Last week’s City Council 9-hour hearing on a Central Park horse carriage ban was either a sideshow or a show trial. What it was not was a serious consideration of the state and future of an historic trade that has existed since the park first opened in 1859.

The Daily News has long supported the right of carriage drivers to legally ply the park and for tourists to pay for rides and that has not changed and we oppose the total ban as proposed.

The bill being “debated” is a mess and that’s the view of both Mayor Mamdani, who like some previous mayors, wants to phase out the horses, as well as serious members of the Council who also want to sunset the practice. Talk of this ban passing next month is premature.

The legislation fails to address the property rights of the owners of about 200 horses and the 68 medallions as well as the iffy legal question of outlawing what not only has been a........

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