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	Adding up Price Tag of Pope's New York City Visit By Michael Frazier Newsday April 21, 2008 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nypope0422,0,6223731.story U.S. authorities have lifted special flight restrictions. Three days of police escorts along 72nd Street on the Upper East Side are no more. And gone, too, is a web of street closures for the papal visit. New York City returned to business as usual Monday after the Sunday departure of Pope Benedict XVI, who capped his visit with Mass at Yankee Stadium for nearly 60,000. Hours after Benedict's departure, city officials continued to measure the economic benefits of his stay. They also are tallying how much it cost the city to host his holiness. The city expected to pay significant overtime for police officers. "This is one of those things were the expenses are relatively negligible, virtually impossible to measure, but the benefits will go on for a long time," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, pointing to the global exposure the city gained by welcoming Benedict. While he didn't provide the cost of overtime, the mayor said the city's Police Department has a yearly budget of $5.5 billion, with funding set aside for special events. Police officials said Monday that overtime cost hadn't been figured. Last year, the police department spent $15 million on security for visiting heads of state, a police source said. The federal government reimbursed $8 million. The police department typically receives reimbursements of between 50 percent to 60 percent, a source said. When Pope John Paul II visited New York in 1995, the city reported that 20,000 police officers were on duty and overtime costs totaled $4 million. The U.S. government covered some of the costs. City officials estimated then that the economic payoff of the pope's visit totaled $65 million in spending in the city, including food, hotels and shopping. The Greater New York Chamber of Commerce had no figures on how much the city took in during Benedict's trip, though the group's executive director, Helana Natt, said hotels, restaurants and even street vendors profited. The street closures may have hurt some businesses, but the impact was dampened because the visit occurred over the weekend, Natt said. The reopened streets apparently meant little for cab drivers. "The traffic is always bad," said Bill Lindauer, a union spokesman for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. "The normal nightmare of New York traffic has returned."
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