One of the most iconic views from Manhattan of the Statue of Liberty is now blocked by a 6-foot-tall black wire fence.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
One of the most iconic views from Manhattan of the Statue of Liberty is now blocked by a 6-foot-tall black wire fence
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According to the U.S. Park Police, security fencing around the sightseeing cruise boats has taken up the same space at Battery Park since 2004 and is a critical security element needed to protect the Statue of Liberty and its millions of visitors
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Paula Recart, the president of the Battery Conservancy, says the fence was only the height of a police barrier before park renovations started in 2023
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The U.S. Park Police say the southeastern section of the fence reopens after the boats stop running each afternoon. Recart says she rarely sees this happen<\/p>\n
Christine Dimmick has lived in Battery Park City for seven years and is upset about a new, higher fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI walk my dog frequently in this park and we\u2019ve never had a fence like this before,\u201d Dimmick told NY1. \u201cLady Liberty belongs to all of us in New York and now you\u2019ve got this fence, tourists can\u2019t take pictures. You have to put your arms over it.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Paula Recart, the president of the Battery Conservancy, says the fence was only the height of a police barrier before park renovations started in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fence is too tall, too long, and it stays for too many hours,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Recart was hoping to have a party to celebrate the reopening of the park called \u201cThe View is Back\u201d after two and a half years of renovations. That party was canceled shortly after she saw the black fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t think it was appropriate to invite the community to a party that was called \u2018The View is Back,\u2019 if the view is back with a fence in between,\u201d she told NY1. \u201cSo we are hoping that we can still keep the party up sometime soon, with the collaboration of all the stakeholders to find an alternative solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Park Police, security fencing around the sightseeing cruise boats has taken up the same space at Battery Park since 2004 and is a critical security element needed to protect the Statue of Liberty and its millions of visitors.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from the U.S. Park Police wrote in a statement, \u201cremoving the security fencing, or even modifying it without very careful consideration, would expose ferry operations to unnecessary risk for the sake of a better view.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. Park Police say the southeastern section of the fence reopens after the boats stop running each afternoon.<\/p>\n
Recart says she rarely sees this happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been here for days at 7 p.m. and it has been entirely closed. I came one day when I saw it open, and honestly, it doesn\u2019t make a big difference. It\u2019s a very small sliver,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Advocates at a news conference Monday called on the National Park Service to find a way to balance security with the public\u2019s ability to enjoy the park.<\/p>\n
Tourists NY1 spoke with had mixed feelings about the fence.<\/p>\n
Martin, who is visiting from the Netherlands, said he did not know that the fence was going to be at the park when he came to see the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it\u2019s not that pretty, and it\u2019s quite hard to get a good look at the statue. And yeah, it\u2019s not really nice,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m lucky that I\u2019m quite tall, so I can put my phone over the fence, But yeah, nope my face and the picture, so that\u2019s bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Rebecca from Louisiana said it doesn\u2019t bother her that much.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can still see in between, and it\u2019s just nice being here. I feel like it\u2019s up for safety reasons, possibly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Parks Department told NY1 in a statement that it remains committed to both public access and safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cReopening as much as possible of the waterfront at The Battery is essential to ensuring that New Yorkers and visitors can access and enjoy one of the city\u2019s most iconic public spaces,\u201d a spokesperson wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
In a contract between Statue Cruises, LLC and the Parks Department, a clause calls for the National Park Service, Parks and Licensee to \u201cagree to cooperate to promptly resolve any conflict between NPS requirements and Parks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Statue City Cruises told NY1 that it does not determine security procedures at the park.<\/p>\n
Recart says she hopes this clause can lead to a solution.<\/p>\n
There are other places in the city that visitors can see the Statue of Liberty for free, including from the Staten Island Ferry. However, if visitors want an unobstructed view from Battery Park, they have to pay to take a Statue City Cruise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most iconic views from Manhattan of the Statue of Liberty is now blocked by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[25,3691,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-187757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-emma-barnett","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-manhattan-headlines","12":"tag-manhattan-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}