WI: Navy Island as UN Headquarters?

According to wikipedia, Navy Island was a proposed location for the UN headquarters during the 1940s. What would the likely effects of this being chosen have been? Both at the international scale and the local (ex/ what would it mean for Buffalo or Niagara Falls). Any ideas?
 

NothingNow

Banned
Erie county would not be as shitty, and it would have a pretty nice airport. Tourism would also be up.

Or the Airport would be on Grand Island, with most of the support infrastructure.

The question is how many diplomats each year would fall in the Niagra river, and how many would go over the falls?
 
Well, the obvious bit is that the Buffalo-Tonawanda-Niagara Falls area is no longer just a decaying industrial city and kitschy tourist trap, but rather a place of much-greater international importance, as now thousands of UN personnel who live in New York would be living in the area. Navy Island is hardly big enough for the headquarters themselves, so many of the functions and practically all of the people who worked there would live in Canada or the United States, on Grand Island in the US (which would probably have a big new airport as a consequence) or in the cities mentioned above, as well as in Niagara Falls, Welland, Fort Erie or St. Catharines on the Canadian side.

Beyond that, well, I don't think New York is gonna be harmed much by the loss of the UN Headquarters, and owing to the level with which some Americans hate the UN as it is, it might be a good thing to have it on what is, technically, Canadian soil.
 

NothingNow

Banned
Beyond that, well, I don't think New York is gonna be harmed much by the loss of the UN Headquarters, and owing to the level with which some Americans hate the UN as it is, it might be a good thing to have it on what is, technically, Canadian soil.

And Canadian Bacon just became a hell of a lot more interesting.
 
or be helped...

The question is how many diplomats each year would fall in the Niagra river, and how many would go over the falls?

Diplomats and their staff can be VERY helpful folk--might some have "help" falling into the river. After all, someone that's thrown into the river still falls into it...
 
I'm a bad person. My first thought was, "I prefer them in New York. They're closer to the Atlantic Ocean there, which will be useful when we decide to ship their useless rear ends out."

It occurs to me that it might give the Canadians some leverage, at least. "Play nice with the Canadians, they're our landlords."
 
well the UN wouldnt be under restriction from US laws this way....as new york and us laws apply to the un headquaters where its currently at...something the americans insisted upon
 
Has there actually been a propsed site outside of North America? Seems a bit odd really that one country should get all the sites, I mean why not Iceland (it's sort of equidistant to four of the big-five), or Honolulu?
 
According to wikipedia, Navy Island was a proposed location for the UN headquarters during the 1940s. What would the likely effects of this being chosen have been? Both at the international scale and the local (ex/ what would it mean for Buffalo or Niagara Falls). Any ideas?

For the time period it would probably be like the Brasilians building Brasilia - a capital in the middle of nowhere. Everything would have to be imported and built - and bridges would have to be built before anything went over to go up. It would be cheaper to build anywhere else besides on an island in the middle of a river.
 
From Navy Island a diplomat would have to swim upstream to reach the base of the falls - then up them! A pretty neat gravity defying trick.

No, it's upstream of the Falls.

For the time period it would probably be like the Brasilians building Brasilia - a capital in the middle of nowhere. Everything would have to be imported and built - and bridges would have to be built before anything went over to go up. It would be cheaper to build anywhere else besides on an island in the middle of a river.

The island may have still had some remnants of habitation at the time. It was inhabited at one point.
 
It would certainly do a lot of good for the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area, but I wouldn't be so sure about Grand Island getting a new airport. KIAG is literally just up the road, and has a lot of room to grow, although I suppose some movement to merge it with Buffalo on the island could pop up at some point.

Administering the thing would be interesting. You'd inevitably end up with fixed links to both Canada and Grand Island, which would be a fairly useful connection locally; however the territory operates its probably going to have to account for through traffic as well as the headquarters itself.

All in all it was an interesting idea, but not one that makes a whole lot of sense to me. Even if it did manage to get the headquarters nominal sovereignty picking an inland location doesn't seem like a particularly sensible move. How about Governors Island? Or Roosevelt/Welfare/Blackwell's (populated even then, so problematic, but still). For that matter what about Treaure or Angel in San Francisco Bay?
 
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