Brandon the Hansom Cab driver, our New Yorker of the Month October 2006

Ask a New Yorker: What’s your name and what do you do? Well, I guess it’s pretty obvious what you do, but could you tell us anyway?

Brandon: I’m Brandon, and I drive a horse drawn carriage through Central Park.

Ask a New Yorker: How long have you been doing this?

Brandon: 25 years.

Ask a New Yorker: That’s serious amount of….wow. So you’ve seen plenty of changes here in the city.

Brandon: Yes I have. Mostly good. I have to say NYC since 1981 has improved dramatically as a place to live and do business. And I can thank both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. I have tremendous admiration for Michael Bloomberg, particularly on a point that I discovered recently, he is the eighth most generous citizen in the United States.

Ask a New Yorker: And your business is seasonal?

Brandon: The summer months you have a more even flow each day. During the Fall in tends to polarize, in other words weekends become stronger and the middle of the week dips a bit.

Ask a New Yorker: What’s your horse’s name?

Brandon: Alex.

Ask a New Yorker: How long have you had Alex?

Brandon: Alex I bought July

Ask a New Yorker: What’s the term hansom carriage all about?

Brandon: Hansom cab is a misnomer slapped on by poor quality journalism. Hansom, Mr. J.A. Hansom, who was a London based manufacture of carriages. What he created was what you would call a Sherlock Holmes type cab were you would have two wheels and the driver would be sitting up a brig behind the passenger. None of these here that you see are Hansom cabs. These are vis- a- vis carriages from France, face to face.

Ask a New Yorker: How many wedding proposals have you witnessed?

Brandon: I’d say in approximately 25 years I’ve done 32 – 33 thousand rides. How many proposals? I have no idea. None. I can’t think of another job where I can sit on my butt all day, bullshit, and make a reasonable amount of money. Unless I was a politician or a lawyer. And law school looks a little difficult once they start pulling the skeletons out of my closet. No one’s electing me for anything.

Ask a New Yorker: Ever been mugged or held up?

Brandon: I think people in the western world, generally, have their thinking processes shaped by movies. They’re shaped by the television screen. It’s very Orwellian. It’s very 1984. It only takes repetitive episodes of NYP Blue or Law and Order. The number of tourist that will get into the carriage and say, ‘Where do they keep the bodies in the park?’ And I’ll say, ‘Lady that was on Law and Order” and they’ll go,” Well that was based on reality isn’t it?’ And I’ll say that there is a disclaimer at the end of every show that says it’s not based on reality. Statistically there is very little crime in Central Park.

Ask a New Yorker: What kind of horse is Alex?

Brandon: A Percheron. A French breed of horse that was bred in the middle ages for the Hundred Years War for the fight against England. The English bred the Shire. The reason they bred the Shire, it’s a little like a Clydesdale, it was used for Mid-evil combat. You wanted a horse that was placid and kept going forward despite the noise of battle and would not rear. The Shire was brought by the English for that purpose; it was the forerunner of the tank. They became of course redundant with gun powder . And you wanted one that could carry the armor. And the Percheron was bred by the French to counteract the English.

Ask a New Yorker: You’re quite the historian. What are you reading now?

Brandon: What an interesting question! I’m reading a book on, what it was like to be a navel seaman in Nelson’s navy in the beginning of the 19th century.

Ask a New Yorker: Are you married?

Brandon: Was. My status is ‘deliriously divorced’…because I like the alliteration.

Ask a New Yorker: So these are the rates for a ride?

Brandon: Since 1988.

Ask a New Yorker: Why has there not been an increase?

Brandon: Because I think every time you approach the city of New York they want to see further restrictions on how you earn your money. It doesn’t take a genius to see that everything in New York city has gone up in price in the last 18 years. It really isn’t a question I can answer. Personally I think it should be slotted in such a way that there’s an automatic increase. This is truly one of the great bargains in the city. $34 dollars between 4 people is not a lot of money…A much better deal than an 11 minute $115 helicopter ride.
Ask a New Yorker: Let’s end with the ‘stupidest questions’ tourists ask?

Brandon: Good question….”O.K ladies and gentleman, over on the left hand side we have a view the Dakota Building where John Lennon used to lived.” Tourist: “So you mean he doesn’t live there any more?” Here’s another….”On the left hand side here we have a nice statue of William Shakespeare, on the literary walk here we also have Robert Burns, Walter Scott “...Tourist: “Is that were they buried Shakespeare?”
My favorite, which always comes from Californians and Floridians, is: “Are these rocks real?”, or “How many pigeons are there in Central Park?”

Ask a New Yorker: Brandon, thanks for your time. Giddy up!

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