From Manhattan's wild west

On the night shift
Here we see a carriage driver leading a horse eastbound on busy 45th Street, which runs westbound. They managed to maneuver through the evening rush-hour traffic and get to 10th Avenue for the treacherous commute to Central Park. In rush-hour traffic.
Support a ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City, a measure that is endorsed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Ask your City Council member to support the ban (Intro. 658).

New York City's wild west

Can things get worse in Hell's Kitchen?
First, there's Shamrock Stables (pictured), and nearby are two other stables that have been in the news of late. None offers respite for overworked carriage horses.

A brave correspondent gave a hair-raising account of illegal, dangerous, and outrageous misconduct that she witnessed this week in the neighborhood. Not surprisingly, the route would indicate that this involved a carriage driver from one of two southernmost stables, either the awful West Side Livery or the dreadful Central Park Carriage Stables. (The latter, of course, is the stable owned by Cornelius Byrne, who was arrested in December on accusations of attempting to bribe an undercover officer to overlook alleged violations at his stable on West 37th Street).

The driver had traveled north on 11th Avenue, and then turned right on W. 45th Street. WHOA! That's a problem, because at this point the driver was traveling EAST on a WESTBOUND street, by way of the sidewalk!

It got worse. To get right at the busy intersection of 10th Avenue and 45th Street, the driver then decided to cut through the HESS fuel station, a block-long monstrosity of angry taxicab drivers, at-risk pigeons, jaywalking pedestrians, and automobile drivers who zigzag diagonally across the station to get from point A to point Q. Finally the driver pulled out onto 10th Avenue and went the correct way--with traffic--northbound on that dangerous journey to Central Park.
I COULDN'T DREAM THIS UP! Last year, a car knocked over a gas pump at that Hess Station! Thank God for shutoff valves. For the sake of humanity, please don't make horses go the wrong way on a way-way street and walk onto the speedway that is the Hell's Kitchen Hess station.

Good People

Has it really been nearly five months since Cornelius Byrne, owner of Central Park Carriage Stables, was arrested on accusations of offering an undercover investigator $100 to overlook seven alleged violations at his stable? Apparently. As carriage drivers delight in saying, the arrest had nothing to do with any treatment or mistreatment of the horses. Rather, the issue was said to pertain to licenses. For example, the same identification number allegedly was used for two different horses. Read the release from the New York City Department of Investigation.
Go figure. It boggles my mind to contemplate the logic of such. Maybe the city audit of the industry (2007) can shed some light on intricacies of licensing. The drivers also claim to love the audit, because it places blame elsewhere (ie, on lack of oversight). Which is why the ASPCA, HSUS, and many other humane organizations have joined forces as part of a coalition to ban horse-drawn carriages outright--because conditions cannot be made safe for the horses and regulation is not a viable option. Photo credit: Steven Hirsch