NEW YORK: In a normal September, leaders of nations big and small would converge on New York this week, giving the United States largest city a chance to show itself off as a crossroads of the world.
But this year, the usual lineup of presidents, premiers, monarchs and other dignitaries wont be sweeping into the city for the U.N. General Assemblys annual top-level meeting and the conferences, high-stakes sit-downs and hobnobbing that surround it. The assembly has moved online because of the coronavirus, compounding the pandemics blows to the citys economy and worldly esprit.
We are a cosmopolitan city. You know, we are the melting pot of the world, And to not have the world come to us this way is chipping away at this beautiful city that we had pre-COVID, says restaurateur Philippe Massoud.
Ordinarily, he would be…