A New Jersey senator is introducing a resolution that would forbid the well-heeled from parking their yachts near the Statue of Liberty.
Sen. Richard Codey’s legislation would urge the U.S. Coast Guard to prohibit long-term anchorage in the harbor near Liberty Island, where he says some people have been parking their vessels for weeks on end.
Codey said the parked yachts pose a safety problem because they’re hard to navigate around, and that they block views and make it difficult for visitors to access the island.
Yacht owners apparently anchor in New York Harbor to avoid paying docking fees.
According to the senator, Russian-American oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler anchored his mega yacht, “Le Grand Bleu,” in front of the statue for multiple weeks at a time this year. Codey says Swiss-Italian scion Ernesto Bertarelli dropped anchor near Liberty Island in July, and that German businessman Reinhold Wurth parked his 265-foot boat, “Vibrant Curiosoity,” there in early August.
“When Emma Lazarus wrote about America welcoming ‘your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’ it was not an invitation to billionaire oil tycoons to use the waters surrounding the Statue of Liberty as a parking lot for their yachts,” Codey said in a statement.
He said he’ll introduce the resolution at the next Senate session.
