NYC International Affairs Commissioner Penny Abeywardena Coopted into UN Censorship Alliance, No Q&A?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Preview

UNITED NATIONS, November 28 -- Press access and answers to questions at the UN have been in decline since at least 2011. And inside the UN, outright censorship has crept in - through the now misnamed United Nations Correspondents Association.  UNCA's past and future chief Giampaolo Pioli 

demanded that an article about him be removed from the Internet or he would get the Press thrown out of the UN. It's the UN's Censorship Alliance.

 It is noteworthy, then, that this UNCA is playing host in the room the UN gives to it to NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio's Commissioner for International Affairs, Penny Abeywardena.

  When De Blasio's legal counsel Maya Wiley came to the UN on November 25, she appropriate appeared in the publicly accessible UN Press Briefing Room and took questions. Inner City Press, after thanking Ms. Wiley on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, asked her about domestic violence victims' priority for NYC Housing Authority apartments, here.

 For Ms. Abeywardena, previously of the Clinton Global Initiative, there are other questions, including the plan to close the Robert Moses Playground to the public, for more UN construction, and issues arisen in the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country (and City).

 But Ms. Abeywardena is appearing not in the UN Press Briefing Room or other location where even all accredited UN journalists will go, but instead in the UN Censorship Alliance's clubhouse, to an event publicized only to those paying money to UNCA. It is inappropriate. We will have more on this.

  These trend of UN(CA) censorship and erasure, in 2014 the new Free UN Coalition for Access is combating it, which can only be done by naming names and providing specifics, now including audio.  While she is handing over or back the UNCA top spot to Pioli, audio of Pamela Falk, who reformed nothing, is here and here.

  Today's audio has Giampaolo Pioli as president of the United Nations Correspondents Association convening a meeting and telling Inner City Press, of an article the fact in which he does not dispute, "you cannot do that." Audio here. 

  When Inner City Press insisted that it could report facts, Pioli said he would use UNCA to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. This is the future at the UN? Even as the Sri Lankan government vows non-cooperation with the UN panel belatedly investigating war crimes in the country?

 Previous audio, here, is Giampaolo Pioli as president of the UN Correspondents Association using UNCA to try to force changes to an article that reported, truthfully, that he had rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN for whom Pioli subsequently screened the war crimes denial film "Lies Agreed To," behind an UNCA banner, in the UN.

 Pioli put on the UNCA board's agenda "Inner City Press," and in this audiosays "I consider the article that the article you wrote about the president of UNCA" -- that is, himself -- "in his capacity as president of UNCA about the Sri Lanka screening a very, very problematic issue."

   This attempt at censorship, which continued after an offer to publish a responsive letter of any length, and continued to a threat to use UNCA to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, is unlike reporting a "very, very problematic issue."

  Previous audio, here, is Pioli refusing to include any statement of dissent along with the statement he drafted to dictate would could and could not be reported, after he unilaterally had the UN Correspondents Association host the war crimes denial film by Sri Lanka, after renting on of his Manhattan apartment to the Sri Lankan Ambassador. No dissent? That's censorship.

  The decline in press access has been enabled by the UN Correspondents Association, which under previous president Giampaolo Pioli in 2011 and 2012 became the UN's Censorship Alliance. 

   On September 6, 2011 without consulting with other UNCA board members Pioli used the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium and UNCA's now-debased logo to host a war crimes denial film by Sri Lanka's government. Inner City Press reported on the event, here. 

  Numerous "emergency" UNCA meetings followed, including about Inner City Press' coverage of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping despite his role during the Rwanda genocide of 1994; there was an amateurish statement drafted by Pioli about ethics. 

  Then Pioli, supported by Agence France Presse, said that no dissent, no matter how short, could to appended to the statement. Audio clip here. AFP even said, send it out yourself - seemingly an invitation to write about the issue, which happened and led to threats to oust Inner City Press from the UN, which Voice of America requested saying it had the support of AFP andReuters, which then tried a cover-up, here.

Pioli, once (and future?) chief of UN Censorship Alliance, photo by UN Photo

(There was was an even more free press unfriendly "apology" drafted by Pioli, as well as his UNCA stirring up death threats which have been ongoing -- but that's another story.) 

   The day of Pioli's UNCA screening -- without UNCA board approval or even notice -- of Sri Lanka's war crimes denial, attempts at outright censorship began.

  Pioli had a financial relationship with Sri Lanka's ambassador Palitha Kohona, renting Kohona one of Pioli's Manhattan apartments. Inner City Press was told if it persisted in reporting this, Pioli would get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. Inner City Press offered to run a response by Pioli, of any length, but the demand was that the article be removed from the Internet in its entirety: pure censorship. This is UNCA's past and seemingly future; watch for the next installment in this series.

Pioli & Ban Ki-moon, Sri Lanka war crimes denial not shown. UN Photo/Mark Garten

  Here is an audio clip in which Pioli while he was president of UNCA told Inner City Press that it should not report what a UN Assistant Secretary General said in a public place. Audio here. 

  Pioli would go on to order that an article about his own conflict of interest regarding Sri Lanka be taken down from the Internet or he would get the Press thrown out of the UN.

   So Pioli wants to ride again. After seeking the ouster of the investigative Press from the UN -- promising to bring it about, and demanding the removal of articles from the Internet -- he seeks to re-assume UNCA's presidency, endorsed by his two-year figurehead fill-in, Pamela Falk.  He is endorsing a slate of media that supported the ouster of the investigative Press, one of which then sought to censor even that, click here.

  To show how far the UN has fallen, consider that Pioli in September 2011 wrote and proposed this statement for UNCA's Executive Committee to issue:

"GiamPioli [at] aol.com; dear Colleagues, I propose to consider for a vote this statement  but I am more than happy to discuss  again

   UNCA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE"

  That is Giampaoli Pioli, the once and future president of the UN's Censorship Alliance. The above draft, by Pioli, was at the request of Agence France Presse, after an inquiry by the French mission to the UN. AFP's reporter wrote: "I am writing to you to request some kind of action by UNCA over a story published by Inner City Press on Friday which has caused serious damage to AFP. Inner City Press published a story about the new head of UN peacekeeping" -- that would be, Herve Ladsous. We will have more on this.

  Neither in 2011 and 2012 nor since has Pioli asked any critical questions at the UN, or pushed for greater access for journalists - quite the opposite. Herented one of his apartments to the ambassador of a country he later let screen a war crimes denial film in the UN under the sponsorship of UNCA, without even checking with other Executive Committee members much less recusing himself. 

  After Inner City Press reported on this, as later revealed by a Freedom of Information Act request to US state media Voice of America, "the lawyer's at our UNCA president's newspaper are preparing their libel lawsuit" against Inner City Press, click here for that. No lawsuit was ever filed, and how could it be? Pioli DID rent one of his apartment to the ambassador whose war crimes denial film he later screened. It was simply pressure to censor the coverage. Later it showed up in Italian, here.

  Pioli hosts UN officials and those whose votes he wants at a Long Island mansion he rents out, for tens of thousands of dollars a month, during the summer. He makes campaign contributions to politicians he is supposed to be covering. Small but telling, in the UN Press Briefing Room he gave a gift to the UN Deputy Spokesperson. This is the past and future UNCA.

  And how would this further decayed UNCA advocate even to maintain media access at the UN?

  In September 2014 during the General Assembly debate week, Ban's chief of peacekeeping blocked a Press camera (Vine here), and the French mission ordered all non-French journalists to leave a briefing by President Francois Hollande in the UN Press Briefing Room.

   The new Free UN Coalition for Access actively opposed both of these, as well as restrictions on getting to the General Assembly stakeout and on taking photographs from the General Assembly photographers booth. After making the latter complaint to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on October 17, Dujarric's office two hours later promoted a meeting ostensibly to discuss "access problems," by UNCA a/k/a UN's Censorship Alliance.

  Now the UNCA "minutes" and partial list of grievances have been provided to FUNCA. They are laughable. The ejection of non-French journalists from the UN Briefing Room is not mentioned, nor the physical blocking of filming.

  Instead, UNCA under figurehead Pamela Falk and sidekick complains that there is too much news during the General Assembly -- they want fewer side events -- and apparently too many journalists at the UN: they want a private wi-fi password leaving the current open wi-fi only for "guests and others."

   The current and seemingly future vice president of UNCA came to the UN Security Council stakeout to inform FUNCA, apparently officially, that the recent for less news is only from one Board member, naming her. But the minutes are the minutes, and the UN Censorship Alliance's function is what it is: anathema to press freedom.

  Tellingly, one of the UNCA proposals is for a booklet co-signed by Ban Ki-moon and UNCA.

  With this bogus list and presumably seeking that booklet, they say that the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit proposes to meet only with their Executive Committee. This is akin to a fake wrestling match, in which the two sides pretend to fight, for an audience.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access has told MALU, but repeats: if they even aspire to legitimacy, the UN must reach out to all journalists, at the UN and ideally beyond, and not that subset which pay UNCA money. That is a decidedly partial subset: a fake wrestling match. And now it seems it will get even worse. 

  During the October 16 UN General Assembly session to elect five new members to the UN Security Council, the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit came into the GA photographers' booth and said that only "wire service" photographers could remain.

  But MALU has not offered any definition of "wire service," in this new media age. The new Free UN Coalition for Access has demanded such a definition, most recently of Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric at the October 17 UN noon briefing. Video here. 

 Dujarric, saying he was quoting a Supreme Court justice on another topic, said, What is a wire service? I know one when I see one. 

   This is, as it were, the definition of arbitrary.

 The UN while throwing out media from workspace gives its UN Censorship Alliance a large room, which it then limits to those that pay it money in dues. Here's how it works: a new media at the UN is told, from the pinnacle of the UN's Censorship Alliance, to pay UNCA $90 and UNCA will get the UN to give the media UN office space. 

     Today's UN Censorship Alliance is unlikely to get any meaningful media access problem addressed -- members its Executive Committee have, in fact, caused or colluded in many of the decreases in access. They drafted a rule with MALU to eliminate journalist workspace at the Security Council stakeout; they withheld audio tapes and transcripts of a Ban "interview" with them, even from their own members.

   During last month's General Debate, journalists weren't even been able to go to the General Assembly stakeout without an escort from MALU -- an escort that often did not come on time, or come at all.

  There was, as well, substantive censorship. Most recently of October 16, media photographing the UN General Assembly vote for new Security Council members were ordered NOT to photograph the tables of the voters. Inner City Press for FUNCA resisted, and discussed this issue along with the elections (and Cambodia) on Huffington Post Live's "World Brief" on October 17, here.

On September 27 while Inner City Press filmed from within the GA stakeout area, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous came over and blocked -- or Banned -- the filming, demanding to know what it was for. Vine here. Then Ladsous canceled the scheduled public Q&A stakeout on Mali.

  While the new Free UN Coalition for Access challenged this censorship, on September 27 at the stakeout and following up the next week, the old UNCA has done nothing about it. In fact, UNCA big wigs have been happy to takeprivate briefings from Ladsous and others, as access at the UN for less "insider" correspondents has continued to decline.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access targeted these censorship practices in aSeptember 29 flier, online, in the UN including on the "open" bulletin board it got the UN to install (the flier was torn down, one can only imagine by whom, but has gone back up.)

   Now, in a typical UN charade, the very UNCA which oversaw this decrease in access belatedly says it is concerned and conducts UN-promoted meetings that are akin to faux, scripted wrestling matches with fake punches. This is the UNCA that played softball soccer with Ban, promoting and allowing him a photo op.

  Many of these promotions are signed by UNCA figurehead Pamela Falk of CBS, nowhere seen during noon briefing fights about media access. Meanwhile the UN Spokesperson's office is promoting a for-pay event for UNCA, by taping a flier for it on its counter. This is the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access has told the UN, again on October 16, that it must address and reverse its blocking of press access, and that if it needs input it must hold a meeting open to all journalists who cover the UN, not just its chosen UNCA -- the UN's Censorship Alliance -- which has become akin to a company-created and supported union. 

   Ban's spokesperson's office declined to criticize the September 27 censorship, nor Ladsous' spokesman subsequently asking another media to confirm that it would not air an on the record interview with Ladsous' deputy Edmond Mulet about the UN bringing cholera to Haiti. Video here.

  In fact Ban's Spokesman played a part in, at least defending, a French-only briefing in the UN Press Briefing Room.

On September 23, the entourage of French President Francois Hollanderepeatedly but unsuccessfully ordered the UN accredited Press to leave theUN's Press Briefing Room.  Video here.

  On September 25 when the Free UN Coalition for Access asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who peaked out from the VIP / Green Room behind the Press Briefing Room, about the incident, he said sometimes countries try to reserve the Room.

   Asked if other countries had done so during this General Assembly, Dujarric said yes.

   Inner City Press then asked Dujarric which other countries, beyond his native France:

“based on your answer at today's noon briefing, please state which countries during this UNGA have used the UN Press Briefing Room for briefing not open to all UN correspondents, other than France at 11 am on September 23. Also, what was your role on September 23 around 11 am in the room behind the Press Briefing Room podium?”

 This has been Dujarric's response:

Subject: please state which countries..
From: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 1:06 PM
To: Inner City Press
Cc: funca

I don't have the information on the first point for you. On the second, I'm not sure that I understand it except that I was just looking into the room. I tend to be a curious person.

Stephane Dujarric (Mr.)
Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations Headquarters

   FUNCA is left wondering: ARE there any other countries? The question has been asked again by FUNCA, elsewhere. And it has been on HuffPost Live, here. Watch this site.

Footnote: as noted the old UN Correspondents Association, which is given privileged status and set-aside first questions nearly always used for softballs, has done nothing in recent years to improve or even defend press access. In fact, members of UNCA's Executive Committee have tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and there have been no reforms since. It's become the UN's Censorship Alliance. They provide Ban Ki-moon with photo ops playing soccer with them. This is today's UN - and FUNCA is fighting to hold the UN to its stated principles.

   

At UN, As Pollard Flips to DGACM, Gettu Calls Female Critic “Emotional," Sources Complain to Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- In the UN's ongoing game of musical chairs, on July 31 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced he is shifting Catherine Pollard from the Office of Human Resources Management over to become Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM), replacing Franz Baumann of Germany.

  As Inner City Press previously reported, Pollard had declared herself the poster child of Ban's “mobility” policy, to only hold the same post -- or was it duty station? -- for five years. 

   No matter that, for example, Robert Serry has said on television he's been in his post six years. Pollard has made a lateral move, and Baumann's next move is not yet clear.

  What does DGACM do? As a sample, Inner City Press has already exclusively received a number of complaints about a meeting held by DGACM chief Tegegnework Gettu, also on July 31. According to sources, Gettu used the meeting to tell staff how well he is doing, how objective he is, that he has no personal agenda. (Click here for previously Inner City Press report.)

  But when he opened the floor, the first staff member who dared make a suggestion -- that verbatim is now nearly identical to translation -- was cut off and told that his was only a personal opinion.

  A female staffer who made a criticism was told by Gettu to not be “emotional.” Eventually Gettu was telling the assembled staff that the UN “is good” and “if you don't like it, walk away.”

  In fact, it was in DGACM that the staff member elected vice president of the Staff Union in December was terminated -- Gettu says he didn't re-apply for a job so he clearly didn't need one -- and it was in DGACM that staff members were subjected to bed bugs, among other things, in the Albano Building.

  On July 31, the sources exclusively tell Inner City Press that Gettu told DGACM staff that they may remain in the Albano Building on 46th Street until 2017 when, he says, the UN may have a “DC5” building, proposed to be built on the Robert Moses playground south of 42nd Street. Click here for Inner City Press story.

  There are many hardworking staff in DGACM, and even some in management may mean well. 

   But the type of self-serving speechifying at staff described to Inner City Press by sources on July 31 is indicative of the same UN which, for example among the press, evicted the News Agency of Nigeria from its work area claiming a lack of space while giving a large room to its favored UN Censorship Alliance (UNCA) -- which now says it will leave the room empty and locked from August 1 to August 19. We and the new Free UN Coalition for Access will have more on this. We'll have more on this.

   

Proposed New UN Building by East River Not Vetted for Disaster Risk by UN Expert; Of FEMA (and UN HRC) Politics

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 10 -- The UN's building east of First Avenue, north of 42nd Street was full of talk of Disaster Risk Reduction on Thursday. 

When the UN's expert on the topic, Margareta Wahlstrom, came to take media questions, the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked her -- and asked of any risk assessment for the UN's proposed new building just south of 42nd Street, next to the East River. Video here, from Minute 11:41.

Wahlstrom replied, "I must confess, I don't know." She said that after Hurricane Sandy, which dealt a "blow" to the current UN, risk assessment should be done. But has it been?

Back on October 4, Inner City Press for FUNCA thanked UN HABITAT's Joan Clos and asked him about UN proposing to take over Robert Moses Playground, given Clos' preaching about open space. Clos said Habitat only gives advice "when asked."

  So the UN or the UN Development Corporation did not ask UN HABITAT's advice before proposing to take over a playground, and did not ask the UN's Disaster Risk Reduction expert Wahlstrom before proposing building a new building next to the East River, after flooding a year ago. Great planning.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access began asking about this on October 1, in terms of whether the proposed new building would be accessible. Spokesperson Martin Nesirky replied that the building on Robert Moses Playground is only one proposal -- but it has already started the New York City Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, ULURP.

  Something's wrong there.

  Inner City Press also asked Wahlstrom about the Obama administration deeming Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA workers to be non-essential - could this be politicization? Video here from minute 12:22.

  Wallstrom said emergency management is of course essential. So, like with closing the war veteran memorials, is this politicization? What about asking for a delay in 2014 of the review of the US in the Human Rights Council? 

  It was said the State Department remains functional. Just not on human rights? Or is it that Republicans, many of whom opposed the HRC, won't complain about this delay? Watch this site.

   

UN Praises Open Space But Proposes Taking Playground, of UN-HABITAT, Bike-Shares & Charlatans

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- To celebrate World Habitat Day, the director of UN Habitat Joan Clos told the press Friday about the need for playgrounds and open space, and to plan around the impacts of rising seas.

Inner City Press asked Clos about the UN's proposal to take away the Robert Moses Playground just south of 42nd Street and erect a building described as drab right next to the East River, soon after Hurricane Sandy.

Clos smiled and said, We only advise when we are asked. So apparently the UN (or the UN Development Corporation) has not asked even the UN expert agencies about its proposal. Great planning.

(Actually, UN Spokesperson Martin Nesirky told Inner City Press the building for which UNDC released architect's plans is only one proposal, even though the New York City ULURP land use review process as begun.)

Inner City Press asked asked Clos about New York City's bike-share program. Clos praised it, noting that while poor people want fewer bikes, richer people want more. He started a similar program in Barcelona when he was mayor, he said. (His views on Free Catalonia did not come up.)

  Also on the panel, Professor Thomas Elmqvist or the Stockholm Resilience Center pitched his (free) book on Urbanization and Biodiversity, available online here.

  The first question was taken by the UN Correspondents Association, whose 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS proceeded to trash Mexico City, calling it "curious" it received any award. 

  Then Falk's sidekick, who often taken the first question in her stead, referred to anyone asking questions about climate change as a "charlatan."

  As when Falk's UNCA hosted Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba for a faux UN briefing in July, it is due to UNCA's politicization (and censorship bids and evenspying for the UN) that Inner City Press co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info. 

  Whether or not the UN "advises" it -- in fact, the UN's response has been threats -- there is an absolute right to another organization; Friday was just another example of why.

Here is the UN's transcript of UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky on the proposed new building:

Inner City Press: it’s now been released, drawings for this new building on the Robert Moses Playground. And there’s the whole New York City regulatory process to follow. But, given that the plans are now released, I wanted to know if you could just describe, within the UN system, within the UN Secretariat, who’s sort of giving the directions of how it should be done? It’s alternately described as an “emergency back-up center”, as a “high-security building”, and I wanted to know, given the UN’s other duties of transparency and openness to the public, what’s that process been and are there still questions to be raised, or has it been determined how open or closed the building will be to the public?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, first of all Matthew, don’t believe everything you read in the media, okay? You say the plans. There has been no decision. And you asked where would the decision come from. And, quite plainly, the decision would need to be made by Member States. The Secretary-General has been asked by the General Assembly to explore different options for the long-term accommodation needs of the Organization. And a report will be submitted to the General Assembly during what’s officially known as its first resumed sixty-eighth session, and that was requested by the previous session of the General Assembly. The new report will include comprehensive information on all viable options, as requested by the General Assembly. One of the many options being studied in the proposal from the UN Development Corporation is to construct a new building, known as the UN Consolidation Building. The decision on one of the options will need to be made by the Member States.

Inner City Press: That’s helpful. Because they did a public hearing on 24 September, and [the United Nations Development Corporation] is presenting this as they have already… I guess they’re ones paying the architect. But, normally, in New York, ULURP process of city planning and City Council doesn’t start until there’s an actual decision to do the building. Are you saying that there is actually no commitment to this plan that they presented at NYU Hospital on the 24th?

Spokesperson Nesirky: That’s precisely what I’m saying, Matthew.

Watch this site.

   

As Process Starts for a New UN Building, Would It Provide More or Less Access? he Free Coalition for Access (FUNCA) Is on the Case

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- Not unlike a Friday afternoon document dump, the first public hearing about the UN's proposed new building to take over the Robert Moses Playground south of 42nd Street was held on September 24. 

  It was the first day of the just-concluded General Debate. President Barack Obama, pre-shutdown, spoke that day, just after Brazil's Dilma Rousseff slammed US spying.

  At the very time of the public hearing, UK foreign secretary William Hague and UN Sexual Violence in Conflict envoy Bangura held a stakeout. Inner City Press attended that, asking about 135 rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video here, from Minute 7:22. But now, this report.

  The building would be 36 stories tall, connected to the existing Secretariat Building by a tunnel. It would be developed by the UN Development Corporation, which did One UN Plaza (where Iran's Hassan Rouhani held his press conference last week) and the UNICEF building.

  The architecture of the so-called UN Consolidated Building, by FXFOWLE and Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, is described as drab. There is, not surprisingly, local opposition to the loss of the playground. A Wikileaked cable from then-US Ambassador Susan Rice about the underlying security issues is online, here.

  Security can go overboard. Witness for example the unceremonious ripping-out on 44th Street and 47th Street this week of the CitiBike racks installed just months earlier. The heads of state are gone, but the bikes and even racks aren't back. (Click here for Inner City Press tweeted photograph, night of October 1.)

  The current $2 billion renovation of the existing UN is still not complete; the General Debate was held in a temporary building with no media seats, no nearby stakeout, and little access. Would this proposed new building offer more access? That is among the questions the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info will be asking.

  The City's ULURP process can take some time; there is also the certainty of a new Mayor, and new City Council speaker, coming in. Watch this site.

   

At Gracie Mansion, Jokes of Cathie Black & Bloomberg, Moses History & Onion Tart

By Matthew Russell Lee

GRACIE MANSION NYC, December 3 -- At Mayor Michael Bloomberg's holiday party for the press on December 2, the jokes were about Cathie Black and her lack of background in pedagogy. Bloomberg was given as a present a box of Nilla Wafers, said to be from a 99 cent store on Chambers Street, which on the back said Vanilla Waivers.

More interesting was a tour of the upstairs of Gracie Mansion. The guide, who will remain in the shadows for reasons that will become clear, began with what he called the master bedroom. Until Bloomberg, he said, it was called the Mayor's bedroom, as all New York City mayor's from LaGuardia to Giuliani slept there.

Next came the room of the the wife of Mayor Wagner, who raised some $800,000 dollars to build a new wing on Gracie Mansion, where downstairs Bloomberg was working the crowd of reporters, who nibbled on onion tarts with the ubiquitous balsamic vinegar and passable holiday cookies.

Facing the East River, across which British cannons in Queens fired at George Washington's artillery set up on this spot during the Revolutionary War, is a guest room which has hosted, among others, Nelson Mandela, Menachem Begin and Desmond Tutu. Guiliani's daughter's room was converted by Bloomberg's personal interior decorator Jaime Drake into an “old country” bedroom complete with long armed bed warmer in the fireplace.

By the staircase to get back down is a sign board with the names of contributors to the Gracie Mansion Conservancy. Inner City Press asked if companies which do buiness with the City can give money to the Conservancy.

The Conservancy is separate from the City, Inner City Press was told. We will have more on this. Quickly a higher up in the Conservancy approached. The tour would have to be called off, Inner City Press was told. Any such questions should be directed to the press office, not to the “docent.” It was implied that Inner City Press would somehow need the press office's permission to write this article.

Downstairs the drinking and eating continued, the latter largely from the kosher table. There is an oil painting of Mrs. Wagner, and a breakfast room where, among others, the Russian oligarch owner of the Nets was hosted. Ah, Brooklyn real estate. In the room there is a convex mirror, too high to see your face in, meant to spread light.

In Gracie breakfast room, convex mirror, oligarch not shown, all a bit off kilter (c)MRLee

The history of the Gracie Mansion was finally explained. Gracie was a Scottish businessman -- he might have owned the Nets or Knicks of his day -- who looked for a place “uptown in the country” to do his entertaining. He chose the site from which George Washington was routed.

His business failed, and the house passed from hand to hand, finally ending up abandoned when it was taken by the City under eminent domain to build what's now the FDR Drive. During construction, New York's “Master Builder” Robert Moses had the lawn raises so the highway would go undernearth.

No such delicacy was used by Moses in the Bronx, where tenements and bus depots were mowed down for the Cross Bronx Expressway. Ironically, in one of Gracie Mansion's downstairs rooms on Thursday night, a flat screen TV played images of the South Bronx in the 1970s, the burned out blocks of Charlotte Street and graffitied Number Five train over Southern Boulevard and Boston Road. It played without the sound on.

LaGuardia, originator of Public Markets in the Bronx and Essex Street, was offered two mansions as possible homes: one on 75th and Riverside deemed “too fancy” by the Little Flower, and Gracie Mansion, which he okayed. Moses had the Mansion renovated -- it had become a public restroom, a storehouse for the Parks Department and purveyor of Italian ices -- and LaGuardia moved in. All mayors since, until Bloomberg, lived here.

The reporters talk turned to Bloomberg, how he bought a floor of the townhouse next to his on 79th Street in order to extend his living room, how he serves popcorn and hotdogs on expensive china, how an SUV drives him to the express IRT stop on 59th Street for his subway ride downtown. It was time to go.