NEW YORK -- These are uncertain times for J.J., Donny, Maverick and the rest of their stablemates in a Manhattan barn.
The 25 horses in Troop B of the New York City Police Department's Mounted Unit stay on the ground floor of a structure along the West Side Highway at West 23rd Street, but officials who want to build a park in the neighborhood are planning to evict the animals.
Police officials say they don't want to lose the location, which serves as the Mounted Unit's headquarters. Of the unit's five barns, only the West Side Highway site is enclosed, allowing year-round training.
The location also is relatively close to Times Square, the Port Authority, Penn Station, the Empire State Building and other landmarks that the unit patrols, said Inspector Harold Kohlmann, commanding officer of the Mounted Unit.
"If we lost here we'd lose all our winter training and with that comes injuries to horses and officers,'' he said. "Hopefully we can get people to change their minds and let us stay.''
No chance, said Daniel L. Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development and city rebuilding.
"As soon as we can find an alternate location for the horses we want to get them out of there as quick as possible,'' said Doctoroff, who is vice chairman of the board of directors of the Hudson River Park Trust, a city-state partnership created in 1998 to design, build and maintain the park.
The park is part of a plan to tranform a five-mile stretch of the West Side into Hudson River Park -- "a park for the new millennium,'' as a sign outside the barn promises. The planned 550-acre park is touted as the largest open space development in New York City since Central Park.
Doctoroff said there are few, if any, available locations for a horse stable in the same vicinity.
The only other police horse barn in Manhattan, near the Holland Tunnel, is full, Kohlmann said. The others are in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.
There are two things keeping the horses, hay and manure along the Manhattan shoreline from being replaced by lush lawns, carousels, gardens and esplanades: the lack of a new home for the unit and legal manuevering by another tenant.
The horse unit sublets from Basketball City, which rents court space to various leagues and donates space to high school players in exchange for community service. The leases for the mounted unit and Basketball City have expired, and the tenants are there on a month-to-month basis.
Bruce Radler, president of Basketball City, has asked the New York State Court of Appeals to hear its lawsuit against the trust. The court has not decided whether it will hear the case.
"We're talking about thousands of New York City kids,'' Radler said. "The horses are very important and so are the kids.''
Of Radler's legal efforts, Doctoroff said: "I think that will prove to be irrelevant. We expect to move ahead on the demolition as soon as we can find a location for the horses.''
Construction could begin as early as this year, according to the Web site of the Hudson River Park Trust.
The troop moved to its current location next to the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex in September 2003 from a site on West 42nd Street in Times Square, where it had been since 1982.
After helping to clean up crime in Times Square, Kohlmann and others said, the unit was kicked out of that location to make way for condos.
There is nothing anachronistic about police officers on horseback, Kohlmann said. They allow officers sitting 9 feet above ground a bird's eye view, helping to deter crime, while providing great public relations for the NYPD.
Troop B officials can't say they are surprised by the troop's need to move. Police spokesman Jason Post said officials knew when they moved in that the location was temporary.
"We'll find a location,'' he insisted.
The mounted unit was established in 1871 and peaked at 800 officers and 400 horses in subsequent decades, Kohlmann said.
Today the unit numbers about 100 police officers and 67 horses, a reduction that first began with the invention of the automobile.
1010 WINS is the 24-hour all-news radio station for New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Fairfield County, Bergen County, Essex County, Long Island, Westchester County, and Rockland County. Listen on air and online for breaking world news, New York City news, New York City traffic and transit, Tri-State area traffic and transit, New York sports, New York City weather, tri-state weather and much more. Download free podcasts and listen to New York news and audio press conferences. Listen online to top New York radio news broadcasters including John Montone, Judy DeAngelis, Steve Torre, Sandy Kenyon, Dr. Brian McDonough, Lee Harris, Paul Guanzon, Mark Hilan, Lori Madden, Juliet Papa, Doug O'Brien, Terry Sheridan, Al Jones, Steve Kastenbaum, Carol D'Auria, Brian Carey, Sandi Klein, Mona Rivera, Susan Richard, Catherine smith, Glenn Schuck, Alice Stockton-Rossini, INS. 1010Wins.com is also available in HD Radio. www.1010wins.com
E-Mail Story
Print Story
