Posted on 11/18/2016 7:24:58 AM PST by RummyChick
Donald Trump, the first New York City kid to become president since FDR, will also be the first commander-in-chief to move to the White House from an apartment. True, his 30,000-square-foot, gilt-slathered Trump Tower penthouse is no ordinary pad, but the fact that he lives in the innermost heart of what you might call the inner city means that security arrangements don’t just inconvenience a few neighbors; they screw up a sizable chunk of Manhattan. Fifth Avenue in the 50s is almost always clotted with pedestrians and cars, and this time of year it becomes even more congested as department stores turn their windows into Christmas Barneys-, Saks-, and Dior-amas. But Trump’s election has turned his stretch of Fifth into the urban equivalent of the security line at JFK: Aluminum barriers squeeze traffic into a pair of lanes, sidewalks are blocked off, and pedestrians shuffle past a gauntlet of armed officers.
The city can cope with this disruption for a while. We grumble when world leaders converge on the United Nations twice a year, paralyzing the East Side, but we also recognize that statespeople need their New York fix, too. We know the excitement and irritation of moving aside for the 13-car motorcade ferrying President Obama to dinner at Cosme. But when the president-elect lets it be know that over the next four years he’d like to slip back to his Tower on weekends (because, really, who wants to spend a Saturday afternoon in downtown D.C.?), that will be not a mere annoyance but a state-sponsored takeover of public space.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
I used to live and work in three areas that, at times, had a heavy police surveillance / secret service presence. When some big political or diplomatic event happened, there were security protocols that you had to follow to get into work or my apartment. It wasn’t that big of a deal. These babies need to grow up.
This lefty writer is obviously historically and geographically "challenged." FDR spent his childhood on his parents' estate at Hyde Park, NY, which is about 90 miles north of NYC on the Hudson River and to this day would be considered a rural area.
The last, and possibly only, "New York City kid" to become president would be FDR's distant cousin Teddy.
The author needs to talk to the citizenry who live out West. Especially ranchers.
Apparently Trump is not going to be able to fully use the White House for a year because Obama didn’t want to be inconvenienced by security updates during his eight years. Who wants to be hanging around the house while it is under construction. So I guess President Trump can govern from anywhere he wants. If Obama can do it from Hawaii, the golf course and around the world, Trump can do it from his permanent residence.
I think he should hold State Dinners at Mar A Lago if logistically possible. It is beautiful.
Wait. You mean New York magazine doesn’t even know what “inner city” means?
Doesn't President Elect (love the sounds of it)Trump have an impressive property in New Jersey that could be used for official business?
This is why Bush bought a ranch in the middle of nowhere. The media hated when Bush spent weeks at his ranch, but the Secret Service loved it.
It’s going to inconvenience me greatly, since I take a Fifth Avenue bus to many places in that area, but guess what? I don’t mind. I guess I’m braver than I thought.
Obama never gave a crap over causing disruption and hardship to others.
They still have 5th Avenue open to traffic in front. It’s 46th Street between Madison and 6th that is pretty much shut down to through traffic.
Yup, but they did block off a county road so you had to go a few miles outta the way from point A to point B. I'm kinda laughing reading this NYC thing. Probably my 4 or 5 miles amounted to the same amount of time they're out of.
My brother, a pilot, could no longer fly over and buzz my house to let us know when to go pick him up at the airport tho.
What the writer doesn’t realize is that before long every street that borders the Trump Tower will be closed off.
FWIW, I actually think this writer has a point.
Even so, militarizing the streets has become the option of first resort, establishing a presence that’s as frail as it is aggressive.
Why do American citizens have to sacrifice their freedom of movement in order to avoid offending certain deranged religious/cultic movements from the Middle East?
Putting aside this specific example, where the President-elect is probably more threatened by deranged Marxist mobs, almost all of these security features are implemented in order to deter attacks from people who should not be in this country in the first place.
This is why Donald Trump's Muslim ban, despite howls of outrage from the usual suspects, was so popular among the electorate.
Left calls for violence against President elect then complains about security. It really IS a mental disorder.
The odds of Obama’s sons robbing, raping and murdering the residents in and around there just dropped to 0.00000000001.
The cabbie has to take a longer route around so gets a bigger fare and tip. What’s to complain about?
It didn’t look that way from a photo but maybe that was just during a protest. I hope a lane is not closed off. But as I said, I think I’ll survive.
As soon as the Tree is lighted, it will be nightmare time, as cars slow down when they pass it, but it’s like that every year.
The writer seems to be implying that traffic disruptions are worth it to protect Onagger, but not Trump.
Before he moves into the White House, Trump should have a delegation of Spirit-filled ministers go in to cleanse the place (who knows what demons and other creepy-crawlers have come in.)
Next, have the appropriate authorities sweep the place to detect any bugs.
And just for fun, have the FBI go through with some drug sniffing dogs just to see what happens.
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