Backing the Wrong Horse by Matthew Hennessey, City Journal 17 December 2014MATTHEW HENNESSEY 17 December 2014
Mayor de Blasio’s proposed ban on Central Park horse carriages is making enemies out of allies.
Bill de Blasio’s well-executed 2013 campaign for New York City mayor raised hopes among Gotham progressives that the affable, six-foot-five Democrat was the savvy political operator they’d been waiting for. He appeared to possess remarkable political instincts. He managed to outsmart a well-funded and well-liked insider, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, to secure the Democratic nomination. He demolished a Republican opponent, Joe Lhota, who positioned himself as the heir to the Giuliani/Bloomberg governing legacy. And he engineered the election of his progressive ally, Melissa Mark-Viverito, to succeed Quinn as council speaker, securing his left flank and declawing that institution as a check on his mayoral power.
Once in office, though, de Blasio seemed less sure-footed. The new mayor stumbled into a confrontation over charter schools with the Empire State’s more centrist governor, Andrew Cuomo, and lost—badly. De Blasio believed that he could use the power of his newly acquired office to settle a decade-old political score with charter school operator Eva Moskowitz. Not only is Moskowitz still in business, she’s also expanding her network of Success Academy schools and has consolidated her support. It was an embarrassing introduction to the real world of democratic governance for the former community organizer and city councilor.
But de Blasio hasn’t learned his lesson. In threatening to ban Central Park horse carriages, he is taking on a popular and well-connected industry and making enemies out of natural allies. The 300 or so carriage drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 553, enjoy the support of the Central Labor Council, representing 1.3 million workers in the five boroughs, as well as the left-wing Working Families Party. De Blasio is normally a union favorite. “We support many of the policies on his agenda, from universal pre-K to Vision Zero to immigration,” a spokesman for the Teamsters told me. “We want him to be successful—just not on this particular policy.”
Representatives of the horse carriage industry say that de Blasio has made no effort to reach out. “He’s never come by here to see how the horses are kept, not once,” says carriage driver Conor McHugh. “We’ve had city councilors tour the stables. We’ve had the media. We’ve had Liam Neeson. For all his talk about how bad we are as an industry, you’d think he’d come by just to be able to speak intelligently about it.” Adds driver Paul McDaid: “We’d be nice. It’s not like we’re going to kidnap him.”
If the mayor insists on imposing a ban, carriage driver Stephen Malone says, the industry will sue to protect its livelihood. The proposed ban would take full effect in mid-2016. A lawsuit and subsequent appeals would likely extend into 2017, setting up an agonizing political battle for the mayor as he heads into a reelection campaign.
The proposed ban has its roots in the 2013 mayoral campaign. New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets (NYCLASS), the animal-rights advocacy group founded by real estate developer Steven Nislick that is leading the charge against the carriages, played a key role in helping de Blasio defeat Quinn in the Democratic primary. In June 2013, two of de Blasio’s biggest donors—including his cousin, John Wilhelm—contributeda total of $225,000 to NYCLASS. Two days later, NYCLASS made a $400,000 donation to the independent political action committee, New York Is Not For Sale, which funded attack ads aimed at Quinn. Political campaigns are prohibited from coordinating with such outside groups. The FBI is investigating the donations, and the New York City Campaign Finance Board recently slapped NYCLASS with a $26,000 fine for making improper contributions to two city council candidates last year. …
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