By William M. Reilly
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The area surrounding UN Headquarters is humming with activity as world leaders arrive for the annual UN General Assembly high-level week.
Navigating Midtown Manhattan by land or water requires extra patience this week due to significantly heightened security measures. A heavy presence of blue-and-white NYPD vehicles secures the streets out of an abundance of caution, as 71 heads of state, 45 heads of government, 50 ministers, 11 vice presidents and one crown prince are expected to attend the high-level week.
"Alongside the mandated meetings, we have about 166 events that are scheduled here at headquarters during high-level week, and member states have so far submitted 1,553 requests for use of the bilateral (meeting) rooms," said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on Monday.
Guterres, who retires at the end of the year after completing two five-year terms, is expected to hold more than 150 bilateral meetings with world leaders.
Officers on foot and atop high-rise buildings have weapons at the ready. They wear protective vests, with many standing next to huge white blocks of concrete emblazoned with "NYPD" in blue and mechanical traffic security gates. Alongside them are officers from the UN safety and security service and from several U.S. state and federal agencies, led by the U.S. Secret Service.
Radio bulletins and smartphone applications serve up road and waterway traffic warnings about Manhattan.
"Gridlock Alert," they say, is triggered by street closures and traffic lanes reserved for the diplomatic motorcades. City officials asked citizens to take public transportation. Still, for several blocks, a bus lane on Second Avenue is crowded with the vehicles of security personnel and the many big black SUVs and small buses carrying members of their parties to the opening of the General Debate on Tuesday morning.
At one point, traffic on Second Avenue at 43rd Street ground to a standstill as protesters sat down on the whole span of the road in defiance of police warning.
First Avenue along the west side of the 7-hectare UN campus is packed with emergency services vehicles, ambulances and fire apparatus, leaving room only for motorcades passing through the security gates.
However, the traffic bulletins do not warn pedestrians.
Crowds of delegates on foot converge on the General Assembly, and New Yorkers try to carry out their daily routines: workmen, white-collar workers, older people carefully navigating their little shopping carts to the supermarket, nannies pushing strollers, crowds of security personnel. All have to share the narrow sidewalks.
"When the world visits New York City, our streets are inevitably impacted," Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a security briefing at Police Headquarters last week.
"There are no known specific threats against the UN General Assembly or our city at this time," he said. "Our security posture will be elevated in an abundance of caution. This is standard procedure."
He described security around the UN headquarters as "a whole-of-department response with assets deployed on the ground, on the waterways and in the air."
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at the same briefing, "This is one of the most complex security operations that we carry out."
Larger military and smaller NYPD helicopters patrolled, and various U.S. Coast Guard and NYPD craft bobbed on the East River or patrolled slowly, blocking private and commercial traffic along the waterway. Some ferry service has been suspended.
A white Coast Guard cutter was docked on the opposite side of the river, in Queens and a larger vessel was anchored south of the complex.
"Leave the drone at home," the U.S. Secret Service said, explaining on its Facebook page that during the high-level week, New York City is a "NO DRONE ZONE," and the Secret Service, NYPD and New York State Police were enforcing the Federal Aviation Administration ban. ■
