The Honorable Bill de Blasio Mayor of New York City

Dear Mayor de Blasio,

I am writing to applaud your efforts to protect New Yorkers from COVID-19 by closing schools, restaurants, and bars—and to ask that you shut down one shady trade that continues to put people at risk: horse-drawn carriage operators.

As we face an unprecedented crisis of contagion, it is shocking that carriage drivers still cram tourists into small carriages and give them shared, reused blankets, with the driver seated just inches ahead of them. This reckless disregard may well fuel the spread of the coronavirus to both New Yorkers and unwitting visitors from across the country.

Mr. Mayor, I ask that you immediately halt horse-drawn carriage rides as you have other tourist attractions, and I echo my friends at PETA and NYCLASS in hoping that this scurrilous trade will remain closed for good.

Sincerely,

Alec Baldwin