By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 31 -- The UN's Capital Master Plan renovation is at least $80 million over budget, even after the controversial infusion of $100 million in Tax Equalization Funds which were due back to US taxpayers. So what better time for CMP chief Michael Adlerstein to make nice with the press?
Thursday Adlerstein allowed UN correspondents to take a tour of the mostly empty UN Secretariat Building, from the views out over Queens and Long Island from the 36th floor to the data center and electrical switches in the second sub-basement.
Along the way he delivered a stream of patter, some of it true, some not. He pointed to the wrong section of the old Security Council as the location of the Horseshoe Table.
He made claims about the planned new loading dock to the north of the UN complex and security for the Library Building that time, we predict, will show to be false. But in hardhat and orange construction vest, he did his best to charm the press, not unlike Robert Moses.
There were interesting tid-bits: the concrete used to build the Secretariat was better quality than the Conference Building. Con Edison keeps the key to its vaults on the UN compound; the UN does not have them.
Later on Thursday, Inner City Press was invited to a party for a staff member back down in 3B, the third sub basement. There, complaints were made about the security cameras being installed throughout the renovated space. What do that want to do, the question was, keeps tabs on their own staff?
This same eye in the sky approach was taking to the Press area on the second floor of the library, until Inner City Press exposed it. Adlerstein's tour on Thursday was sanitized, as one might be in Myanmar or today's Tripoli. Watch this site.
Footnote: the main fight back by UN correspondents is about the future space in the Secretariat Building. How large will it be, and will it have walls like the press corps used to have, or be a whistleblower free zone like the current configuration? Adlerstein tried to dodge the question. But on that and financing, there is nowhere to hide. Watch this site.
