The traffic snarls around Trump Tower in Midtown won’t get better any time soon, and Mayor Bill de Blasio has now asked the city to brace for at least 65 more days of increased security and traffic congestion, Gothamist reports.
At a press conference held Friday, de Blasio went over the security measures that will be in place until President-elect Donald Trump officially moves to the White House. For that duration of time, the Secret Service and the New York City Police Department will be heavily policing the areas from 53rd Street to 57th Street between Madison and Sixth Avenues.
Concrete barriers installed on East 56th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues after Trump was elected will remain there until he moves. Pedestrians will be allowed to walk through, but they will have go through a security check, just as they will if they want to access the Trump Tower lobby.
At the presser on Friday, de Blasio particularly appealed to drivers asking them to avoid the general area around Trump Tower as much as possible for the next couple of months. Public transport along Fifth Avenue (five buses run along the affected stretch) will also be impacted as only three of the five lanes available are being kept open to traffic.
News about Donald Trump’s family that emerged yesterday may have complicated things further however. The New York Post has learned that Melania Trump and her son, Barron Trump will most likely continue to live at Trump Tower during the Trump presidency so Barron can continue attending the school he goes to in the city.
That means increased security measures will be in place for an indeterminate amount of time, and it’s not yet clear what kind of measures will be in place once Donald Trump makes his way to the White House. It is however possible that Melania and Barron join the President-elect upon the completion of Barron’s school term, according to the Post.
All of this does not take into account protestors, who depending on the number of people, could shut down Fifth Avenue entirely. That’s already happened three times in the last five days, and the protests don’t appear to be dying down anytime soon.
For the next 65 days, trucks will not be permitted to go south on Fifth Avenue between 60th and 55th Street and east between Fifth and Sixth Avenue on 56th Street. Traffic expert Sam Schwartz told the Gothamist that the problems will persist well past all the Trumps moving to Washington, D.C. He said people should expect at least one or two lanes around the Trump Tower to be shut off until the end of the Trump presidency.
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