Local Leaders Renew Push to Curtail Aggressive Sales Tactics at the Battery
City Council member Christopher Marte is sponsoring legislation to tighten enforcement against abusive sales tactics by hawkers at the Battery who purport to offer tickets for the Statue of Liberty. This practice has a history of fraud and violence stretching back more than a decade.
At an announcement in the Battery yesterday (Wednesday) morning, Mr. Marte said, “people should be able to walk through the Battery or catch the ferry without being harassed or scammed. For years, individual sellers have gotten small fines while the companies making money off these scams have been able to keep doing business. Our bill would hold those companies accountable and put their licenses on the line when they repeatedly break the rules. We hope to see a hearing soon and move quickly to pass this bill. Our community has waited long enough.”
The proposed new law will (if enacted) require business licenses for ticket seller operators (rather than just individual sellers working on the street), while also establishing stricter penalties, including license revocation, for repeat violations. It would prohibit aggressive and deceptive vending tactics, while mandating clear identification for legitimate sellers.
“When we first introduced this bill two years ago,” Mr. Marte said, “my staff and I were lingering here after the press conference, and we had ticket vendors come up to us and try to sell us tickets. They actually told us the park was closed. When I told them I was the Council member and I knew that wasn’t true, they walked away. But imagine if I was a tourist or I didn’t speak English.”
Jessica Lappin, president of the Downtown Alliance, said, “for years, illegal ticket sellers have been a blight on the Battery, creating an unpleasant and often intimidating environment around the ferry terminal. Tourists have been targeted by scammers, while local residents and workers have faced persistent harassment.”
Among the practices that Mr. Marte and Ms. Lappin were referring to are aggressive salespeople barring access to the Battery (the location of the sales booth for the only legally authorized vendor for Liberty Island access, Statue City Cruises) by demanding non-existent tickets, or such hawkers representing (falsely) that the Battery is closed before selling tourists tickets for buses and ferries operated by their own companies.
Such tickets are sometimes valid for admission to boats that tour the harbor, but sold under the false pretense that they will stop at the Statue of Liberty (and sometimes proffered at inflated prices). In other cases, these tickets turn out simply to be worthless counterfeits, while a third scam involves selling bogus passes to board the Staten Island Ferry, which is free. The salespeople who engage in these transactions (often clad in official-looking uniforms) form a screen at the entrances to the Battery, intercepting visitors before they can reach Statue City Cruises sales booth, located at Castle Clinton, within the park.
Wednesday’s announcement became the venue for an impromptu debate, when a small crowd of ticket sellers gathered at the scene, some holding signs that read “We are legal ticket sellers” and “We are New Yorkers, we are legit.” They began interrupting and contradicting public officials.
Crystal Aliaga, a ticket seller for Big City Tourism, said, “we’re not scammers. This is how I pay my rent and support my sixteen-year-old daughter. I’m 37 years old and have been working in this job since I was 18. We have licenses!”
Mr. Marte replied, “we’re happy to talk to every stakeholder. This is about fixing the industry, not trying to take away jobs. If people are selling destinations to other locations and not the Statue of Liberty – as long as they communicate that and have transparent prices, that will fall within the law. What we want is people not to be lied to.”
Ms. Aliaga continued, “a lot of people don’t want to go on Liberty Island, because it’s too expensive, or the wait is too long. Our boat stops 50 feet from the Statue of Liberty for about ten to 15 minutes, and then Ellis Island. We show people the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and give them a view of September 11 Memorial.”
“Some people don’t know how to sell, so they have to be trained,” Ms. Aliaga acknowledged, but insisted, “nobody is a scammer. I wouldn’t mislead anybody. I have a family to feed and bills to pay. This is my living, and I don’t like people saying it’s a scam. It’s about professionalism. They’re putting us all in one bucket, when it’s not just one bucket. There’s no proof that anybody ever tried to charge to get into park. They’re just saying anything to get us out of here.”
Kareem Holmes, the founder and chief executive officer of Big City Tourism, said, “we are a business, just like Statue City Cruises. To call us scammers is very disrespectful and a blatant way to stamp out our business. All of our sellers have a license, and each seller is a small business, which pays taxes. These are businesses owned by people of color. We are changing lives here.”
“We do understand that there are problems in the park,” Mr. Holmes acknowledged. “There are some bad apples, and we are working with City to get rid of bad actors. We’re here to attack these problems and correct the issues that arose in the past. Many of the big issues have gone away. We follow the rules to the best of our ability, but NYPD sweeps target everybody, and even people with licenses get locked up.”
After the press conference, Paula Recart, the president of the Battery Conservancy, stepped to the side with Mr. Holmes (left), and they began talking. She told him that ticket vendors “harass tourists, tell them the park is closed for construction, or that lines will take four hours. Anyone who is selling here has a practice of selling very aggressively and lying and intimidating people. I have seen this. I have been shouted at. I’ve been told the park is closed.”
Mr. Holmes challenged her by asking “which sellers?”
Ms. Recart answered, “I don’t know their names. But the ones who are not shouting at people probably make the least money.”
“Show us who and we can get rid of them right now,” Mr. Holmes said. “We can do a better job than the NYPD.”
A spokesman for Statue City Cruises told the Broadsheet, “consistent, proactive enforcement of current laws and this legislation are required to protect the public from illegal and misleading sales tactics that target vulnerable New Yorkers and visitors. We ask law enforcement agencies at every level of government to help safeguard our workers, our communities, and our visitors with urgency and effective action.”
In addition to sometimes intimidating tourists, the salespeople at the Battery, who work for multiple, competing organizations, have a history of violence toward one another. Local residents have witnessed numerous fights between vest-clad vendors. Community Board 1 member Tammy Meltzer, who worked with Mr. Holmes and Mr. Marte to resolve these issues during her tenure as CB1 chair, and was at yesterday’s press conference, showed Mr. Holmes a video on her phone, taken this summer, of a half dozen vendors fighting at the foot of West Street. In June 2025, a ticket hawker was stabbed twice, apparently by rival vendors who believed he was crossing into their territory. Over the years, the sidewalk around Battery Park has been the site of altercations between vendors, assaults of tourists, even gunfire.