Schulman questions Conservancy on carriage-related costs

I have a couple of questions for the Conservancy.

How much money annually does the Conservancy spend on repairs and maintenance directly related to wear and tear caused

by horse carriages.

Hi, thanks for the question.

Roger Mosier, Chief of Park Operations for the Conservancy.

There's not an annual figure.

It really depends on the projects that we might pursue from time to time.

We find that the surfaces that the horses walk on are extremely deteriorated.

For example, Cherry Hill has a loop around the fountain there, and we need to replace that asphalt due to horse damage, and that project is probably $500,000.

Okay.

How much money does the Conservancy spend on sanitation related to horse waste?

We don't spend money on that.

We don't attempt to clean up after the horses.

We do have a little bit of inefficiency related to working around the horses on our own trash removal, but we don't clean up after the horses.

Has the Conservancy seen an increase in the number of people visiting the park?

Yes.

Thank you for the question.

You know, it's very hard to know.

Our general estimate is that we get 42 million visitors a year.

I think we saw a dramatic increase in general after cars were banned from the park in 2019.

And also during the pandemic, many people came to the park because it was the only place to go.

And I think they have continued those patterns since that time.

So we really have seen a dramatic increase in the last five or six years.

Do you think the banning of horse carriages would affect the number of visitors?

I do not.

I know that there are a certain percentage of tourists who do avail themselves of horse carriages, but I don't think those 42 million people are coming to the park just to take a horse carriage ride.

All right.

Those are my questions.

I'm going to ask Councilmember Gennaro.

He has some questions for you.