Over 100 pedicab drivers gathered today outside of City Hall Park to rally against the mayor's recently announced deal with the carriage horse industry, which would restrict carriages to Central Park and prohibit pedicabs from going below 85th Street within the park. Pedicab drivers are calling this a monopoly, and insist that because they rarely pick up customers above 85th street, this legislation, if passed by the city council, would effectively put them out of business.

Currently, most pedicab drivers pick up passengers — primarily tourists — from Central Park South, and take them on one of two routes: either around the skating rink and mall up to 72nd street and back, or in a loop around Bethesda Terrace and Cherry Hill at the southern end of the park. Drivers rarely take passengers past 79th street, let alone up to 85th, said King Farruk, who's been driving a pedicab for the past six years. "There's nothing to see," he said of the park above 85th street; because of that, he and his fellow drivers are convinced people will turn entirely to carriage horse rides.

"I support more than 20 people in Senegal by driving pedicab," said Tadhfa Niang. "If they take my job, what am I going to do? I send them money for food; they eat. If I don’t work, they're not going to eat."

The mayor's proposed deal would reduce the number of carriage horses from 180 to 95, and would only allow 75 to operate in the park at a time. Parks advocates are also concerned about the plan to build a $20 million stable in Central Park. “Our biggest concern is who’s paying and what is the taxpayer going to get from this,” Tupper Thomas, the executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, told the Wall Street Journal. “This is tragically not a great solution.”

On Monday, de Blasio defended the adjustment to pedicab regulations, saying that "we had to make an adjustment in terms of the pedicabs for balance, and I think it’s a fair outcome." But the pedicab drivers are arguing that this move is a concession to carriage drivers to compensate for the proposed reduction in their numbers.

Unlike carriage horse operators, pedicab drivers are not unionized and are all independent contractors, according to Laramie Flick, who has been driving his pedicab for over 11 years and is president of the New York City Pedicab Owners' Association. Flick estimates that there are approximately 300 drivers, with a good deal of turnover. Many, like Niang, are immigrants supporting families back home.

"It's shocking the mayor went from proposing to ban horse carriages to giving them a monopoly," Flick said. "This benefits 75 horse carriage owners, and everybody else loses. Half the horse carriage drivers, tourists, the park...all of this exists only to give the illusion that de Blasio is doing something. It's for show."

He added, "If we are such a nuisance in Central Park, we should be banned from the entire park. But by allowing us to have the northern end of the park, it concedes that we’re an asset to Central Park, and therefore this ban is completely arbitrary and completely just a government-enforced monopoly for a small group of wealthy carriage owners."

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito declined to explain the reasoning behind banning pedicabs below 85th street, but did say that the legislation could still change before being put to a vote. But if it doesn't, the pedicab drivers are prepared to fight.

"We'll pool our money and try to get lobbyists," Flick said. "And there will definitely be lawyers involved."