President Biden Comes To Upper East Side Again: Report

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — For the second time this month, President Joe Biden is visiting the Upper East Side, according to a report.

The commander-in-chief is in the neighborhood Monday afternoon to attend the funeral of Donald Blinken, father of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which is being held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Post reported.

Biden's public schedule said only that he was flying to New York for a "private memorial service." After arriving at JFK Airport, the president took a helicopter to Wall Street and was expected to get to the memorial around 11 a.m., according to his schedule.

Biden last stopped by the neighborhood on Oct. 6, when he attended a fundraiser at the East 69th Street home of James Murdoch — son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch — and his wife, Kathryn.

Donald Blinken, a prominent businessman, art collector and former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, died on Sept. 22 at age 96.

His son called Donald "my role model and my hero" upon his appointment as Secretary of State in November 2020.

A founder of the investment firm E.M. Warburg, Blinken also became a prolific Democratic Party donor and a champion of the artist Mark Rothko.

In contrast to Biden's Oct. 6 visit, which snarled traffic and prompted a huge police presence on the Upper East Side, there were no reports of major logjams Monday afternoon — though one Twitter user described seeing barricades and tow trucks along Fifth Avenue near the Met hours earlier.

The longtime "Hot Dog King" cart in front of the museum said on Instagram that it would be closed Monday, as the president's visit required closing the sidewalk to all food vendors.