1. Democrats used the ubiquitous “keep us safe” excuse for this one, with the impetus being the fatuous Ethics Alarms “Barn Door Fallacy” in an unusually apt application. A freak accident that resulted in a single carriage ride fatality became the justification for “locking the barn door” after the metaphorical horse had…well, bolted and ended up setting in motion events that ended with the death of an 18-year-old tourist. But banning a long-time tradition and tourist attraction because of a single freak accident—that one was the first fatality in a century— is irresponsible and dumb, failing any utilitarian analysis.

2. The accident: Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist from India was in a carriage with his family when the driver stopped the carriage and stepped out to take their picture. The horse bolted, the young man’s mother fell from the carriage, he tried to jump out to help her, lost his balance and hit his head on the ground. So in retribution, or something, his family in India has demanded a carriage ban. (Who asked the carriage driver to stop and take the photo?) The family is also about to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city.

3. The double standard, as usual with the Left, is palpable. As one New Yorker commented, “Illegal immigrants have killed New Yorkers, but sanctuary policies that shield them from being removed from the country remain. Yet a single death justifies banning a legal business.” Bicycles and e-bikes have caused many more deaths and injuries than the carriages while providing no employment or services except to the users.

4. There is speculation that the ban has been contrived to cater to real estate interests eager to develop Manhattan property now occupied by the horse stables.

5. Ann Althouse, who flagged the story, is joined by others online who say that the carriage rides were more enjoyable in theory than in practice, as if that was another good reason to ban them. If someone wants to take an old-fashioned carriage ride, why is it any business of Althouse or anyone else whether the experience is “expensive” or “over-rated”?

6. Mamdani tweeted that he would ensure that the owners and drivers would be “protected” and that the horses would be “safe.” An obvious lie. Jim Gennaro, a councilman and self-described equestrian, says that provisions for the care of the horses to be retired are delusional. An equestrian himself, he estimated the cost of caring for a horse at $25,000 a year. “Sometimes it takes months to find suitable lifelong accommodation for even one 26-year-old retired horse,” he said in a statement. John Samuelsen, the president of the carriage drivers’ union, said that the bill did “not have any protections in it” for workers. The industry employs roughly 150 drivers, a couple of dozen stable hands and farriers who shoe horses. Onur Altintas, a 41-year-old father and driver, owns one carriage medallion for which he paid more than $300,000, and four horses. He says all of them will “go to the slaughterhouse” if the industry is abolished. “They’re going to find a new job for the 60-years-old person?” he asked a Times reporter. “It doesn’t make sense, because that person…invested their past and future for that business. That person cannot do that. You know what they’re going to do? They’re going to [commit] suicide.”