ST. GEORGE — Cleaning the toilets would make riding the Staten Island Ferry a more pleasurable experience, according to a new report.
The Young Democrats of Staten Island partnered with Community Board 1 to study ways of improving the quality of the ride for users of the ferry.
Among their 18 recommendations are adding seats, better crowd control — and more sanitary bathrooms.
Other suggestions included adding more trash cans and pickups in the terminal and the Peter Minuit Plaza and dealing with the aggressive ticket sellers.
"Staten Island's front door is very dirty right now," said Dominick DeRubbio, president of the Young Democrats.
"This is the front door to Staten Island and that plaza has become uninhabitable. It's not being maintained in the manner that it should be."
Staten Island Ferry Task Force Report
The study also includes asking the NYPD and the Department of Homeless Services to deal with the homeless population that lives in both terminals and find spaces in shelters for them instead.
"Nobody's trying to push anybody out," said DeRubbio. "We're looking to bring the city agencies to come to the terminal to give them help."
DeRubbio, president of the Salvus Group who rides the ferry daily to his Manhattan offices, said he came up with the idea for the study after he started seeing ticket sellers harass tourists, some using bad language.
"I thought this was unacceptable," DeRubbio said. "It's disgusting, they shouldn’t be doing that to anyone. No one should come to New York City to see that."
He partnered with Community Board 1 and the study expanded to deal with quality of life issues the city could tackle to improve the ride.
It rounded up a team of 11 Staten Islanders — most of whom ride the ferry daily — and worked for six months on the study, DeRubbio said.
Aside from making it better for residents who take the ferry, they also looked at ways to help the millions of tourists who ride it each year. Their recommendations include better signage to point them in the right direction and plans for an information booth about Staten Island at the Whitehall Terminal.
"We're not doing the best job of selling ourselves, there's so many hidden gems," said DeRubbio. "We're not marketing ourselves as we should be."
The task force completed the study last week and sent it out to local politicians and city agencies involved with the ferry.
A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said they received copies of study and would review the recommendations.
