Ed Rooney Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Our new NYC mayor plans, in dramatic fashion, to shut down the horse and carriage business in Central Park this year. What's going to happen to all those horses? Horse meat is what. Would it not be more sensible to phase out the business? Personally, I think we should keep the carriages but limit the size of the teams and tighten the rules. Horse and Carrage rides in Central Park have long been a cultural attraction here; it's like getting rid of the red phone boxes and double-decker buses in the UK. What icons have they gotten ride of in your part of the world? In travel photography, these things are priceless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrioticAlien Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 For real? I always remember as a kid every time we went to NYC we always went on it, it's a shame! It's like when British airways canceled concord... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 It's on Radio 4 just now. The horses thing. Too bad. No-one abuses working horses, it'd be like not looking after your car.Actually, Ed, the red buses (the Routemasters, I think you refer to) are an endangered species. Too old and smoky to maintain. There's a modern replacement but it's a big of a dog's dinner design-wise. Phone boxes are almost extinct anyway- the minimum charge is the best part of $2 now.We've got the London Eye and the Shard now. Coming out of a tube station yesterday at dusk the skyline looked great. Did I have my camera? Did I fishcakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Back in the early '70's I believe, then Prime MInister Pierre Trudeau was going to remove the word "Royal" from the RCMP. There was such a backlash, he abandoned the idea. Some things just have to be let alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 He was probably still sore about Waterloo. Glad to hear HM is still so popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Just heard he doesn't have the power to do it! Unfortunately the ghastly first Mayor of London (not to be confused with the Lord Mayor) got rid of the pigeons in Trafalgar Square with byelaws and sparrowhawks, one of whose handlers once slandered me in person by accusing me of the criminal offence of pigeon-feeding, before the byelaw. was effective. I got an official apology for that. Before my digital days, unfortunately, or he'd have been all over Alamy. Except there's a byelaw against that, as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted February 21, 2014 Author Share Posted February 21, 2014 Thanks for the update, Mark. And I can see that replacing all those little windows in the red telephone boxes got too costly. From a photographer's point of view, try going down to Honduras and finding an kind of meaningful icon that says the location without a caption. In Paris, in London in NYC there are many of these . . . but when they're gone they're gone. I must point out that I'm very found of animals, but I'm not a silly person. And I am no expert on this subject. Off the top of my head, I would like to see far few horse and carriage teams and they should be kept inside the park---not on the street near the park. The horses should have a maximum number of years in their work life and they're must be a place for them to go on retirement and live in a field with other horses. Horses like company. But don't let's throw the baby out with the bath water. (I hate all the trishaws we have in the park now.) NYC is becoming a bike city, like Amsterdam. We'll see. "No one abuses working horses," A very good point, Mark. And if they did they should be punished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Here in Vancouver, just about everything is up for grabs because of a booming real estate market, super rich foreign investors, greedy developers, and a City Hall that wants to promote urban density and make us look like Singapore (downtown already does). There is something to be said for economic stagnation when it comes to preserving icons (architectural ones, anyway). Something that I really miss in cities are old-fashioned street cars or trams. Kudos to San Francisco for keeping their amazing system running. Horse meat sushi is apparently all the rage in Japan. Can't think of anything more revolting. But then I'm into veggieburgers myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Here in Vancouver, just about everything is up for grabs because of a booming real estate market, super rich foreign investors, greedy developers, and a City Hall that wants to promote urban density and make us look like Singapore (downtown already does). There is something to be said for economic stagnation when it comes to preserving icons (architectural ones, anyway). Something that I really miss in cities are old-fashioned street cars or trams. Kudos to San Francisco for keeping their amazing system running. Horse meat sushi is apparently all the rage in Japan. Can't think of anything more revolting. But then I'm into veggieburgers myself. Toronto has the largest streetcar system in North America, based on track, number of cars and riders. Called "red Rockets", they are a huge part of the Toronto Transit System. And icons of the city. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Here in Vancouver, just about everything is up for grabs because of a booming real estate market, super rich foreign investors, greedy developers, and a City Hall that wants to promote urban density and make us look like Singapore (downtown already does). There is something to be said for economic stagnation when it comes to preserving icons (architectural ones, anyway). Something that I really miss in cities are old-fashioned street cars or trams. Kudos to San Francisco for keeping their amazing system running. Horse meat sushi is apparently all the rage in Japan. Can't think of anything more revolting. But then I'm into veggieburgers myself. Toronto has the largest streetcar system in North America, based on track, number of cars and riders. Called "red Rockets", they are a huge part of the Toronto Transit System. And icons of the city. Jill Glad to hear that the red rockets are still running. I haven't been to TO for years. P.S. I just searched "toronto red rocket" and only 24 images came up. Looks as if there might be some possibilities there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Here in Vancouver, just about everything is up for grabs because of a booming real estate market, super rich foreign investors, greedy developers, and a City Hall that wants to promote urban density and make us look like Singapore (downtown already does). There is something to be said for economic stagnation when it comes to preserving icons (architectural ones, anyway). Something that I really miss in cities are old-fashioned street cars or trams. Kudos to San Francisco for keeping their amazing system running. Horse meat sushi is apparently all the rage in Japan. Can't think of anything more revolting. But then I'm into veggieburgers myself. Toronto has the largest streetcar system in North America, based on track, number of cars and riders. Called "red Rockets", they are a huge part of the Toronto Transit System. And icons of the city. Jill Glad to hear that the red rockets are still running. I haven't been to TO for years. P.S. I just searched "toronto red rocket" and only 24 images came up. Looks as if there might be some possibilities there. Maybe on my next trip to TO I'll do some red rocket shots. But I think it will in sometime in spring when all the dirty snow has gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyMelbourne Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 They could be exported to the UK......errr hang on, someone has already thought of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kuta Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 P.S. I just searched "toronto red rocket" and only 24 images came up. Looks as if there might be some possibilities there. Maybe not. "Toronto streetcar" yields 504 results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchiquin Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Something that I really miss in cities are old-fashioned street cars or trams. Kudos to San Francisco for keeping their amazing system running. Britain got rid of all its trams many years ago - in the 1950s I think. Then in the 90s, when everywhere else was removing them or putting them underground because they interfered too much with traffic, someone had the bright idea of bringing them back. Perhaps that person had the foresight to realise that road traffic in city centres had outlived its usefulness. As a result several towns and cities in Britain now have street trams (never likely to happen in London because of the cost) and they are very successful. Manchester now feels like a proper European city with trams running round the centre instead of queues of fuming traffic. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrioticAlien Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 i remember reading something a month or so ago, regrading the iconic black taxi cabs in london. That they where all going to become electric by a date (not sure what that year was) and replaced with some electric gray ugly van thing ---just googled it--- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/10576635/Londons-black-cabs-to-go-green.html Bye Bye iconic taxi and hello very ugly van thing, just imagine if they replaced the NY taxis with piggy-back rides!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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