Drivers getting around Midtown Manhattan may have to summon greater patience for the rest of the month as road closures are planned for the United Nations General Assembly.
This is the first time the UNGA will meet in person since the pandemic began. World leaders from 132 countries will convene at the U.N. Secretariat Building on Tuesday, with President Joe Biden among those expected to address the assembly.
Road closures will begin September 19th and end on September 30th and will mostly impact the neighborhoods surrounding the U.N., which is located at First Avenue and 42nd Street. A full list of closures can be found here. Drivers will feel the full effects of temporarily inaccessible streets beginning Monday, September 20th, which will be in effect from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, said NYPD Chief of Transportation Kim Royster at a news briefing Friday.
"There will be multiple closures, detours, and checkpoints around the Midtown area," said Royster, adding that bicycles will also be re-routed. "We're asking the public if you have to be in that area, to take alternate routes of transportation."
With fewer streets to get around, the city Department of Transportation has designated all of next week as a Gridlock Alert Day, which often brings traffic to a halt. Traffic agents will be deployed to impacted sections of Manhattan.
At the Friday news briefing held jointly with federal enforcement agencies to discuss security measures, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told reporters there are "no specific credible [terrorism] threats" related to the UNGA.
"We are always going into [the UNGA] with a layered approach that there will be unknown threats, due to the international symbolism of the event, the amount of media coverage and the attention around it," NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller told reporters.
Miller said that there are at least 37 demonstrations expected to happen during the 11-day stretch, though he expects more.
The UNGA will run through September 27th. According to the U.N. website, this year's theme at UNGA will be centered around building "resilience through hope – to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalize the United Nations.”
