Kelly Keegs cheers NYC horse carriage ban, vote October 22

Keegs has been on this one for years, and when the deal dropped on Tuesday she didn't play it cool.

Kelly Keegs

@kellykeegs

I AM LITERALLY SCREAMING!!!!! OCTOBER 22 IS THE VOTE HORSE CARRIAGES WILL FINALLY BE BANNED IN NYC!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris Sommerfeldt@C_Sommerfeldt

New: Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin have reached a deal to abolish NYC's horse carriage industry — a critical breakthrough in a decadeslong, politically fraught effort to ban the tourist attraction. t.co/6WIlLLe4mT

Here's the deal she's yelling about. Mamdani has agreed to back the bill and sign it. The bill stops the city from issuing new licenses for horse-drawn cabs and phases the carriages out completely by June 1, 2028. More than half of the Council's 51 members already back it, so the October 22 vote looks like a formality. Central Park carriages have been running for more than 150 years, and they're now about 2 and a half years from being gone.

About an hour after that first post, Keegs filmed a video explaining why this one matters to her. In the tweet she calls it a crusade, says the horses were abused for years and put New Yorkers in danger, and says the drivers and horses still in the business are getting a reasonable solution.

Kelly Keegs

@kellykeegs

ITS REALLY HAPPENING!!!!!! For those who have been following me for a long time, you know about my crusade for these horses (who have been abused for years, while also posing a danger to New Yorkers.) Couldn’t be happier to see an outdated, unsafe practice in NYC pushed into retirement with a reasonable solution for the still existing drivers and horses. It’s a shame it took the death of an 18 year old boy, Romanch, at the hands of a runaway horse to get people to pay attention. His legacy will carry on as a protector of New Yorkers ❤️

Kelly Keegs@kellykeegs

New York City Has A New Mayor And The Central Park Horses Better Be Gone By The Spring t.co/0ngWM8rRfz

The part of her post that lands hardest is the part she called a shame: it took a death to get here. The bill picked up steam this summer after Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old tourist from India, was killed by a horse that got loose while his family was still in the carriage. The legislation is named Romanch's Law after him. That's what makes Keegs' line about his legacy as a protector of New Yorkers more than a nice sign-off.

It's also a big shift from where things stood a year ago. In November 2025 a proposed ban failed a key Council committee vote and the horses kept working. Now the mayor and the speaker are both on board, and the bill has 29 sponsors.

Her other point was the solution for the drivers and the horses, and the bill backs that up too. It sets up a workforce transition program for the unionized drivers, with job placement, training, career counseling and financial compensation. It also bans selling the horses to slaughterhouses. The industry is unlikely to go quietly between now and October 22, but the votes are there. If the vote goes through, Keegs finally gets to cross off the cause she's been posting about longer than most of her followers have been following.