Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 7 -- The United Nations is urging New York City to close the 42nd Sreet FDR Drive off-ramp, or it will vacate its Dag Hammarskjold Library and its annex including the cafeteria by the end of this year.

  Closing the off-ramp would obviously inconvenience driving New Yorkers. (At the same time, the UN is trying to takeover the Robert Moses Park just south of 42nd Street, as Inner City Press has previously covered, here.)

  But the UN says that there is not enough "off-set" from the ramp to the UN buildings, apparently referring to a car or truck bomb. The UN is installing bollards along First Avenue from 42nd to 48th Street for that purpose. It is constructing a new screening building on between 42nd and 43rd Street, with an eye toward eliminating the turnstiles currently in the UN lobby.

  The cafeteria is run by Aramark, right now with the UN covering all of the company's net operating costs. While still UNclear with whom, a new contract is set to be signed by the end of the year, according to the UN's (British) head of the Office of Central Support Services Stephen Cutts.

  At a meeting on February 7, Cutts said that Aramark "will re-open" the Delegates Dining Room on February 3. He was quickly reminded that has already happened -- that is, that February 3rd came before the date of his three minute speech on February 7 -- and he said, "I'm out of date."

  Michael Adlerstein of the Capital Master Plan said that the North Lawn Building will be demolished by the end of 2015, and that this year's General Debate will be in the historical GA hall (on which there are still no windows).

  Catherine Pollard of the Office of Human Resources Management was there; as Inner City Press reported, she is competing to take over the Under Secretary General post at UNOPS in Copenhagen. The head of the UN's "UMOJA" system said that this will be expanded to all special political mission then to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and all Nairobi-related offices.

  Few questions were taken at this "Town Hall" meeting, about which a number of Department of Management staff complained to Inner City Press afterwards, offering exclusive audio to demonstrate what they were talking about. Does it make sense to leave the Library and cafeteria empty? Who made that determination? That is something we will be trying to determine. Watch this site.