OUR YEAR IN NYC: Frozen Zone

This was an unusual week here. There were two big international events held in Manhattan. The United Nations General Assembly and, to take advantage of all the heads of state being here, Bill Clinton had his Global Initiative Forum the same week. The area around the UN was under heightened security all week. Street vendors and food carts are not allowed and mailboxes were removed from the streets in the area. A “frozen zone” can be declared at any moment without any notice. This occurs when a dignitary’s motorcade is coming through and all automobile traffic AND pedestrian traffic is frozen. No one can cross a street or go anywhere for fifteen minutes or more.

We are not close to the UN in Turtle Bay at all, however, Clinton’s forum is held right across the street from our apartment at the Sheraton Hotel. VIPs were constantly shuttled back and forth between the two locations so we started seeing changes right away on Monday. They were using the side entrance to the Sheraton (which faces our living room windows) and had that sidewalk blocked to pedestrian traffic and one of car traffic was blocked as well. Police presence was everywhere including directing traffic.

Each day it seemed that more and more territory was barricaded coming to a crescendo on Thursday, the last day of the forum, when Michelle Obama was the keynote speaker and introduced by Barack Obama. As the day progressed we kept going over to the windows and see what was happening. There were twice as many barricades as the day before and all street vendors were nowhere to be seen. Gradually we saw more and more police and I assume plainclothes police as well. A tent was set up on the street next to the entrance, sort of a makeshift garage, so the president could transfer from the limo to the hotel unseen. Sharpshooters were on the roofs all around. I counted at least a dozen at four locations that we could see, all with rifles at hand and binoculars scanning the scene. We had the windows wide open and were freely hanging out of them looking up and down the street when it suddenly occurred to us that being directly above the tent and entrance we could be perceived as a threat and we quickly pulled our heads back in closed the windows. I was really concerned that my shiny camera could be mistaken for a gun. We could practically make eye contact we so close to these guys.

By this time we couldn’t even leave our building as both sides of the street were blocked off. Barricades and police tape kept pedestrians at least a block away and both 7th Avenue and 53rd Street were blocked to traffic. Two huge sand trucks had been pulled into position to block any vehicle trying to break through to 53rd.

We were sitting in front row seats for the total lock down, a little like watching this from your front porch. Toni was doing a little vacuuming and then stop to watch and then back to cleaning.
The motorcade came through, motorcycles first followed by several squad cars and black limos and an ambulance. Then the presidential car pulled into the tent and Secret Service agents were everywhere around it. There was really nothing to see but the security measures.

A half hour later the whole process reversed and little by little things were returned to normal. We went back to our work and in the background we could hear the steel barricades taken down and loaded onto trucks. Police tape was taken down and the streets reopened as if nothing happened and we were free to leave our building again.

Unfrozen.