Posts Tagged ‘horse’
tourist routes
A query, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The “Big Little Mayor,” as opposed to that former elected official whom I often referred to as the “Little Big Mayor,” has announced intentions to put the Horse and Carriage businesses found along Central Park on 59th street out of business.
For generations of tourists, these carriage rides have long been a feature of a trip to New York City, and remain a romanticized experience dreamt of by many. Most New Yorkers, myself included, haven’t partaken in a ride – with expense often cited as the reason why. Many will include that they do not wish to ride one because “it’s cruel to the horses.”
Do these animals suffer for the fey attentions of the idle rich and the amusement of vagabond tourists, or are they working animals pursuing an occupation?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The animal rights people, many of whom act like wild eyed sociopaths and privileged ideologues when you actually meet them in person, claim that this business exhibits a particularly wicked form of cruelty in subjecting the horses to the pressures of the urban setting. They do make a salient and thought provoking point about the welfare and quality of husbandry of these beasts, points which are worthy of both discussion and debate. Of course, trying to have a conversation with an activist of any persuasion is akin to fostering a meaningful dialogue about the efficacy of multiculturalism with a klansman – their mind is made up.
Also, if New York City is too harsh an environment for horses, then what about humans?
Personally, I’d be kind of interested in what the condition of these horses looked like from a farmer’s POV.
Preferably an Amish farmer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Liam Neeson and the NY Daily News support continuance of the Horse and Carriage trade in busy midtown traffic, Big Little Mayor and others wish to see the atavist conveyances replaced by a Disneyesque automobile propulsed by electrical batteries. Personally, I see efficacy on both sides, and would like to add my own rather Malthusian bit of reasoning about the subject –
The only reason that horses continue to exist is because human beings see value in them and have ordained it so. The horses were smart enough to play ball with the Human Race, early on, just like the dogs did – so we didn’t kill all of them back in the Ice Age like the Giant Sloth and those giant Flightless Birds. Take away the occupation or value of a critter, and human beings will extinct the shit out of it right quick. My favorite animal right is the right to live, but that’s a whole other conversation, and the one thing I’d like to see less than a horse get hit by a truck is a horse going to the glue factory.
And so, as to my query – what’s your opinion on this one, Lords and Ladies? Tempest in a teapot, or something that needs fixing?
There are three public Newtown Creek walking tours coming up, one in Queens and one in Brooklyn and two that walk the currently undefended border of the two boroughs.
Poison Cauldron, with Atlas Obscura, on April 26th.
Click here for more info and ticketing.
DUPBO, with Newtown Creek Alliance and MAS Janeswalk, on May 3rd.
Click here for more info and ticketing.
Modern Corridor, with Brooklyn Brainery, on May 18th.
Click here for more info and ticketing.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
what manner
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hideous memory recalls an age whereupon your humble narrator dwelt within the Shining City of Manhattan.
The Upper West Side, as I knew it (I lived upper upper west side, just a few blocks shy of Harlem), was a bit seedier in those days than it is today. The neighborhood has gone strictly upper crust in the last decade and has in the process lost an idiosyncratic charm which once possessed it.
Atavist professional relationships from that period of my life persist, which have drawn me uptown on a semi regular basis over the last few weeks.
from wikipedia
The Upper West Side is bounded on the south by 58th Street, Central Park to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. Its northern boundary is somewhat less obvious. Although it has historically been cited as 110th Street, which fixes the neighborhood alongside Central Park, it is now sometimes considered to be 125th Street, encompassing Morningside Heights. This reflects demographic shifts in Morningside Heights, as well as the tendency of real estate brokers to co-opt the tony Upper West Side name when listing Morningside Heights and Harlem apartments. The area north of West 96th Street and east of Broadway is also identified as Manhattan Valley. The overlapping area west of Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Park was once known as the Bloomingdale District.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An Accountant and an Optometrist are my only ties to this place, for like me, most of my friends have long vacated. The latter relationship, the one with my Optometrist, has been developing into a bit of an ongoing and somewhat endless saga but I won’t bore you with tales of incompetence today. A few old acquaintances still inhabit here, but most of the restaurants and bars frequented during a long tenancy are either lost or have transformed beyond all recognition due to the influences of the Real Estate Industrial Complex.
Big Nick’s is still open, thank christ.
Regarding the legendary Sal and Carmines Pizza… “Hank the Elevator Guy” texted me the other day with this exact quote:
“Ah, even with sal now making pizza for god this place still got it, carmine is still there looking like he always did, pissed off. But the pizza is just the way it always is. Pretty fucking good.”
from businessweek.com
…thousands of homebuilders, real estate agents, civil-rights leaders, and bankers who aim to deliver a similar message to Congress: Preserve government support for housing. Together, these groups represent what one might call, with apologies to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a real estate-industrial complex that transcends partisan politics, geography, and socio-economic divides.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One could simply take the Astoria to Manhattan bound train to midtown and transfer from the Broadway local to… a Broadway local… but instead the path one elects to follow is defined by walking from 5th and 59th up to Broadway in the 70’s. Interesting Architecture on the way, well cared for, Upper West Side is the poster child for gentrification.
Not for me anymore, but not some blasted hell hole. Me, I like blasted hell holes.
The only part of the walk I mind is when the carriage horses, whose tenders await customers along Central Park South, gaze at me. I fully understand the role and reality of working animals, attempt not to project an anthropomorphized soul upon them, but it is impossible to not feel empathy for pack animals who spend their days around automobile traffic.
I feel guilty when these critters look me directly in my eye, how about you?
from aspca.org
The ASPCA believes that carriage horses were never meant to live and work in today’s urban setting. In addition to the dangers of working in congested areas, these horses spend their days directly behind cars, trucks and buses, inhaling their fumes. Given the constraints and challenges that New York City presents, and as the primary enforcer of New York City’s carriage horse laws, the ASPCA does not believe New York City can meet the needs of its horses. Neither the New York City environment nor the current law can provide horses with the fundamental necessities to ensure their safety and well being.
The Newtown Pentacle 