Ticket Scammers Barred From Battery Park: Report

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — Ticket hawkers known for misleading and scamming tourists in Lower Manhattan are barred from Battery Park, according to a report.

The New York Post reported that NY Waterway will revoke permits for boat operators if street vendors are seen selling tickets for their tours.

"We have decided to do our part to assist the City in eliminating the problem by no longer allowing any operation that accepts tickets sold by street vendors to access any DockNYC location," Donald Liloia of NY Waterway wrote in an email to ferry owners that was obtained by the newspaper.

Lower Manhattan has long been plagued with ticket hawkers known for aggressively pushing tours onto visitors — including overpriced tickets, tours around the Statue of Liberty but not to the island, or even selling tickets for the Staten Island Ferry, which is free. Tickets for ferry rides that disembark at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are sold at a kiosk in Battery Park by the city's lone contractor, according to the Post.

The NY Waterway rule change, which begins Wednesday, according to the Post, comes in the wake of Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou being harassed by ticket sellers, in which she claimed the cops stood by without doing anything.

The incident sparked a meeting with Niou and the precinct as well as another stakeholder meeting planned by the Manhattan and Staten Island borough presidents.

Ticket sellers protested the new policy Sunday. One ticket seller told the Post the change was "unfair."

Click here to read the full New York Post report.