Council Member Marte Takes on Battery Park Ticket Scammers—Again!

Call him the man with a plan—again. Having proposed legislation to reign in Battery Park’s ubiquitous, aggressive and often duplicitous tourist ticket scammers in May 2025 that failed to go anywhere, downtown City Council Member Christopher Marte is giving the regulatory tack another go.

Whether Marte’s current effort, which was announced at an outdoor press conference on Sept. 15, would effectively give the heave-ho to the worst of the ticket touts, who stalk Battery Park from outside the Whitehall Street subway station in the east to Bowling Green Station near the foot of Broadway, is yet uncertain.

One consensus, however, is that the problem is longstanding. Indeed, The NYPD’s 1st Precinct was making Twitter posts about its efforts to crackdown on unscrupulous ticket hawkers back in 2018, under the not exceptionally law-and-order Mayor Bill De Blasio. Despite this, the city has lacked the political fortitude and police resources to keep the ticket hawkers in check.

With former Community Board 1 Chairperson Julie Menin now the City Council Speaker, the political reasoning goes, there’s a much better chance of advancing the legislation than there was under Adrienne Adams, of central Queens.

The location for Marte’s announcement, just outside the historic Bowling Green subway station control house, was aptly chosen, for this is a notorious choke point. With ongoing resiliency work reducing entry and exit points to Battery Park, the ticket touts who roost here can accost both pedestrians in motion and those who just emerged from the subway. In short, it’s a recognized trap for many tourists who wish to purchase legitimate Statue of Liberty ferry tickets at Castle Clinton, a couple hundred yards inside the park, an ongoing aggravation for local residents and workers.

Standing with Marte was Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal—just as his predecessor, now Comptroller, Mark Levine, lent his support to the cause last year. Representatives from Community Board 1, The Battery Conservancy, Statue City Cruises, and the Downtown Alliance, were also present.

Though there are a number of persistent, overlapping problems in and around Battery Park—from counterfeit goods vendors seemingly imported straight from Canal Street to the frequent harassment of female passersby—it’s the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry boat scams that have, for years, garnered the most attention.

The reasons for this are manifold. First, is the iconic, international stature of these destinations. Second, there is only one licensed operator of ferry boats to these facilities: Statue City Cruises, which pays the National Park Service handsomely for the privilege. Further, because a portion of Statue City’s revenue is paid to the city, any shortfall they suffer, the city’s coffers suffer too.

Third is the fitfully acted upon but real understanding by Gotham officials that tourism is such an important industry, that allowing Battery Park visitors to be scammed or otherwise misled by swarms of predatory ticket sellers does far more harm than good.

One frequent complaint about the ticket scammers is that their boat tours don’t actually land at Ellis or Liberty Island. Another is that they don’t depart from Battery Park but other locations on the West Side, or even New Jersey.

A Marte Proposal, And Its Backers

“People should be able to walk through The Battery or catch the ferry without being harassed or scammed,” said Marte. “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.”

If passed, the legislation would establish stiffer penalties, fines starting at $1,000 and allow licenses to be revoked for repeated violations. It would also prohibit aggressive and deceptive sales tactics and require clear identification to prevent sellers from posing as representatives of government agencies or official services. The former tactic, when employed, is an outright con, while the ticket sellers’ use of official-looking vests, jackets and other materials is often purposely deceptive.

“The aggressive ticket-selling practices at Battery Park have become a persistent problem for visitors and New Yorkers alike,” said Manhattan Beep Hoylman-Sigal. “Tourists from around the world and across the country should be able to visit the Statue of Liberty without facing inflated prices, intimidation or harassment. We need to ensure that one of Manhattan’s most iconic destinations remains safe and welcoming for everyone.”

“The ‘Wild West’ ticket scam at The Battery cannot continue,” offered Alice Blank, Chair of Manhattan Community Board 1. “Visitors coming to see the Statue of Liberty should be welcomed to our city, not subjected to harassment, fraud, and threats to their safety.”

“The Battery is New York City’s front porch, welcoming millions of people from around the world each year,” said Paula Recart, President of The Battery Conservancy. “No family arriving at a public park should be misled, intimidated, or made to believe they have to pay simply to enter the park or see the Statue of Liberty from our waterfront.”

Others offering statements of support were Council Speaker Menin; Council Member Harvey Epstein; Raju Mann, President and CEO of Battery Park City Authority; and Jessica Lappin, President of the Downtown Alliance.

Unlike Marte’s 2025 Battery Park announcement, this press event included the surprise appearance of a couple dozen ticket selling counter protesters, who vociferously disputed that they are in fact “scammers.”

Why the ticket sellers—many of whom are generally wary of attention due to previous, partial city crackdowns and other past, personal issues with law enforcement— hose today to speak up is unclear. The visible presence of television and radio reporters, who stand out more than than the notebook toters of the print media, is one possible reason.

”We have actual licenses,” said one Hispanic woman, “It’s not fair,” she told a reporter, while her fellow ticket sellers, most of whom are Black men, including native New Yorkers, some West Africans and as well as a few women and others.

Afterwards, a tourist company called Big City Tourism posted an Instagram reel challenging the assertions of Marte, Hoylman-Sigal and others.

”Excuse me, this is how I pay my rent, my family,” the Hispanic woman continues, which doesn’t exactly answer any questions.

“There are licensed [ticket] sellers,” Marte calmly responded, referring to the independent, licensed tour operators. It’s what they sell and how they sell that remains in dispute.