When POTUS Is Among Us
White House security might be lax, but when Obama comes to New York, much of the town goes into lockdown.
Maybe President Obama should move to New York. A guy with a knife can jump the White House fence, sprint across the lawn and get all the way to the East Room before anyone stops him? In New York last week, as I can attest, this guy with a dog couldn’t walk down the street in his own neighborhood because Mr. Obama happened to be in the vicinity.
How do I know the president was on the Upper West Side? The rooftop snipers were a giveaway.
Sharpshooters were only one sign that POTUS was among us, for a fundraiser at the home—as I later learned from three people in the building—of a private-equity investor who lives in the Eldorado co-op on Central Park West.
The streets surrounding the turreted building were blocked off, with sand-filled sanitation trucks parked at both ends. Rows of blue NYPD barriers extended for a 10-block stretch. Helicopters buzzed overhead and fire-department ambulances idled conspicuously nearby. Residents of the Eldorado and nearby apartments were locked down for hours—and instructed not to look out their windows.
The police presence on Columbus Avenue and Central Park West rivaled what you see for the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, with dozens of cops milling about, neither confirming nor denying the guest of honor’s identity. A couple of people I chatted with verified seeing the president go into the Eldorado, but all I saw was a white tent erected over the building’s West 90th Street entrance, the kind of tent you see during Fashion Week. It was quickly dismantled after the affair was over, around 7:30.
It’s hard to begrudge a presidential security detail, but I remember the days when Bill Clinton would mingle freely whenever he came to New York in the 1990s. I ran beside him twice at the Central Park Reservoir, with Secret Service agents trotting alongside. As maddening as President Obama’s visits to the U.N. can be, with traffic flows stymied to let his motorcade move without interruption, at least those expeditions have an official purpose.