Mr. Levensen is a spokesman for NYCLASS, a lobbying group at the core of NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio's attempt to ban the use of horse drawn carriages in the city. According to today's New York Daily News, Levensen is bragging about how his group's efforts undermined DeBlasio's opponent in last November's mayoral election, Christine Quinn, and has absolutely no shame in saying so.
Here's my take. It's one thing if the carriages are used in, say, Central Park, as a tourist attraction. To put the carriages in general traffic, especially during rush hour, would be an open invitation to disaster. I have read of carriage horses getting spooked by sudden noise, causing accidents. I'm not in support of banning the carriages altogether, because you're talking about doing away with a long standing NYC tradition. NYCLASS is citing allegations of animal cruelty, but, predictably, have little or no evidence on hand to prove their claims in a public forum. That's the part I don't like. NYCLASS should rename themselves NO-CLASS.
The Daily News has mounted a petition campaign to block the ban, and has taken heat from readers, some of whom probably don't know much about the tradition of the carriages in the first place. We're talking fair weather readers here, influenced by demagogues like Levensen, who should spend a day with the people in the carriage industry and learn a few things. Until then, this unforgiving little Weasel is so duly rewarded with a set of ears.
2 comments:
There's WAY more to this story!
Levensen was one of Deblasio's biggest contributers and they both had planned to get rid of the carriage horses all along. The real reason being the oldest: money.
Those stables where the carriage horses are kept sits on VERY valuable property. If Deblasio bans the carriages, then the stables are sold to Levensen who will develop the land. So far NYers are fighting Deblasio and I hope he and Levensen will be foiled in their plans.
Meanwhile, you'll be interested in knowing that Las Vegas is looking to have horse drawn carriage rides in the near future! They plan to have them in Downtown area - Fremont Street - not The Strip.
Oh, I didn't want to make it too obvious, but Levensen is a greedy little turd, the kind of punk that would be exposed as a fraud by Scooby-Doo back in the day.
The carriages have their uses, as I wrote, but apparently DeBlasio doesn't care about history, just the almighty buck. I didn't think he stood a chance, but when he was elected, it was more a case of the good ol' boys deciding that they didn't want a woman as Mayor of the country's largest city. Idiots.
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