For more than 150 years, horse-drawn carriages have been trotting through Manhattan’s Central Park, weathering the arrival of the automobile, years of criticism from animal rights activists and even a mayoral administration that vowed to ban the tourist activity.
But now the influential nonprofit that manages the 843-acre park – and has previously stayed out of the debate – has now thrown its support behind a proposal to wind down the industry as early as next summer.
The Central Park Conservancy argued in an Aug. 12 letter to the City Council that horse carriages have an outsized impact on public safety and road infrastructure in the increasingly crowded park…