Reportage
Status: 09/16/2022 02:55
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The United Nations General Assembly will be held in New York next week, for the first time in three years. For the districts around the headquarters this means the return of the state of emergency.
By Antje Passenheim, ARD Studio New York
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He has been eerily quiet for three years. Here we go again: the annual September storm in Midtown Manhattan. And local resident Brad Abrahms remembers it again.
The helicopters in flight, the heavy traffic, the mailboxes that must make way for security. Rooftop snipers to protect world leaders.
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Antje Passenheim
ARD-Studio New York
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Scholz and Baerbock also arrive
130 and therefore an above-average number of heads of state and government want to come personally to the most important annual debate of all UN member states – from US President Biden to Federal Chancellor Scholz. Others, such as Russia and China, send their foreign ministers. There is also Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock.
The black parades then take a tour of the United Nations headquarters on the East River. The number of barricades has been growing for days. There are 30 roadblocks in the United Nations district alone. A lot of patience is required on the part of residents and employees. Abrahms knows that anyone who can flee the city for this week: “It’s not nice to live here when it happens.”
But John Tsang thinks otherwise. He runs a bicycle shop directly across from the United Nations flag sea.
They close all roads. You can’t even get over it as a cyclist. Strict security for all who come. I would say: we can deal with it.
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New Yorkers take everything as it comes, he says. This is what sets them apart.
UNGA week becomes Gaga week
And let it be the live return of the first comprehensive General Assembly of the United Nations. UNGA is its abbreviation among diplomats: many have long since renamed UNGA Week: Gaga Week.
The last one before the pandemic attracted 11,000 delegates to Manhattan. This time it could be even more. Because the urgent world problems such as the war in Ukraine, the food or climate crisis are great. And the temptation to have as many good conversations as possible on the fringes of the great speech marathon.
“Symbolic message to the world”
It’s nice to see so many people and hear so many languages, says Adriana Stark, who lives right in the middle. The hustle and bustle is just the price of living in such a cosmopolitan city. Also for her little dog Terry: “We’ll take care of it!”
The city’s bars and restaurants are ready, says Andrew Rigie, head of the New York Restaurant Association.
This is a symbolic message to the world: our city is open again. We are the catering capital of the world. With kitchens from all over the world. And the people who work there also come from all over the world.
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The hotel’s good beds are practically full, although they are sometimes three times more expensive than usual – $ 700 a night doesn’t mean four stars.
Inflationary prices
And inflation is hitting hard in other ways too. An eight dollar takeaway coffee. Everyone shakes their heads. But even that would have been better for most of the silence before. Without the United Nations, many shops and bars would not survive, says pizzeria director Gus Manessis.
We hope to recover what we lost in the Covid pandemic.
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Family-owned Patsy’s Pizza advertises with celebrities from Frank Sinatra to Kim Basinger and George Clooney who ate there. Gus is now looking forward to seeing more familiar faces he has known from before.
Germans also come here often, he says. “I’m glad you’re all coming back!”
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