Read the original article by Michael Gartland at nydailynews.com here.
Now, it’s Hizzoner’s turn to take it on the hoof.
Mayor de Blasio will have to pull back the reins on his new horse carriage rules until further notice, a judge ordered Tuesday.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur F. Engoron wrote in an order the mayor must not “take any action or inaction that would interfere” with horse carriages “until further court order.”
In the latest changes to rules dictating how horse carriages operate in Central Park, the city signaled last week it still intends to prohibit horse carriages from picking up fares outside Central Park.
Those rules are set to go into effect Feb. 15.
But Engoron said whoa — ordering the city to put the skids on any changes that’d remove pick-up spots outside the park.
“Furthermore, defendants shall not take any steps to remove the pick-up designations of horse hacking stations on Central Park South or Grand Army Plaza, until and unless further court notice,” he wrote.
The order is one of the latest twists in a case that began with a complaint filed in October against de Blasio by horse carriage hack Giovanni Paliotta. His lawyer, Angelo DiGangi, contends any new rules on the carriages must come from the City Council — not the de Blasio administration.
“Those rule changes are putting the cart before the horse,” he said. “Legislation needs to be passed.”
Team de Blasio responded the order doesn’t prevent the administration from moving “forward with preparations necessary to ready the new horse carriage pickup sites within Central Park.”
“The parties are scheduled to be back in court on February 8, 2019, and the city is hopeful that at that appearance the court will allow the new regulations to go fully into effect,” said city Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci.
