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A longtime champion of downtown Manhattan wants to turn Pier A restaurant and some associated businesses into a security and welcoming center for the 4.5 million annual visitors to the Statue of Liberty.
Since 2001 visitors have gone through screening in tall white tents that block the view at the southern end of the park.
"This monstrosity of vinyl has got to go," said Warrie Price, president and founder of the Battery Conservancy, which maintains the 25 acres of public parkland at Manhattan's southern tip. "This cannot be the way to welcome our visitors."
The city, the state, the federal government, the current leaseholders and the leaseholders' lenders would have to come to an agreement to change how Pier A is used, reprising scenes that first took place in the early 2000s. If the various interests find common ground now, their collaboration could foretell a more unified view of land use in a post-pandemic New York City.
"We can't just come back the way we left it," as Price put it. "We have to be so much better."
Pier A is the city's last remaining historic pier, constructed in the 1880s by the city's Department of Docks. The Police Department's harbor patrol has also used the pier, as has the Fire Department's marine division. In 1992 it was left vacant.
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If Pier A is to become a security station, the first obstacle would be the current tenant, a group...