Free Republic

NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio loped into a Brooklyn homeless shelter one day late last month, eager to demonstrate his command over a mushrooming homeless crisis that had already forced out two of his top advisers. Folding his 6-foot-5 frame in half, the Democratic mayor crouched down to hand out gifts to children, praised his team for “extraordinary work” and then faced a pack of reporters, one of whom asked why it took “so long” to make homelessness “a top priority.” “It’s been a priority from the beginning,” de Blasio insisted before adding, “No administration has cracked the...

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's bill to ban horse-drawn carriages reached the City Council on Monday, in a move to phase out the carriages that often give tours around Central Park. The legislation says that as of June 1, 2016, "it shall be unlawful to operate a horse-drawn vehicle in the city of New York or offer rides to the public on a vehicle drawn or pulled by a carriage horse." ... It also boosts the penalty for breaking horse-carriage rules to a maximum of $25,000 instead of the current $500. The proposed ban was introduced one day after...

A horse-drawn carriage driver was hospitalized in critical condition after the animal bolted for blocks through midtown Manhattan, crashing into a station wagon and leaving the man in a pool of blood, witnesses and police said. "It was horrifying,'' said Robyn Hussa, who saw the horse racing through traffic Monday night. "It was like a nightmare.'' The horse, which had no passengers in its carriage, smashed into the station wagon at 50th Street and Ninth Avenue around 9:30 p.m., injuring two men in the car, fire department Chief Jim Hodgens said. The carriage driver was thrown into the street, which...