Sink the hawkers: The city

On a nice summer day, the vast majority of the 15,000 or more people who board government-sanctioned Statue Cruises boats leaving Battery Park for Liberty and Ellis Islands will first have been hassled and harassed by illegal ticket hawkers peddling expensive tickets for vessels that never dock on either island.

And hundreds or even thousands of others will never get to Liberty, having been suckered into buying the phony $35 “express” tickets instead of the $18.50 Statue Cruises fares.

We have long complained of the gauntlet tourists must face when they exit the subway at Bowling Green or South Ferry, with hawkers bedecked in official-looking hats and shirts and wearing city Department of Consumer Affairs-issued licenses with their photos. Who wouldn’t be tricked?

Trouble is, Bowling Green and South

Ferry are on parkland, and the law forbids the selling or even the “offer for sale” of anything on parkland without a special parks permit.

The cops don’t need to arrest the hawkers. Just issue summonses for illegal selling or offering to sell in a park. Parks enforcement patrols and Consumer Affairs should join in.

Then, trace the tickets back to the boats sailing out of city-owned berths under control of the Economic Development Corp. and revoke their docking privileges for routinely violating city law by allowing their tickets to be illegally sold. Once the boats vanish, so will the hawkers.

But the first step is to put large signs in the Battery directing tourists to the one true boat, highlighting the $18.50 price and making crystal clear that the rogue park ticket-peddlers are selling a bill of goods.

The tired, huddled masses of tourists deserve better than this.