Sunday, October 20, 2013

De Blasio hedges on carriage ban after union nod


Whoa there!


A month after gaining the endorsement of the powerful union that supports carriage drivers, Democratic candidate for mayor Bill de Blasio is pulling back the reins on a promise to immediately ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park if elected.


At a March forum sponsored by animal-rights group NYCLASS, de Blasio said banning horses in the park would be an urgent priority.


“I would ban the horse carriages in Central Park within the first week on the job,” he insisted.


But since he received the endorsement of the union that represents the carriage drivers, the Teamsters, a month ago, de Blasio has rarely spoken of it.


Asked on Sunday if he still planned to crack the whip in his first week, his position appeared to have softened.


“I’d start it. Like many things, you start the process, and things that you care about, you start it right away,” de Blasio said.


Not everyone is buying it.


“De Blasio’s position on ending the carriage industry on Day One was always a bunch of horses–t designed to curry favor with animal-rights activists,” said one Democratic activist.


The Teamsters voted to endorse him after a secret meeting last month before a packed room of about 100 union members. De Blasio never put the meeting on his public schedule and refused to speak to reporters afterward.


When he was on the City Council in 2007 and had a chance to sign on as a co-sponsor of legislation seeking to stop the horse-carriage rides, he took a pass.


After becoming public advocate in 2009, he had a change of heart and quickly became the favorite of well-heeled animal-rights activists who opened up their wallets.


Dan Levitan, de Blasio’s campaign spokesman, has said that the mayoral front-runner was skeptical about ending the horse-carriage tradition in 2007 but that advocates convinced him that protecting the horses was “more important than the tradition.” He said de Blasio still intends to end it but didn’t specify when.


De Blasio, 52, wants to see vintage cars replace the 200 horses — an idea similar to one floated by his GOP rival, Joe Lhota, who has said he’d like to see the carriages motorized.


NYCLASS, a nonprofit dedicated to banning horse-drawn carriages, has been a powerful influence in the mayor’s race and one of de Blasio’s biggest benefactors.


It poured six-figure money into a political action committee that attacked onetime primary front-runner Christine Quinn, as an animal hater for her support for the industry and spent nearly $ 124,000 on an anti-Quinn effort before the September primary.


Steve Nislick, a NYCLASS co-founder, ponied up the maximum $ 4,950 for de Blasio’s campaign. His NYCLASS pals, Wendy and John Neu, chipped in $ 9,900. And Jay Eisenhofer, an attorney who is de Blasio’s largest campaign bundler, gave NYCLASS $ 50,000 in donations, records show.


The $ 15 million-a-year industry employs about 300 drivers and the Teamsters want to keep the jobs.


It’s not the first time de Blasio has flip-flopped after receiving donations or support.


The billboard industry got de Blasio to push for loosening restrictions when he was a councilman and then gave him $ 8,000 in campaign contributions for his public advocate run.


And the yellow cab industry gave de Blasio an astonishing $ 250,000 in contributions in 2013. The Democrat came out against the mayor’s outer-borough taxi plan, which he’d initially supported.





Yahoo Local News – New York Post




http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=16074

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