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NY Newsday, June
29, 2005
Albany's Shot at the UN Costs the City
Joseph Dolman
Last week, the New York State Legislature deftly zapped
a United Nations proposal to expand its global headquarters complex onto a
dingy slab of Manhattan
asphalt known as the Robert Moses Playground.
Why? Well, the Legislature had plenty of official
reasons. It fretted about the UN's lack of accountability. It fretted about
the UN's conflicts of interest. It fretted about the UN's general
fecklessness and haughtiness.
In short, it fretted about a bloated and lugubrious body
whose members sit around and do nothing most of the time.
It's odd, huh? These traits should have made legislators
and UN's sultans feel more like soul mates than rivals. They share much in
common. But for some reason, their similarities ultimately counted for
little.
State Sen. Liz Krueger, an East Side Manhattan Democrat
who supported the expansion deal, probably got the closest to the truth the
other day.
"Some of my colleagues," she quietly declared,
"decided to demagogue and grandstand."
State Sen. Martin J. Golden (R-Brooklyn) comes to mind.
As he ticked off the UN's many operational failings in a
chat yesterday, he went on to label the outfit as anti-Semitic and
anti-American - not to mention anti-democratic.
It was this kind of pressure that apparently pushed
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) to scrap the UN's grand
expansion plans in the Legislature's waning days last week. He left a few
major issues hanging fire:
Question No. 1: What about the UN's real and urgent need
for tighter security and more space near its Manhattan site?
Question No. 2: What about the duty of state government
to meet the reasonable demands major employers make?
Question No. 3: What about the value of maintaining New York's high
profile as a crucial center for global diplomacy?
Question No. 4: What about plain old common sense? Since
when did ideology drive land-use decisions involving major public
institutions? If this were a common standard for deciding which institutions
got land and which did not, I suspect the Legislature would wind up meeting
under a tree in Albany.
The Senate, Assemb. Steven
Sanders (D-Manhattan) said yesterday, "cared more about making a
political statement" than about statesmanship.
Actually, it cared more about grandstanding than it
cared about the UN's neighborhood.
The Moses playground, where the UN wanted to build a
temporary headquarters of 35 stories - for use while its main building was
renovated - is a grim piece of land the city could easily cede. Embraced by
a tall chain-link fence, it stands right in front of an air shaft for the
Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
The deal the Senate killed would likely have given the
city a real park nearby - built courtesy of the United Nations - in return
for this dog of a plot. And when the UN was finished with its $1.2 billion
renovation job in the main building, it would have used the new 35-story
tower for ancillary office space.
This would have represented a nice victory for the UN
and a nice victory for New Yorkers.
And now?
Well, as late as yesterday Mayor Michael Bloomberg was
still doing damage control - telling Condoleezza Rice just how much the
city wants to keep the United Nations in New York.
The UN probably will stay.
But it has wasted too much time on this project already.
And let's face it: The UN is somewhat restricted in the meeting halls it
can use for a General Assembly session. Its security needs are impossible
to exaggerate.
So chances are the UN will build on land already within its
compound on First Avenue
- manicured land that has long provided New Yorkers with a graceful lawn
and sight line to the East River. This
view could soon be history as the UN builds its 35-story tower.
Nothing is certain - except for this: If you want to
build in the city, beware. The culture of inertia beats everything in its
path. Its powers are awesome.
It can chalk up another big win.
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