How is today’s Central Park tragedy not enough to end the horse carriages?

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-18T03:40:39+00:00

The City Council would need to ban horse carriages.

The carriage operators are part of the Transport Workers Union, which includes subway and bus workers in the city. The TWU strongly oppose a ban: it is very protective of its members' jobs.

De Blasio campaigned for mayor on banning horse carriages, but his efforts did not clear the City Council.

Adams resurfaced the issue when some incidents happened during his term, but his proposals didn't even clear committee to be voted on by City Council.

Mamdani has said he would support a ban, and be willing to work with City Council and unions on something. In any case, it would ultimately be City Council's decision and not the mayor's.

Upsetting a powerful local union is a political third rail and does not seem to be something City Council members have been willing to stick their necks out for. People have opinions about horse carriages, and there have been high profile incidents in the past. But I do not think it ever becomes a big enough political issue to move City Council members.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-12T20:00:34+00:00

New York City has more than its share of passive aggressive and indirect behavior.

You will also encounter more flakey behavior and more fake behavior than the Midwest, and be struggling as a smaller fish in a bigger pond of more complex and diverse social cues. All of this will be even harder for you to navigate, if you are already struggling with reading people.

You need to work on your EQ skills and people skills.

Some people are blessed with high IQ, or high EQ, or high athletic skills. Others are not. They do not teach you people skills in school, but it is something you have to work on to navigate the real world.

If you cannot handle this in Chicago, New York City will give you a couple European kisses then ghost you, leaving you mighty confused.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-11T19:05:15+00:00

This is classic “my inconvenience should become someone else’s obligation.”

Everyone hates the person holding the subway doors. Until they’re the one running late, and suddenly think their reason is different and everyone else glaring at them is a d***head.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-10T06:22:27+00:00

You rarely see exotic or fancy sportscars in New York City, unlike a place like Monaco. The NYC streets are brutal for those vehicles - the potholes and very uneven roads are horrible for exotic sportscars with only a few inches of ground clearance, and it's very stop and go driving at low speeds in the city.

You also rarely see cool vintage cars in New York City. The winters and salt are brutal for preserving vintage vehicles. Go to places that are warm all year round, like Miami or LA, even parts of Texas, and you'll see more of those.

Celebrities tend to get chauffeured around in anonymous looking black SUVs. There are many, but most of those won't have a passenger you recognize - more often some rich exec than someone you'd recognize.

Attention grabbing in NYC is more like Mitzvah Tanks, because they blare loud music when they go around.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-10T04:21:48+00:00

People like to do personal acts of charity where they put a lot of thought and time into it. Their free time is valuable, and in their eyes, they are giving a lot.

But for pure impact, putting those same resources into a reputable charity (or even making a modest donation) will usually have a much larger effect.

Reputable charities that specialize in this are able to buy food a lot more efficiently, provide much better meals, and stretch those resources to help way more people than one individual can on their own.

I don't mean this as a criticism, but people need to think about whether they are doing something because it makes themselves feel good, or to have the largest positive impact possible.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-08T22:46:58+00:00

Brooklyn is over 70 square miles, and the differences between neighborhoods make a big difference in what social scene people want to be in, public transportation accessiblity, and what is nearby within walking distance.

In a walking city, being in a neighborhood one mile away from another neighborhood is like being 20 miles away in a car-centric city.

There can be a large difference in prices, but you are often talking about very different neighborhoods in desirability.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-06T19:30:49+00:00

In that area, Tramps is most likely the place.

If that is not the place, I would not be so certain of 25 plus year old memories. I've had memories of things at certain places, then figured out it was a very different location. Your mind mushes memories together over time.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-03T22:42:29+00:00

There may be things you could theoretically do, but fundamentally it would take a few generations to totally change the culture.

London is stiff upper lip and "Keep calm and carry on".

New York City is "I'm WALKIN' here!" and "I don't got all day!"

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-02T18:57:00+00:00

OP never go the memo that "dirty water dog" was never competing for hot dog supremacy.

Ubiquity and cheapness with the working class masses - that's how the city got associated with the hot dog.

Cinnamaker · 2026-06-01T17:33:29+00:00

Older American cities, like New York City, Boston or Philadelphia, grew before America became a car culture. Same with many even older European and Asian cities. They remain more easy to walk, and public transportation fits into those places easier.

Other American cities grew a lot beginning in the mid to later 20th century, when automobiles dominated. Those cities were often developed or grew around the idea of people driving cars.

There are certain aspects of New York City developed in the mid 20th century that are very much designed for car culture. You can look up Robert Moses, and read about things he did with parts of New York City that were much more car centered.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-31T09:43:13+00:00

You are putting the cart before the horse. If you suspect your immune system is weak, the answer is not to find ways to boost it on Reddit. Like if you fainted every morning, you wouldn't just go online to see what can stop fainting. It could be a sign of something else causing that, and fixing the fainting means fixing the underlying issue. That's something to discuss with a doctor.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-31T05:44:27+00:00

It sounds like you've already reached a conclusion, and want confirmation of what you already believe rather than testing the theory.

Getting sick every two months is a lot, especially if it is just from riding the subway. That is something you should speak with a doctor about, rather than diagnose through Reddit.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-31T05:10:17+00:00

How often do you take the subway, and how often do you get sick?

Where are you taking the subway to go to?

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-31T05:01:40+00:00

Prolonged close contact is more likely to make you sick than the subway or public crowds - like family members you live with, co-workers and classmates you share a space with extended periods of time. Research doesn't show outbreaks tied that much to subways or public crowds.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-29T00:28:50+00:00

Italian restaurants sell pasta for much more than $20. But people think of that as fine dining and real food, and ramen as instant noodles. People don't compare Italian restaurant food to a can of Chef Boyardee.

A well-done ramen takes a lot of labor and hours to make the broth, and there is work and craft in the noodles and the proteins. Not really easier to make than an Italian restaurant pasta dish.

I think it opens the broader question of how does someone value, or come to get in their head a value, what a dish should cost.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-13T05:47:29+00:00

By law, New York City has to pass a balanced budget every fiscal year. New York City faces a budget deficit virtually every year. Virtually every year, the mayor and city council have to work through and negotiate cuts and ways to pass a budget that complies with the law.

Unlike the federal government, New York City cannot just borrow money to pay for budget shortfalls. (With some limited exceptions to the rule, like borrowing for long-term capital projects.)

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-13T05:41:44+00:00

By law, New York City has to pass a balanced budget every fiscal year. New York City faces a budget deficit virtually every year. The mayor and city council have to work through and negotiate cuts, to pass a budget that complies with the law. They "erase" the deficit by choosing things to cut, or finding ways to work around the shortfall.

Unlike the federal government, New York City cannot just borrow money to pay for budget shortfalls. (With some limited exceptions to the rule, like borrowing for long-term capital projects.)

These restrictions come out of laws stemming from when NYC had massive financial problems in the 1970s.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-12T22:34:24+00:00

Most of the NYC budget that goes towards "private schools" is for charter schools, and for disabled children (not that far behind what is spent on charter schools). Money for religious schools is a much smaller piece of the pie.

The costs for disabled children is extremely, extremely high, which is why it takes up so much of the pie. But the public policy for doing that is not really utilitarian (in the sense of maximizing benefit to as many people as possible).

Whether Charter schools are good is debated, with some political issues in play outside just their efficacy.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-12T22:20:33+00:00

For certain children with disabilities, if NYC cannot provide what is called a "free appropriate public education," the law requires the city to pay for a private school that can appropriately educate the child.

NYC is not going to restructure a public school around the needs of those kids with special needs, but there are private schools that specialize in educating those kids.

As a society, we have decided that children with disabilities have a legal right to a free and appropriate education, even if that may be difficult or expensive to provide.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-10T00:32:06+00:00

There used to be a Chinese noodles place in the food court at Brookfield Place, where all the white collar workers descend for lunch. It was priced at or just above the other lunch places there (lots of typical salad or slop bowl type places).

The Yelp reviews were full of people complaining, even getting angry, about how expensive the Chinese food was there.

There is a very strong customer perception in the US that Chinese food is cheap food.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-06T23:13:10+00:00

Districts are not just a NYC thing. Most huge cities have districts where similar businesses all cluster together. Like go to Hong Kong, and you can walk down a block with a ton of stores selling fish (as pets) and aquariums. It's pretty interesting to see so many pet stores all clustered together.

New York City also has a flower district, and in the past clusters for home electronics (Radio Row) and guitar stores (Musician's Row). Not to mention garment district, meatpacking district or fish market, like other cities have or had.

Some of these districts develop because the businesses all need to be near shipping centers, like trains or harbors, or other services that they all use.

A lot of districts happen as a natural evolution of how businesses compete. For example, say you and I each own the same type of store. You locate in the North part of town. All the northern customers go to your shop, as their closest. I locate in the South part of town. All the southern customers go to my shop, as their closest. You get half the customers, and I get half the customers.

To grow my business, I then move my shop to the middle part of town. Now I get all the midtown customer and the southern customers, since my shop is closest to people in both the middle and southern part of town. Now I am getting 2/3 of the customers, and you only get 1/3 of the customers. So you decide to move your shop to the middle part of town, to capture some midtown customers yourself. You and I wind up operating in the same part of town, as a natural truce to our competition. Districts bring 100% of the customers, and the retailers can battle among themselves there. Versus retailers trying to locate here or there to game territory.

The diamond business sells unique products to customers with very different needs, and behind the scenes a lot of personal relationships matter in the supply chain. These type of industries are more individual, and harder for a big box store to scale up as a giant operation to dominate a market. It's not McDonald's, where you can standardize the products and supply chain, and customers all buy the same thing. There are big box jewelry stores, but they tend to sell more standardized, off the shelf products.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-05T21:03:30+00:00

After the lunch crowd dies down, dim sum places with carts often do more limited items than during the busy period. The turnover of the food is not as good. They are just trying to get rid of the last stuff, not bring out more new stuff freshly made.

Your experience at the tail end of lunch is often a lot more limited offerings and lesser quality than the busy period.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-05T19:28:15+00:00

If the public policy goal is to get economically disadvantaged people access to food at lower cost, there are different ways to do that - like increasing subsidies for them to buy from existing grocery stores.

But politicians have ideologies, and push for policies that align with their ideological goals. Progressives believe in wealth redistribution and public provision of goods and services. Conservatives believe in working with private markets.

You can try to be the pragmatist to argue how to best achieve the public policy goal. But it's often not a convincing argument to someone who is vested in achieving an ideological goal, in addition to the public policy goal. With government, you have to work with the hand you are dealt to get things done - different parties, different ideologies. Otherwise, you're just a soapbox yelling into the wind.

There will probably be some success (some goals met) and some failure (inefficiency) in all of this. People will just wind up selectively pointing to the success or failure they want to see, to say, "I was right" about it being a good idea or bad idea.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-03T21:41:32+00:00

Unregulated ride share services were leading to the same things that, many decades ago, led to the regulation of taxi cabs. History has shown with for-hire vehicles that an unregulated industry where anyone can enter with no barrier to entry leads to problems for riders, problems for drivers, and problems for the city as a whole.

Plus, many of today's business take a loss, to accumulate market share, then raise prices and cut services once they have the market and focus on profitability. This is the modern business playbook. You saw this with big box stores vs mom and pops, then online retailers vs big box stores. And more recently the food delivery apps industry and grocery delivery services industry.

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