Noble Horse calls it QUITS?!

An article from the Chicago Reader:

"The Noble Horse Theatre and stable suspended operations last week after what director Dan Sampson describes as a six-year battle with the city over “simple things.” The January 10 performance of The Nutcracker on Horseback was “our last,” Sampson says. Classes in the company’s 138-year-old, two-story stable have halted, as have Noble Horse carriage rides in Streeterville. The main issue, according to Sampson, is the city’s refusal to reopen two Mag Mile carriage parking and pickup locations, closed in the aftermath of 9/11—one on Pearson east of Michigan and the other on the southwest corner of Michigan and Superior. Without them or comparable new spots, five carriage companies’ rigs have to crowd into the three remaining locations, reducing revenues for everybody.Carriage rides generate half of the Noble Horse’s income, Sampson says, and make it possible for him to maintain the building, which is “the only riding hall left in the city of Chicago and the oldest active riding hall in North America.”“After 30 years of running carriages and 25 years of trying to save a historic asset, we’re going to have to close because the Department of Consumer Services doesn’t understand our business,” Sampson says. “I’ve drawn my line in the sand.”Consumer Services commissioner Norma Reyes says she’s “tried to work with the [carriage] industry, but Mag Mile has changed a great deal” and is “much denser” now than it once was. “This is a public safety issue. You can’t have that much foot and car traffic and horses all in one area.” She maintains that there are other locations the 29 licensed carriages in the city could use, such as the area around Millennium Park."