Steve Nislick
There was a time in this city — during the dangerous, near-broke 1970s — when a significant number of residents contemplated escape.
To find the grievance that could lead at least one well-known figure to abandon this town in safe, prosperous 2012, check the website of the animal- rights group NYCLASS.
“New York, u know how much I love you. But if I see another horse and carriage struggling in this winter weather, I may not be able 2 be here,” reads the Twitter message of “Glee” star Lea Michele.
Welcome to the city’s horse wars, where the gentlemanly rules of engagement don’t apply and just about any hyperbole goes in attempts to influence public opinion.
Through deft organizing, doses of star power and infusions of money, animal-rights advocates have the 77-year-old carriage-horse industry on its back legs, fighting to maintain its very existence.
Arguments that working carriage horses belong on farms instead of Manhattan stables have been made for years. But in the past two years, the opposition has reached a fever pitch. Nearly a third of the 51 City Council members have signed onto a bill that would replace the clip-clopping of the horses in Central Park with the hum of vintage electric cars.
Industry officials credit — or blame — Steve Nislick, the founder of NYCLASS (“New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets”) for using his connections and clout to re-energize the carriage-horse abolition movement.
Nislick serves as CEO of Edison Properties, a privately held real-estate company founded in 1956 that owns and operates parking facilities, mini-storage spaces and office buildings. He co-founded NYCLASS in 2008.
There are whispers that his end goal is to grab the stables, which sit on valuable land on the far West Side, for development purposes. Nislick has angrily disputed that charge as ludicrous, considering he wouldn’t be able to control what happens once the stables shut.
Realizing who holds the reins of power in the Council, Nislick became a major fund-raiser for Speaker Christine Quinn, who insiders say is keeping an open mind of the issue despite comments he made about the sordidness of campaign finance.
Those candid remarks were secretly recorded by an undercover supporter of the carriage industry who posed as a NYCLASS volunteer for four months to get the goods on its operations. Nislick was captured saying his donations to council members were a “morally corrupt investment” but necessary to stop 220 horses from pulling tourists through Central Park.
At this point, the industry’s chief protector is Mayor Bloomberg, who isn’t buying claims that horses don’t belong in such a congested urban environment. He has no further to look than the NYPD’s mounted unit for the contrary evidence.
Tourists, a high priority for the mayor, seem taken with the horses. There were long lines at the carriage stands over the mild New Year’s holiday.
Mayoral aides said questions about whether the city would allow electric cars to carry tourists over the horse paths of Central Park are moot, since the city won’t permit the horses to be banished in the first place.
It seems unlikely that Quinn — who is looking for Bloomberg’s support in the 2013 mayoral election — will go to the mat with him on this issue.
But NYCLASS has another key ally, the mayor’s younger daughter, Georgina. A world-class equestrian, she is the first name listed on its website of prominent supporters in the horse world.
Georgina has thus far elected not to take a more active role. But actress Pamela Anderson hasn’t been as shy. She’s made a video calling for a horse-free Central Park. It’s inevitable that more celebrities will follow.
Sentiment and pr spin aside, the evidence that the horses have been deliberately abused or mistreated doesn’t exist. The last independent review of the industry was issued in 2007 by then-Comptroller Bill Thompson, another mayoral contender in 2013.
Its conclusion: “Neither the ASPCA inspector nor the [Health Department] veterinarian consultant found any serious violations regarding the health and safety of the horses when we accompanied them to the stables.”
An extensive study of the horses was also conducted in March 2008 by John Lowe, a Cornell University veterinarian hired by the industry.
After spending 10 hours examining the horses and scrutinizing the stables, Lowe came to much the same conclusion as Thompson.
He reported that 45% of the 130 animals inspected were “fat,” 50% were in good condition and 5% would be classified as thin.
“The thin horses were not unhealthy, just thin,” Lowe wrote.
Overall, Lowe pronounced the horse corps in great shape. “Attitude was bright, alert, quiet and responsive in all cases,” he reported.
Critics counter that other vets have taken the opposite position.
“Horse-drawn carriages should be a thing of the past,” wrote Dr. Brendan Furlong last year. “In New York City, horses now have to deal with heavy automobile traffic, motorbikes, cyclists . . . Simply put, this bombardment of his sensory system causes the horse extreme stress.”
But the aptly named Furlong based his assessment on his own observations without actually conducting any examination of the horses he claims are suffering from sensory overload.
The ASPCA, the agency that might normally provide authoritative guidance, has put itself in the untenable position of policing the industry while calling for its abolition.
There’s a sensible middle ground, if both sides are willing to compromise. Once a vintage vehicle prototype is produced, test it to see if tourists will shell out $50 to take a spin inside the park. The city can make room for the horses to stage at the entrance of Central Park on Fifth Avenue, removing them from harm’s way on busy Central Park South.
And if none of that works, there’s always the New Orleans solution: Employ less-skittish mules to pull the tourist carriages.
Then the horse debate can end, and the mule debate can begin.
David Seifman is The Post’s city hall bureau chief.