Pol: Time to liberate Lady
A New Jersey state senator is demanding the Coast Guard ban jackass billionaires from parking their luxury yachts in front of the Statue of Liberty — after a series of view-blocking boats in recent months created the “Summer of Hull” for visitors hoping to snap photos of Lady Liberty.
“It is unsafe for navigation, unfair to others and completely antithetical to the spirit of one of the world’s most compelling symbols of freedom and equal opportunity,” Sen. Richard Codey (D-NJ) said Wednesday.
Codey plans to introduce a resolution during the next Senate session calling on the Coast Guard to “ban mega yachts” from “longterm” stops in front of the iconic site — although a draft of the bill shown to The Post did not specify exactly how large a mega yacht would be or how long a stay would be considered too long.
Tourists this summer were enraged when RussianAmerican oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, Swiss-Italian scion Ernesto Bertarelli and German hardware baron Reinhold Wurth all parked their massive vessels in front of the hot spot within the space of a few months.
Local mariners were also peeved at the rich guys for abusing the free parking instead of using their vast fortunes to pay for a berth.
The location is currently a legal anchorage, although the Coast Guard can tell yachts to move if they’re actually in the way of other boats.
The military branch has the authority to plant a “no parking” sign in the area, a spokesman confirmed — although it probably won’t do so without a lengthy consultation period.