Conor McHugh (carriage driver/owner) testifies opposing ban

Connor McHugh, thank you for having the hearing.

I've been a carriage driver for 40 years, a carriage medallion owner for 36 years, and a stable manager for 22 years, all collectively at the same time.

I will tell you that being a carriage driver in Central Park is one of the best jobs you can have in New York City.

There are 68 horse-drawn cab medallions in New York City, and collectively we have invested millions of dollars over the years in our business.

Taking a horse and carriage ride in Central Park is one of the most iconic things to do in New York City, and people from all over the world know about us and travel to New York to come for a carriage ride in the park.

A ride in the park is folklore.

In the past 20 years, there's been a concerted effort to drive us off our land on the west side and out of our buildings in Manhattan.

And this coincides with the fact that we are a very small town.

with the rezoning of the area now referred to as the Hudson Yards, where all of our stables are located.

And this intimidation has taken various forms over the years between reporting us to ICE and the IRS.

Keyboard warriors trashing us on social media and animal rights volunteers who have come to Central Park to harass our drivers and the business in general and create an unsafe situation in Central Park.

It is no wonder that their actions have caused incidents and accidents over the year.

On more than one occasion, some of these people, the people who testified here before you today, have been arrested for attacking and assaulting carriage drivers and our customers.

And I'm sure you're well aware that New York class over the years had to pay thousands of dollars in fines because of campaign finance violations.

As we know from history, the best way to steal people's land is to ridicule and demonize and ultimately bankrupt them until they no longer can pay their bills.

In Ireland, the British planted yew trees and shrubs on the land that they stole from us in order to poison the peasants'livestock if they wandered into their lands.

Central Park Conservancy, I see, has adopted the same policy.

While paying themselves tens of millions of dollars in salary, they have planted poisonous yews all over Central Park, and nobody knows who's been poisoned.

by them, except that thankfully we were able to identify what happened to our horse.

God knows how many horses they have poisoned.

And just like the Brits, they blame the victim.

In addition, the Central Park Conservancy has introduced in the last 10 years or so approximately 800 motorized pedicabs to Central Park.

I know the Speaker did a study on this, and you found that 93% of the pedicabs operating in Central Park are motorized illegally, and as you know, almost none of them are actually licensed at all.

And they ramshackle through Central Park every day, but you want to blame us for the racket that has been created in Central Park.

I beseech you to drop this bill completely and instead consider Jim Gennaro's bill.

If you pass this, this is a total act of vandalism and a miscarriage of justice on trumped-up charges, the worst that New York City will ever perpetrate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

I'm sorry.

Who?

Okay.