Just as New York is running into its stormiest fiscal weather in years, a new document is circulating in town. It seems the United Nations has a proposal to revamp its decaying East River-side headquarters at an estimated cost of $1.3 billion. The Washington Times acquired the U.N.’s Capital Master Plan, which spells out the world body’s wish list. According to the paper’s dispatch, the plan suggests building a 30-story office tower on a playground just south of 42nd Street to house displaced staff while the landmark headquarters building is gutted and renovated over the next four to six years.

Spoiled by land that the city gave it for free at the time of its founding, it seems probable the organization will again ask New York, and the federal government, to chip in a substantial amount for cost. All the city planning issues aside, this is a good time to consider whether New York City really wants the United Nations in the first place. The world body has degenerated to but a husk of its original ideals. Its principal work consists of seeking to isolate the Jewish state. New Yorkers motoring up the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive see it as a daily affront to the politics and values of the city. Living expenses are high in New York for all governments concerned. It might just be that the best course would be for the United Nations to stay where it is for a year or so while building an entirely new headquarters in another country — Syria or North Korea, say, or France — where its delegates would feel more at home.