts of special interests controlling, preventing it from happening at the city council level,” Green said.

Other cities including Chicago, Biloxi, Camden, Las Vegas, London and Paris have already banned horse-drawn carriages. Green said New York could follow suit by embracing alternatives.

“There was back in like 2014, or 15, the same donors that had sort of knocked out de Blasio competitor, paid all this money to develop this really amazing looking electric carriage. It was huge, and it turned so many heads. I went for a ride in it once. You know, there’s, there’s a lot of things you could do that would be just as appealing to tourists and having an actual, you know, poor animal having to drag them around,” Green said.

For Green, the stakes are moral as well as practical.

“As a resident, I think, you know, there’s the famous Gandhi quote that the moral progress of a nation can be measured by how it treats its animals,” he said. “And you know, as a city, people want to be proud of the city that they live in, and if their city is allowing this type of very visible, overt cruelty to continue where you’ve got literally, these poor horses dropping dead on the streets of New York, sort of with alarming frequency now, yeah, so why? Why are we letting our city do this?”

The ALDF is urging New Yorkers to contact their City Council members in support of Ryder’s Law.

“You can just contact your city council member and ask them why the hell this hasn’t happened yet,” Green said. “Hold your council members’ feet to the fire and just ask them to justify why they’re allowing this type of cruelty to continue.”

As lawmakers and animal welfare advocates press for Ryder’s Law, which would phase out New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry, Cowboy Eddie of Lynne’s Riding Center in Forest Hills sees things differently.

Eddie, whose family-run stables date back to 1960, said the industry has safeguards in place to ensure horses are not overworked. “Number one, I think that measures have been taken to make sure that the horses are well kept. As a matter of fact, my stables, were asked to be a vacation spot for those city horses that they have to be relieved from their duties at least two weeks a year, or something like a vacation, where they don’t work at all, and they are really taken off the premises and brought to another location.”

According to Eddie, horses thrive when given work to do. “I think that the if those horses weren’t being used for what they are doing, which they love to do, and horses love to pull. They love to work. They love it. They can’t wait to get out there and just do it. And what these people don’t know. If those horses weren’t out there, they’d be dead somewhere. They’d be euthanized, and they’d be useless just because they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”

Eddie argued that the recent collapses and deaths, including Ryder’s, are being misrepresented. “The last horse had a blood clot or something. So… I don’t think it’s abuse, not at all,” he said, adding that the ASPCA inspects barns like his regularly.

Concerns about extreme heat or cold, Eddie said, are misplaced. “Horses don’t feel the hot pavement because a horse’s hoof is made out of the same thing your fingernail is made out of. Yeah, they don’t transfer heat or cold. You see what I’m saying?” He added that horses are naturally adapted to both seasons. “In the wintertime they grow thick, hairy coats… and in the springtime… I cut away the winter coats to expose the summer coat.”

To Eddie, the bigger issue is preserving New York’s horse heritage. “Me personally talking to an old school guy. I think that New York is one of the largest appreciated horse states in the country. I mean, we have Aqueduct, Belmont, Yonkers Raceway, Saratoga… the oldest surviving horse ranch, cowboy ranch in the country is in New York. There’s a deep Hollow Ranch, which is in Montauk that’s been there since the 1800s. So, I understand that they need the space well, as long as they got the space and the availability to take care of those horses, like I believe they do, I think that they’re doing a disservice to this, to the state, by not allowing that heritage to be still existing in Central Park.”

The future of New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry now hangs in the balance, caught between competing visions of heritage and humane progress. As the debate continues in the City Council, New Yorkers face a defining question: whether to uphold tradition or chart a new path that reimagines the iconic carriage ride for a modern era.

Courtesy  S9 Architecture

MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday announced plans to transform the long-vacant Flushing Airport in Queens into a new community featuring 3,000 homes and 60 acres of open space, marking one of the largest housing proposals on city-owned land in decades.

The $3.2 billion redevelopment will be led by Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR Incorporated. Officials say it will create more than 1,300 union construction jobs and over 500 permanent careers. Construction is expected to begin in 2028, following the city’s land use review and environmental approvals.

“For too many decades, this valuable land has sat vacant, but our administration said it was time to change that,” Adams said. “We issued a landmark executive order to build housing on city-owned sites like this one and now, we are excited to announce we will create around 3,000 new homes at the site of the former Flushing Airport.”

The project will be financed and built with union pension dollars and labor. Developers plan to incorporate sustainable construction, explore the use of mass timber, and design wetlands-compatible landscaping that includes walking paths, sitting areas and wildlife habitat.

“The redevelopment of the former Flushing Airport will deliver thousands of affordable and accessible homes that are financed by, built by, and lived in by union workers, as a result of our partnership with Cirrus and Mayor Adams,” said Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.

Originally opened in 1927, Flushing Airport was once the city’s busiest airfield before being decommissioned in 1984. Since then, the site has largely reverted to marshland. Adams said the plan will repurpose a piece of Queens history into homes for working families.

“At the dawn of modern aviation a century ago, Flushing Airport made history as New York City’s first-ever airfield and eventually the busiest airport in the five boroughs. But today, we’re beginning the process of repurposing that incredible piece of Queens’ history into a critical aspect of Queens’ future,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr.

Union leaders and labor groups hailed the announcement as a turning point for affordable workforce housing in the city.

“This transformative project to build working class housing will be built by the members of Building Trades unions such as Steamfitters Local 638,” said Robert Bartels Jr., business manager of the union. “As a union, we have the simple belief that if you build something, then you should be able to afford to live in it.”

Joseph McDonnell, managing partner of Cirrus Workforce Housing, said the development would prioritize middle-class New Yorkers. “Cirrus looks forward to collaborating with local elected officials, labor unions, community organizations, and residents to bring this transformative project to life,” he said.

Adams has pledged to build 500,000 new homes by 2032, calling the city’s housing crisis “generational.” Officials said the Flushing Airport project will play a critical role in that goal, alongside rezonings and other city-led housing initiatives.

“This proposal is exactly what working New Yorkers have been waiting for — thousands of new homes, good union jobs, and a healthier future for our communities,” said Joseph Azzopardi, business manager and secretary treasurer of the District Council 9 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said the housing could also help keep police officers and first responders in the city they serve. “This development is a welcome step toward making it easier for New York City police officers and our fellow first responders to live in the city we protect,” Hendry said.

NYCEDC President and CEO Andrew Kimball said the project will strike a balance between growth and preservation. “The redevelopment of the former Flushing Airport is finally ready for take-off,” Kimball said. “We are thrilled to work with Cirrus and LCOR to transform this long-vacant site into a mixed-use project that will deliver thousands of workforce housing units, new public green space, and other community amenities all while protecting and preserving the wetlands.”

MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

Andrew Sokolof Díaz, a lifelong Jackson Heights resident and dedicated community advocate, was presented the Irma E. Rodriguez Queens Community Builder Award on June 12, 2025, in recognition of his persistent efforts to unite neighbors and safeguard affordable housing in Queens.

The award, established in 2013 by Queens Community House (QCH), honors Queens residents who embody humility, tenacity, kindness, courage, compassion, and collaboration—qualities that the late community leader Irma E. Rodriguez championed throughout her life. The annual Celebrating Local Heroes event also recognized Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. for his leadership in advancing community values amid challenging times.

Sokolof Díaz’s commitment to tenant rights and community resilience has been unwavering. Born, raised, and now raising his family in Jackson Heights, he co-founded the 89th Street Tenants Unidos Association with his wife Jacqueline in 2017. This grassroots group played a critical role in preserving 133 units of deeply affordable housing, protecting longtime residents from displacement in an increasingly gentrified neighborhood.

“I’m a Queens kid. I was born here in Jackson Heights. I’m still here in Jackson Heights. I’m raising my son here with my wife at our building that we return to where we run the tenants Association,” Sokolof Díaz said.

His activism gained new urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many tenants faced job losses and food insecurity. Sokolof Díaz organized a food mutual aid network within his largely Latino immigrant building and helped lead a successful rent strike. “The pandemic, people had no food, literally. So we had to bring food every week from wherever we could for months,” he recalled.

In April 2021, an eight-alarm fire devastated several rent-stabilized buildings in Jackson Heights, displacing over 500 residents. The fire, sparked by an electrical fault in a senior’s apartment, led to months of uncertainty and threats of demolition. Sokolof Díaz and fellow tenant leaders mobilized legal aid, local nonprofits, and elected officials, including a high-profile press conference with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to demand humane treatment and long-term housing solutions.

“We were able to save the buildings overall, which is another big feat for us. It’s 132 units of really deeply affordable housing,” he said, noting that more than 90% of displaced families returned home after two years.

He credited the strength of community networks for this success. “There’s a lot of community support in Jackson Heights, the restaurants and the people that like brought us thanksgiving meals when people were still living in hotels with their children. That made it humane,” Sokolof Díaz said.

His advocacy extends beyond his immediate neighborhood. He has supported families affected by other fires in the Bronx and Sunnyside and is actively engaged with coalitions like FED-UP and Jackson Heights Indivisible, opposing private development on public land, including a contentious casino proposal.

Sokolof Díaz is firmly opposed to the proposed casino development in Flushing Meadows Park. Speaking from his experience as a tenant advocate, he called the casino plan “one of the most egregious, like thefts, that’s being sanctioned by all of our elected officials.” He emphasized that such projects threaten working-class communities by driving displacement and worsening affordability, saying, “I’m completely, completely opposed to any idea of a casino, let alone in this part of Queens, but in any working-class community.”

In his view, protecting tenants from displacement is inseparable from broader fights against economic and social injustice. “We’re under attack on all fronts in Queens, the working class communities, the immigrant communities here, are all under attack at all angles economically. It’s so important that we’re here, so that we’re not just like responding, but we’re able to push back,” he said.

Receiving the Irma E. Rodriguez Award was a meaningful milestone for Sokolof Díaz. “Personally? It means a lot. I’ve never been personally recognized for, for what I’ve been doing for, I guess, a decade or so now. It feels great. It feels really nice to be recognized,” he shared. Still, he emphasized the collective nature of community work: “It also shows that there’s, like so many other people out there that are, aren’t, you know, necessarily being recognized, but being elevated, so they can do the work they do.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. praised QCH’s role in fostering community during turbulent times. “What we have to do especially during this time, when we see civil rights under attack, women’s rights under attack, immigrant rights under attack, democracy under attack, we have to make sure that every community feels seen in our borough,” Richards said.

Queens Community House, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, serves over 26,000 children, youth, adults, and older adults annually across 40 sites in 15 neighborhoods. Executive Director Ben Thomases highlighted the organization’s mission: “In a world of increasing division and social isolation, QCH remains committed to building a Queens where everyone belongs.”

When asked what advice he would offer new organizers or residents interested in tenant advocacy and mutual aid, Sokolof Díaz said simply, “Don’t hesitate. You know, just, just talk to your next door neighbor, and that’s all it takes is to just begin talking to each other. Sometimes we’re looking for heroes and others to come save us, and it’s, it’s us, you know, who, who have the answers.”

Sokolof Díaz also acknowledged the personal sacrifices involved in his activism. “I was displaced in the fire with my wife and my infant son at the time. It’s very hard for people to organize and do this when they have their own families. I want to thank my wife and son, my family and friends who I lost time with and who sacrificed to support the work that I undertook to protect our affordable housing and mitigate our displacement” he said.