How Trump Is Being Protected in New York (and What It May Cost)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/nyregion/trump-united-nations-general-assembly.html

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Most of the world’s leaders are descending on New York City this week for the annual United Nations General Assembly, but only one of them has a residence atop Trump Tower.

President Trump returned Sunday to his hometown, a place that starting last year became roiled with protests that choked the streets outside his eponymous skyscraper whenever he arrived in Midtown Manhattan.

[Read our live updates on the United Nations General Assembly]

As the city was bracing for gridlock, the F.B.I., Secret Service and New York Police Department were preparing to safeguard visiting dignitaries and also Mr. Trump, who planned to stay in his penthouse.

Here’s how they are protecting the president:

There are nearly 50 dump trucks filled with sand on the street, according to city officials. Earlier this week, at least 17 of them had lined Fifth Avenue between 55th and 57th Streets.

The vehicles — garbage trucks and salt spreaders that weigh 16 tons and can carry the same weight in sand — have previously appeared at mass gatherings including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and New Years Eve celebrations in Times Square.

“They are a 32-ton obstacle should someone try and penetrate that area,” said Vito A. Turso, a spokesman for the Department of Sanitation, which supplies the vehicles.

“We always knew that we were part of keeping New York City clean and healthy,” he added. “Now we are part of keeping it safe as well.”

This kind of counterterrorism measure became a more common sight in 2016, after a man drove a cargo truck through a crowd of Bastille Day celebrants in Nice, France.

The General Assembly typically creates traffic jams. At one point during the two-week session, the police said, 189 motorcades are expected to cross Manhattan in a single day.

Mr. Trump’s choice to stay at Trump Tower has added to the snarl. This year, 55th Street from Sixth to Madison Avenues, and 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, are among the streets closed to vehicular traffic.

Whenever Mr. Trump has exited and entered Trump Tower this week, Fifth Avenue was closed to vehicles from 58th Street to at least 56th Street.

The sidewalks remained open, though few pedestrians seemed able to tell. Barricades lined the pavement in front of the tower, and people seeking to access those sidewalks were screened at Secret Service checkpoints.

That hassle meant little foot traffic for the businesses near Mr. Trump’s home. Employees seemed to spend much of Monday afternoon outside the entrances of their empty shops, craning for a glimpse of a visiting leader.

“Oh yeah, we’re making money!” said a Gucci employee before he ducked back into the store without giving his name. “So much!”

Trump Tower will be open to the public throughout Mr. Trump’s stay.

As part of a decades-old agreement allowing Mr. Trump to build his tower higher, parts of the interior are privately owned public spaces, commonly known as POPS. Those spaces are brokered between the city and developers seeking leniency on zoning restrictions.

Earlier this week, Secret Service members were stationed at all levels of the tower’s multistory food hall — including beside the subterranean bathrooms, where agents said they were keeping an eye over a golden back door that leads to the Gucci store.

At a news briefing last week, leaders from the agencies securing the event said that public vigilance was key to keeping the city safe.

“Even taking one earbud out of your ear,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., the assistant director of the F.B.I.’s New York field office.

There are 67 protests planned during the assembly, said Thomas Galati, the Police Department’s chief of intelligence.

The United Nations headquarters and Dag Hammarskjold Plaza are the sites of many protests, but law enforcement is also bracing for a several outside Trump Tower, Chief Galati said.

“Trump Tower is a constant place of protest, and we are aware of several that are going to happen,” he said. “But we have people to keep it peaceful.”

Some activists are also planning across Manhattan. Rise and Resist, an anti-Trump group, will be staging a protest Tuesday evening outside the Trump International Hotel at Columbus Circle.

“It is important for us to have a historical record that we were demonstrating while all this was going on,” said Jamie Bauer, a member of Rise and Resist. “Because in history, they are going to ask, ‘What were you doing when Trump was destroying democracy?’”

It costs about $308,000 a day to protect Mr. Trump at his New York home, according to estimates made by the police early last year when Mr. Trump, then president-elect, resided in his penthouse.

Then there are less quantifiable tolls: Local businesses in 2017 said sales dropped by 40 percent as foot and car traffic ground to a halt behind barricades and checkpoints.

The Police Department would not divulge the cost of guarding the president at home, but the General Assembly protective detail has cost between $20 million and $30 million in past years, according to the police.

In the past, the federal government has reimbursed that money.

“There are many ways we’ll be keeping people safe,” James P. O’Neill, the police commissioner, said in a statement. “And there will be much the public will see, and much the public will not see.”