So why is Mayor De Blasio banning carriage horses in NYC? Hint: It is less about horse welfare and more about political donor welfare...

Nick Gillespi reports!

De Blasio's actions will put these drivers out of work (and I doubt the horses will fare well in retirement).  But what is really motivating Mayor De Blasio, the welfare of the horses?  Or perhaps the welfare of one of his political pals who is eyeing the stables the horses use?

Christina Hansen, driver of Sara, 4 years driving in Philadelphia, 2 in New York:
[De Blasio] doesn't know anything about horses. He hasn't had a pet since childhood. So he doesn't even know about dogs. That's a telling sign. That's a sign that he's a radical animal rights person because animal rights people don't think you should own dogs or cats. That animals belong out there someplace and not in the city, not in our apartments, not in our homes, not in our lives. So he doesn't know anything about horses.
When [carriage horse opponents] just started—these people are very politically savvy—it was all about, "We'll get the electric cars, we'll make more money."
Electric cars don't take up as much square feet of real estate as carriage plus two horses and stalls and stables and everything. It would take up less square footage and [Steve Nislick, co-founder an president of NYCLASS] knew exactly how many square feet are stables were. He knew more than we do. That's what they started out with. Now we stood there and some other people—Michael Gross, who writes about real estate—he pointed out that this all seemed to be about real estate.

Steve Nislick, a friend of Mayor De Blasio, who wants to ban horses
but who also may want to develop the stables they live in...

According to HCANY spokesman Malone, the pressure came not because of ASPCA’s commitment to animal welfare, but instead, came directly from the top because its director Ed Sayers is also Co-President of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets (NY Class), an activist group attempting to shut down the carriage companies. The group’s founder, Steve Nislick, is CEO of Edison Properties, a Newark based real estate firm that operates parking garages.
According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, “Edison Properties, LLC operates as a real estate manager and developer. It owns and operates parking facilities in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland; mini storage stores in New York; and workspace and office buildings. The company was founded in 1956 and is based in Newark, New Jersey.”
Nislick’s business owns more than 40 parking facilities around New York, New Jersey, and Baltimore, according to the Edison Properties website which also promotes storage facilities and office space.
Malone charges that Sayers, the half million a year ASPCA CEO has a conflict of interest linking his name and that of ASPCA because the carriage organization claims Nislick and his company covet the valuable stable properties where NYC carriage horses are housed.
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It is no stretch to see how a stable housing 1,500 pound draft horses could easily be converted to a parking garage or storage facility. Four such stables serve Manhattan. A fifth closed its doors last year.
“We’re dealing with a powerful real estate mogul and the ASPCA,” Malone charges.

Instapundit argues De Blasio is nutty. That is certainly true on many points, but this seems to be more about political favors and payback than ideological purity.

TOM: #SaveNYHorseCarriages fights De Blasio to save jobs (and horses)
TOM: Escape from New York (before De Blasio makes it a living hell)
The good times may be over in NYC (at least for a while)
Instapundit: Culture of Corruption (again, if you want to figure out what is going on follow who benefits from getting rid of these horses and carriages--hint, it is not the horses).

The bad guy in this drama, according to the carriage drivers, is Steve Nislick, chief executive officer of a New Jersey-based real-estate development company, Edison Properties. The company “employs legions of lobbyists to influence city decisions on real estate and zoning in its favor,” journalist Michael Gross reported in 2009, pointing out that two of Edison’s businesses “have multiple locations in the same Far West Midtown neighborhood as the stables where the Central Park horses are housed.” An anti-carriage pamphlet Nislick circulated in 2008 made this interesting observation: “Currently, the stables consist of 64,000 square feet of valuable real estate on lots that could accomodate up to 150,000 square feet of development. These lots could be sold for new development.”
Gross asked the obvious question: “What are the odds that good neighbor Nislick, the out-of-state real estate developer, simply covets those valuable, underdeveloped New York lots — and has teamed up with ambitious pols to use the emotions of animal rights activists as fuel for their own agendas?”

TOM: Will DeBlasio get away with it?
American Thinker – Following the money in De Blasio’s horse-drawn carriage ban
Weasel Zippers – NYC Horse And Carriage Drivers Fight Back Against De Blasio Attempt To Ban Their Industry
The Lonely Conservative — #SaveNYCHorseCarriages From Bill De Blasio
Da Tech Guy – And Mayor Bill DiBlasso as Senator Joseph Payne
Riehl World View – Is De Blasio’s Horse-Drawn Carriage Ban About Campaign Cash?

Save NYC Carriage Horses: Timeline of a scandal...

Wombat post this prediction from Blackmailers Don't Shoot:  Yes De Blasio will get away with this...
PJ Tatler:  De Blasio most corrupt political launch in American urban history?
De Blasio solicited money from "corrupt landlords" (if you pay, you play)
TOM: #OccupySuckers: De Blasio's corrupt connections to Wall Street