A Dim View of Tour Boat Operator’s Plan to Hawk Tickets from Flashy Stalls in Seaport
Community leaders are pushing back against a plan to install brightly colored, modern-looking kiosks in the South Street Seaport Historic District, which would be used to sell tickets for tour boats.
Community Board 1 (CB1) was asked for its opinion on the proposal from TopView (parent company of Liberty Cruises) by the City’s Economic Development Corporation, which manages vendors in the South Street Seaport district.
TopView’s sightseeing boats, which circle (but do not stop at) the Statue of Liberty, take tourists from Pier 36 (at Clinton and South Streets, on the Lower East Side) on tours around New York Harbor. But few tourists naturally find their way to Clinton Street, while many tens of thousands come to the Seaport.
“Their proposal is to implement a temporary three-month trial for two, small pop-up kiosks—one at South Street and Fulton, and the other at South Street on Pier 16,” said Patrick Kennell, who chairs CB1’s Land Use, Zoning & Economic Development Committee, at the Board’s July 25 meeting. “We had a lot of questions for the applicant around the design and whether they really tried to figure out alternatives in store fronts, or other options they might have. And whether they’re really giving enough of an economic benefit back to South Street Seaport district, and the Museum.” This was a reference to the South Street Seaport Museum, which oversees Pier 16 and manages the historic vessels docked there, and competes for the attention of (and revenue from) tourists who visit Lower Manhattan.
CB1 member Joe Lerner objected. “People are coming into our district and these guys want to take them out,” he said. “I’m against this, because they’re killing our businesses here.”
After this discussion, CB1 enacted a resolution urging the Economic Development Corporation to reject TopView’s current plan, and instead prevail upon the firm to meet several new conditions, such as a financial relationship that specifically supports the historic Seaport district and the South Street Seaport Museum.
The resolution also calls for “a favorable reciprocal relationship with other businesses” and urges TopView to “redesign its proposed kiosks so that they do not clutter the historic streetscape.” The resolution goes on to suggest that TopView consider abandoning the kiosk idea altogether and instead integrate ticket sale operations into existing storefront space.