US HQ falling apart

Bloomberg - cut-paste - no url | 12/5/01

[WIMom]

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Freepathon Holidays are Here Again: Let's Really Light Our Tree This Year - Thread 6

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[Alberta's Child]

The vermin that run around the building are nothing compared to the vermin that occupy the offices.

[Madame Dufarge]

How awful!

Condemn the building and evict the tenants.

[BlueLancer]

I suggest that the UN close down temporarily and move all of its operations to Switzerland during the renovations.

We should have the building renovated and ready for their return when ... oh, let's say "When hell freezes over"? Or is that too soon?

[steve50]

Sounds like a good time to build a new UN center. I think it should be in Kabul, or that island we did the atomic tests on.

[Judith Anne]

From the title, I thought there was an actual problem! Boy! Am I relieved, it's just the UN. Who cares.

[Clemenza]

When I took part in a conference at the UN as a delegate from the Fordham Model United Nations, I noted how much the building reminded me, at least in the interior (the exterior is still impressive, especially when viewed from Long Island City) like a poorly constructed pulic school from the 50s (it smelled like one too). It does not surprise me that the center for Mr. Rockefeller's dream for a better world is now falling apart. I still think we should knock it down and build some condos.

[Telit Likitis]

It is!!

[KLT]

I say, let the freakin UN crumble to the ground! All Osama's little friends play their stupid spin games there....

LET IT ROT!

[aomagrat]

The building is kept this way on purpose so all of the thrid world diplomats will feel right at home.

[Dallas]

Re-locate it to Somalia.

I hear there's plenty of parking.

[GuillermoX]

yet another blatant example of hypocrisy. I'm certain the UN would like to force other countries to live up to a building code, while they themselves occupy the most dangerous building on earth.

Kind of like those who push for public transportation spending, but when you ask them if THEY ever take the bus, they respond with a sheepish "no" and give an excuse as to why they cannot.

[GuillermoX]

I'm sure it smells because no one there takes a shower and they all smoke.

What other office building in the USA allows smoking ondoors? yuck

[eureka!]

Why doesn't Kofi & Co. just hire some of that cheap Sudanese labor to come and fix up the dump? /sarcasm with heavy sighs...

[gridlock]

You have a 39 story building with no sprinkler system?

This place is a death trap. This always happens when there is no controlling legal authority, to borrow a phrase from Algore. NYC has one of the most stringent building codes and enforcement operations in the country. And right there on their little island is a building that does not have to comply.

If the fecal matter ever hits the rotary ventilation device and there is a major fire, who will have to answer the call? You got it, the Fire Department of the City of New York. And yet, no FDNY code enforcement official has probably even seen the inside of that building. New York City should notify the UN forthwith that if there is a fire, they should dial the weather channel and check for rain, because it is not worth it for the City to risk the life of firemen if the UN will not even bother with basic life safety improvements or sprinkler upgrades.

These guys can't even run a building, and they want to run the world!

[PoorMuttly]

Note:

The U.N. building is NOT on U.S./New York property...so it reflects the values of the rest of the world...which is shabby and "ghetto-like" to us. I'm glad it's in New York for this reason too...it sticks out like a sore thumb here...as do the people and their values from elsewhere. Had this taken place elsewhere in the world, it would not have made the news.

Freedom rings, doesn't it.

[clamper1797]

Great .. let's tear it down and move the headquarters where it belongs ... say 1000 miles off the coast New York

[gridlock]

The sad thing is that probably half the people who work in that building are American citizens, and are being subjected to sub-third-world conditions and imminent risk because the UN considers itself to be a world apart.

Nobody wants to spend money on facilities management. But if you don't, the problems don't go away, they just get worse. Everybody in the world has figured that out, except the UN. What does it say about an organization that is trying to chart the course of the future of the world, when they cannot even fix the ceiling in the lobby in less than 20 years?