Council Member Carr explains no votes on COPA and horse carriage bill

Permission to explain my vote?

Permission granted.

Make sure the minority leader gets five minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Majority Leader.

I joined government and sought to join government years ago because I had a passionate commitment to both the right to private property as well as to our free enterprise system.

Private property because history has shown that it is a critical cornerstone to our system of political and economic rights.

And the free market because while imperfect, it is the best proven way of bringing the most prosperity to the most people.

And I'll be voting against the new version of COPPA today because it limits the rights of property owners.

It may be a circumstance where I have great sympathy for the tenants in the buildings that will be

covered by this legislation and I have very little sympathy for the owners who are selling, but our political rights are sacrosanct and that

That doesn't change based on the sympathy I have for the individuals who possess them.

That's the whole point of these political rights, is to ensure that everyone has access to them regardless of our opinion of them and the circumstances in which they're availing themselves of it.

And similarly, I cannot in good conscience vote in favor of Intro 943A.

This is the council ending a particular means of employment.

And colleagues invoked earlier, you know, other forms of employment, other ways of earning a living that once existed in our city and no longer do.

The examples given, like the milk delivery person, these are jobs that disappeared because of advances in employment and technology, rather, or because of changes in the marketplace.

Unlike, for example, the one my great-grandparents worked in, which was the fur coat industry, they labored in the garment district here in Manhattan in the Depression era.

That was an industry that was ended in New York City by the council.

So I cannot in good conscience support an end to this particular means of work and livelihood for so many New Yorkers when it is no more dangerous than the other means of getting around our city.

Getting around New York City is dangerous, whether it's by car, by for-hire vehicle, by bus, by bike, or other means, even horse carriages.

And when there are issues that need to be addressed in terms of safety, we address them through regulation as we have done.

And so I do hope that since the bill appears a poison,

to pass today that the commitments that have been articulated here and before today about finding an opportunity for these folks, owners and workers, to continue to earn a living in a way that keeps them

in the life to which they are accustomed, in a way that keeps them in having dignity in the workplace and in their home.

I hope that we...

Meet those expectations.

And so that being said, I vote no on intros 786A, 905A, 943B, and pre-considered resolution 695, and I on the rest.

Thank you.