bout de papier, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1995-1996) — Winter 1995–96 // Hiver 1995-1996, p. 20
Situated on 18 acres along the East River between 42nd and 48th Streets, the UN headquarters is quite literally a trip outside the United States. It is designated as international territory. In fact, you cannot use an American stamp on a letter mailed from within the UN building. But you can buy UN stamps at the post office in the basement and mail your postcards from there to anywhere in the world.
Most visitors to the UN take the guided tour, visit the shops and then stroll through the gardens beside the East River. More than 35 million people have toured the UN headquarters since the tour began. The numbers increase annually.
A couple of years ago, New York City was alarmed by news that some of the UN agencies might move to suburbs outside of Manhattan or even to Europe because of high rents and space needs. This has been settled for now and New York will continue to be the world’s preeminent international city. It has the largest diplomatic community in the world. The city certainly benefits from the UN presence as the annual spending in New York by the United Nations, its agencies, missions, consulates, international business and allied diplomatic activities was $3.3 billion US in 1994. Along with the revenues, come the demonstrations. Two or three days every week the world’s citizens — whether they be Kurds, Haitians, Burmese, Tibetans, Cubans, Sikhs, Greeks or Turks, Croatians or Serbs — come to two plazas across from the United Nations to protest, to shout and to chant. And protests occur at all hours much to the chagrin of the 4,000 residents of Tudor City, the apartments across from the UN. Each year the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation issues approximately 250 permits for marches and rallies at these two parks straddling the UN grounds. And this number doesn’t include all of those demonstrators who never ask for an official permit
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1995-1996) — Winter 1995–96 // Hiver 1995-1996, p. 20. Read the rest of this issue →
