Tony Avella showed up at an Eastside event last night to protest the use of horse-driven carriages in New York City. The idea to ban them for the inhumanity of the practice has been around for a while, but progress has been slow. Organizers put together a video to make dual use of the word "blinders" to inform tourists and locals alike and shocked the most friendly crowd. Though no one is really sure if anything got done.
From The NY Observer:
In a small theater on East Third St. at around 8:00 p.m. on Sept. 26, you wouldn’t have wanted to be a carriage-horse driver.
It was a benefit screening of Blinders: The Truth Behind the Tradition, which documents the alleged abuses of the horses that ferry tourists around Central Park in hansom cabs. Before the film had even started, organizers ejected a driver for threatening to disrupt the event, and a sympathizer was thrown out when he showed his pro-carriage colors during the question-and-answer session afterward.
But you wouldn’t have minded being city councilman and long-shot mayoral candidate Tony Avella, who has been making political hay out of the issue ever since the untimely death of Spotty the horse in 2006.
Playing to a crowd of several hundred adoring Eastsiders after the screening, the white-haired Councilman said, “Speaker Christine Quinn just goes along with what the mayor wants.”
For those that followed the issue, Quinn and 45 others on the Council have remained mum, most likely out of deference to the Mayor, who promotes NYC for everything and anything. Our city has so many great attractions for the tens of millions that pass through here every year, but the carriages do not have to be a part of it. One thing is for sure that as long as Bloomberg is Mayor, nothing will change.
Of course there are on-going talks about alternatives, but so far I haven't seen any proof that there is any hope of movement in the near future. However, with enough pressure we'll be able to join other forward-thinking cities across the world...probably even before the MTA can build the 2nd Ave. subway.
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