Happy Monday in New York City, where the push to ban carriage horses in Central Park gained new urgency last week.

Blowback over the continued use of horses to power Central Park carriage rides has been growing for years, usually spiking when an accident spills out into public view. This month, two incidents occurred that may just spell the final blow for the industry altogether.

It began on June 9, when a 16-year-old horse named Deniz collapsed and died near 72nd Street & West Drive in the middle of a ride. A necropsy concluded that Deniz had eaten a toxic decorative plant called Japanese yew, despite a rule forbidding carriage horses from eating park plants.

Deniz’s death set off a familiar cycle of outrage and finger-pointing — animal rights activists decried the industry as a whole, the union representing carriage drivers blamed the Central Park Conservancy’s landscaping efforts, and the Central Park Conservancy blamed the driver’s negligence.

But the uproar reached a new pitch on June 17, when a carriage horse bolted after its driver stepped away to take a photo. 18-year-old passenger Romanch Mahajan, who was visiting New York to celebrate his graduation, was thrown from the carriage and later died. According to the drivers’ labor union — the Transport Workers Union Local 100 — Mahajan became the first known person to die in a horse-drawn carriage accident since the practice began in Central Park in 1858.

“That this frightening situation is just days after the previous one underscores the dangers posed by horse carriages to Park visitors, carriage drivers, and the horses themselves,” a spokesperson for the Central Park Conservancy said in a statement.

A number of City Councilmembers have promised to revive Ryder’s Law, a bill to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City that stalled last year. Their biggest obstacle remains Local 100, which argues that the carriages provide hundreds of good jobs and a beloved New York tradition, and that simple safety measures like installing hitching posts would prevent further issues.

“We are sad about what happened,” Onur Altintas, a carriage owner, told the Associated Press. “But it’s not like this is happening every day. Car crashes and plane crashes are happening every single day. One horse makes an accident, and the world is destroyed? Come on.”

But the recent tragedies seem to have galvanized a political resolve that may be too powerful to stop. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin both renewed calls for the industry to be abolished, with Menin promising to convene a hearing as soon as next month to discuss a total ban on horse-drawn carriages.

“The time to act is now,” Menin wrote on X.

With the New York Knicks celebrating their first NBA Finals victory in more than half a century, orange-and-blue pride is surging across the city.

Last week, the Brooklyn Eagle caught wind that “The Enforcer” — none other than former NBA power forward and New York Knicks legend Charles Oakley — was in central Brooklyn. 

Oakley appeared at Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton St., for an event hosted by the African American Clergy and Elected Officials, a Brooklyn-based organization that brings together religious leaders, elected officials and community leaders to advocate for community issues.

Addressing the crowd, Oakley said that he has been coming to Brooklyn ever since he was traded to New York in 1988. 

Read on to learn more.

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