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MARCO WERMAN: Sweden, like many other countries, is suffering some economic worries. To cut costs, it's considering closing its consular office in New York. Maybe that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but consider this: Sweden's had a consular representative in New York since 1834, when Andrew Jackson was President. Even the Bronx is named after a Swede. The number of Swedes in New York these days is relatively small, about 30,000, but many of them don't like the plan to close the consulate. In fact, Swedish-American Thomas Noe has started a Facebook group to protest the plan, and he says he has lots of reasons for wanting to save the consulate.

THOMAS NOE: Number one being I wouldn't want to have to go all the way to Washington DC to do any sort of passport renewal. Unfortunately, after September 11th, they require everybody to actually go into the consulate and actually show their faces when they do these types of passport renewals.

WERMAN: How many people have joined you so far on Facebook?

NOE: I'm looking at the site right now and its 454 members. And that happened in the space of about I would say one and a half weeks.

WERMAN: Are you hearing from any other people other than Facebook friends?

NOE: Well, I actually have friends who work at the consulate, and I feel badly for them that they're going to lose their jobs. And there are other Swedish organizations. Unfortunately, Swedes don't really have our own neighborhood here in the New York area, so we gather online. So things like Facebook and other social networking sites have been great gathering points for Swedes.

WERMAN: What does the consulate mean to the Swedes living there? Is it just to avoid a full day of travel down to Washington DC to do any business?

NOE: Well, there's a lot more to it than that. There's the event that the Swedish consulate organizes – number one being our biggest holiday of the year, Midsummer -- Swedish mid-summer is celebrated down in Battery Park City. There's an event there that gathers about 5 to 6,000 Swedes to celebrate the summer solstice. And that event is organized by the consulate, and it would unfortunately be canceled if there is no consulate to organize the event.

WERMAN: And Midsummer is a really big deal in Sweden, apparently?

NOE: Of course. It's the biggest holiday of the year. I would equate it to July 4th, but we're not exactly celebrating Swedish independence. But this is one holiday that every Swede holds dear.

WERMAN: You have your fireworks – the midnight sun?

NOE: Ah yes. That's correct.

WERMAN: So does this mean now that IKEA is going to be the biggest, kind of Swedish representation in the US, or at least in the New York area?

NOE: Probably. I think every Swede likes to make pilgrimages out to various IKEA stores that we have in the area and go to the sweet shop and stock up on Swedish foods there and also walk around the stores and point out that we actually know what the products mean. But I'm not sure we want IKEA representing Sweden 100 percent to our American friends, you know? The consulate served an important purpose in kind of spreading the brand name that is Sweden, showing that Sweden was a lot more than just IKEA.

WERMAN: Well, I'm sorry to hear that your consulate looks like it is going to be closing.

NOE: Yeah, and I feel horrible about it. I hope that maybe with a new administration in Sweden that they'll decide to reopen it.

WERMAN: Swedish-American Thomas Noe has started a Facebook group to protest the possible closure of the Swedish consulate in New York. You'll find a link to the page at theworld.org. Thomas, thank you very much.

NOE: Thank you.

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