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Tomorrow will mark the first time that both presidential candidates have spent election night in New York since 1944. Not surprisingly, that means there’s going to be a significant increase in police presence and a number of street closures around the city.
The NYPD is planning on deploying more than 5,000 police officers, more than double the number of any previous election night. The security will be comparable to the Pope’s visit to New York in 2015. Police officers will be patrolling key areas of the city as well as polling sites.
“You’re gonna see a lot of police,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said. “There’s gonna be a lot of police in New York City and some of it you won’t see... There is going to be tremendous impact on traffic in New York City tomorrow. If you don’t need to drive, I suggest taking public transportation.”
Hillary Clinton will be holding her event at the Javits Center tomorrow night, while Donald Trump will be at the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan. As a result, the following Midtown streets will see traffic closures from 6pm tonight until 6am on Wednesday morning:
- West 34th Street between the West Side Highway and 11th Avenue
- 11th Avenue between West 34th Street and West 40th Street
- 6th Avenue between West 53rd Street and West 54th Street
- 7th Avenue between West 53rd Street and West 54th Street
In addition, streets around Trump Tower (Fifth Avenue between East 55th and East 56th streets) will be closed as long as Trump is in the building on election day. The NYPD also confirmed today that Hillary Clinton has decided to cancel her (possibly premature) election night fireworks celebration over the Hudson River.