Security and Traffic Woes Loom : Tourist Gorbachevs Plan to Savor the Big Apple

When Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev steps off an Ilyushin IL-62 jetliner at Kennedy International Airport today, he begins a historic pre-Christmas visit that promises unusual encounters between communism and capitalism, as well as massive inconvenience for millions of New Yorkers.

A peek at Gorbachev’s busy schedule, put in the perspective of history, shows how far U.S.-Soviet relations have come since former Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev departed the ocean liner Baltika in Manhattan on a cold, foggy morning in 1960 to visit the United Nations.

While Khrushchev pounded a shoe on a desk during a U.N. debate and embraced Cuba’s Fidel Castro in the slightly seedy lobby of a Harlem hotel, Gorbachev’s visit--after informal summit talks with President Reagan and President-elect George Bush on Governors Island in the New York harbor--is shaping up as a tourist’s delight. It is also a security planner’s nightmare.

The Soviet leader and his wife, Raisa, will view the Manhattan skyline from atop the World Trade Center, ride past Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, enjoy formal evening receptions, open a Soviet trade exposition, stroll through Central Park and view the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Police predict glasnost gridlock when the 45-car motorcade, stretching a quarter of a mile, moves through Manhattan streets already clogged by the holiday crush.

And they fear the worst moment could come if Gorbachev stops his motorcade and shakes hands in Times Square during the evening rush-hour Wednesday, similar to an impromptu lunchtime appearance on the streets of Washington during his summit with Reagan last December. The result could be a tie-up of theatrical proportions.

“Our problem will be if he decides to get out and do his thing,” said Police Chief Robert J. Johnston Jr., who is in charge of the 6,600 police officers assigned to “Operation Apple.” In addition, both U.S. and Soviet security forces are strengthening the huge contingent.

On Monday, 70 Moscow-based correspondents from the United States, Europe and Japan arrived on the first press plane ever to accompany a Soviet leader abroad. During the long flight from Moscow, caviar was served twice and the Aeroflot flight attendants noted when the aircraft passed over the North Pole.

When the plane touched down at Kennedy Airport, the journalists were cleared by U.S. customs agents on the tarmac. But when they were taken to the Soviet Mission to the United Nations, where the Gorbachevs will be staying, there was confusion about what to do with all the reporters.

Journalistic Confusion

Eventually, the journalists traveled in two Soviet Embassy buses to the United Nations, where there was more confusion. And finally, they took matters--and their luggage--into their own hands and went off to their hotels.

The elements of unpredictability and diplomacy pose additional security complications as well. New York’s liaison with the United Nations, Gillian Martin Sorensen, said: “Security will be probably as comprehensive and as important as any visit we have had in years and years.”

As a courtesy, Soviet security forces at the Moscow summit last May bowed to some concerns voiced by the Secret Service. Now, New York police are prepared to return the favor.

“In Moscow, whatever we asked for, we got,” Johnston said. “Whatever they ask for, they get.”

Fearful of air traffic in the New York area, Soviet security planners asked that Gorbachev be allowed to travel by boat to Governors Island, the nation’s largest Coast Guard base, which is five minutes from Wall Street. Both Bush and Reagan will arrive on the island by helicopter Wednesday after Gorbachev addresses the United Nations.

The three leaders will have lunch later at the commanding admiral’s home, a red brick house with stately white columns. Soviet security and Secret Service agents, as well as city police, will help guard the 178-acre island.

Posing additional security problems is the fact that Raisa Gorbachev will pursue her own schedule part of the time. While the informal summit is occurring, she will have lunch with First Lady Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush, wife of the President-elect, at the home of Marcela Perez de Cuellar, wife of the U.N. secretary general. Perez de Cuellar’s four-story brick townhouse in Manhattan’s exclusive Sutton Place has a garden with sweeping views of the East River.

Raisa Gorbachev also may go shopping at Macy’s, the huge Herald Square department store.

All of this--and perhaps more, because the Gorbachevs’ schedule is subject to change--will take place at the height of the holiday tourist season, when the streets near the giant Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in midtown normally are clogged with sightseers.

Georgy A. Arbatov, Moscow’s top U.S. analyst, told reporters at the U.N. on Monday: “Frankly, I am uneasy about (the Gorbachevs) moving around in Manhattan during the daytime anyway.”

The New York that Gorbachev and his party will view is a far different city than greeted Khrushchev almost three decades ago. The skyline--with the addition of the World Trade Center, new midtown office buildings and condominiums--has changed dramatically. So have some other things.

New York’s school system has worsened and New Yorkers face a serious shortage of low-income housing. The problems of drugs, AIDS and homelessness are straining the municipal budget as well as the imagination and resources of officials trying to cope.

At the same time, the city’s population has changed markedly with new immigration and the growth of minorities. If upper Madison Avenue, just a few blocks from the Soviet Mission, has become a world-class shopping street--symbolic of the great wealth of some neighborhoods--the South Bronx has become a national symbol of poverty. Many members of the middle-class are caught in between.

“New York City is New York City. He’ll see it as it is--the Big Apple,” Johnston said.

Staff writers Michael Parks and Don Shannon contributed to this story.