Today is the birthday of the Statue of Liberty, dedicated in New York Harbor 140 years ago, Oct. 28, 1886. Lady Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the United States, but she belongs to the whole world.

Her famous face is not trademarked. Her name is not copyrighted. Anyone can try to make a buck using her image, but the only way to get to Liberty Island and nearby Ellis Island is on the boats of Statue City Cruises, under contract with the National Park Service.

And as we’ve pointed out for years, those are the only boat tickets that can be sold or offered for sale in Battery Park or outside of the South Ferry and Bowling Green subway stations (which are both located on city parkland). It is illegal to sell anything in a New York City park without a permit or franchise and only the official boats of Statue City Cruises are allowed to sell there. But each day, dozens of illegal ticket hawkers are on the parkland, duping tourists with other boat rides.

The impact is to ruin what should be a special experience of going to Liberty and Ellis for tourists and sour them on New York for getting conned and paying more for something that they didn’t want.

The Mamdani administration, under the direction of First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, is now working on the problem. Fuleihan was the first one to solve this mess, when he had the same job under Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2019.

The NYPD and NYC Parks enforcement need to get all the illegal hawkers off of the parkland. Hawkers cannot solicit, negotiate or sell tickets or anything on parkland, which includes the subway station plazas and the sidewalks.

The other part of the solution is getting rid of the unregulated buses that line up in the Battery to take duped tourists to piers uptown for their boat rides. The New York City Department of Transportation issues certification letters. The rogue buses don’t have the DOT letters and therefore they cannot pick up or drop off there. Bring out the tow trucks and get the buses out of there.

Soon enough, the illegal hawkers and unregulated buses will give up. If someone wants to take a boat ride from Hudson Pier 78 (at 38th St.) or Hudson Pier 40 (at Houston St.), go ahead, but those tickets cannot be sold in Battery Park or any city park. Find a legal location to sell tickets to the boat rides. As for buses, only certificated buses will be allowed.

Having a city-issued vending license, as many of the hawkers do, is not a permit to sell in a park. No new legislation or regulations are needed, just enforce the existing laws and rules and the hawkers will melt away.

Tonight, in honor of Liberty’s 140th birthday, there’s a big party on Ellis, but the swells in attendance, like Jeff Bezos, won’t have to deal with hawkers because it’s after hours and the hawkers will be gone. But during the day, until the last regular boat departs at 3:30, the scammers will swarming and scamming with lies like “the Statue City Cruises boats are sold out,” or “the Statue City Cruises boats are canceled” or come-ons like “the lines are too long,” or “this is a better boat ride.”

It’s a free country and they can say whatever they want, but they can’t make any sales pitches on city parkland.

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