Home-sharing and horse carriages: One industry is strictly new-economy; the other, as old as it gets. But they’re both showing you can beat City Hall.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron this week called a halt to Mayor de Blasio’s latest effort to crush the city’s horse-carriage trade.
Defeated time and again in his efforts to kill the industry, the mayor last year settled on a gambit to move carriage-pickup sites out of sight inside Central Park.
The drivers say this is meant to dry up their business, and in any case is a matter for the City Council to decide. The judge found their argument strong enough to put the plan on hold pending a hearing next month.
De Blasio’s still trying to reward the real-estate moguls out to acquire the land where the horses’ stables are located, after they dumped $2 million into his 2013 campaign.
The same base motives explain the war on Airbnb and other home-sharing outlets: The politically potent hotel-workers union is convinced they steal its members’ jobs, and pushes nonstop for laws to kill them.
Manhattan federal Judge Paul Engelmayer last week granted an injunction against the latest such law. Set to go into effect Feb. 2, it requires Airbnb, HomeAway and similar firms to turn over data on their hosts to city officials in the name of public safety.
The judge wasn’t convinced: Some industries require strict regulation, he noted, but “the hotel industry does not involve inherently dangerous operations.” More: City Hall’s demand for the names and addresses of all listings looks like an unconstitutional “search and seizure.”
The law’s true purpose seems punitive: As the judge noted, it appears to threaten Airbnb with $1 billion in fines.
This is a win for thousands of New Yorkers who use home-sharing to help make ends meet, just as the other ruling is a victory for one of the city’s humbler professions. Remember who was on the other side the next time de Blasio claims he’s fighting for the little guy.
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