Almost. The shadow of September 11 hasn’t fully lifted, and won’t for some time. That’s because the people who live here know in their bones that there’s more trouble ahead. With the president, vice president and other authorities saying, “Not if but when,” New Yorkers know the “where.” They sense, as most terrorism experts predict, that the “evil ones” will at least try to strike their city again.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the no-fuss billionaire who succeeded Rudolph Giuliani on Jan. 1, calls that thinking “needless fatalism.” But he, too, knows that New York remains in the cross hairs: “We’re the target because we stand for everything they hate.” Bloomberg’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, recalls sitting in the lobby of the World Trade Center after the 1993 bombing, scoffing at the terrorists’ claim that they could actually take the towers down. Now he and the world know better. “They go after symbols,” Kelly says, reminding a visitor that plots against New York bridges, tunnels and landmarks were foiled in the 1990s.
The human and emotional toll of September 11 will take years to sort through, but the financial consequences are already clear. Everything is more expensive in New York, and September 11 was no different. All told, six buildings and 13.4 million square feet of space were destroyed, and a further 21 million square feet damaged. About 100,000 jobs were lost, and $1.6 billion in much-needed city taxes. The total economic losses by the end of the year have been calculated at more than $50 billion. That’s not chump change, even in Manhattan.
But if anxiety still gnaws at New York, it hasn’t changed behavior here. “I know of no major company moving their headquarters out of the city, and several are thinking of moving in,” Bloomberg says. Foreign tourism is down, but visits from other parts of the United States are up. Real estate is strong, and restaurants and theaters are hanging on, more worried about the impact of the bear market than of September 11. Mental-health officials estimated that 1.5 million New Yorkers would need psychological counseling, but only a tenth as many showed up for it between September and December. Experts caution that psychological aftereffects will extend far beyond the families of victims and will linger for years. But the posttraumatic stress disorder predicted by veterans of the Oklahoma City bombing hasn’t been as acute or widespread as expected.
And yet the future feels infirm. While Ground Zero was cleared far ahead of schedule–an astonishing feat of civic teamwork–the plans for what to build there seem destined to be delayed for years (page 57). Bloomberg disliked the initial Port Authority plans because they focused on office buildings when that market is already glutted downtown; he prefers that housing be built there. As for the memorial, the mayor says, “It’s too early to do it. A memorial built right away is a memorial nobody is going to remember. Every single one that was any good took many years.” A popular temporary memorial, two towers of light, was too disruptive to area residents. Other ideas will be tried, including an eternal flame that Bloomberg will light next week on the first anniversary.
So far the mayor is getting surprisingly good marks, especially considering the act he had to follow. Within 48 hours of the attacks, Giuliani redefined crisis leadership, not only for New York but for the world. Bloomberg, by contrast, spent an unheard-of $70 million of his own money to impose his unimposing personality on the city last fall. With no political experience, he was perhaps best known for his stated intention (since fulfilled) to fly to his home in Bermuda without telling the press.
But by quietly reaching constituencies ignored by his predecessor and by avoiding much of the usual political gamesmanship, Bloomberg is showing that the same sharp business mind that built a financial-data empire can work in city government. Cops and firefighters are complaining again about pay (a sign of normalcy), but the overall volume of municipal noise has been turned down.
“He’s a grown-up and a manager, who defuses time bombs as they come up,” says Mark Green, his opponent last fall. Green adds that the mayor “has not yet used the public pulpit to show where the city should go.” But it’s still early for that. Bloomberg is a consensus man. He took e-mail suggestions from as far away as Australia on how to handle the anniversary. The result is a ceremony that promises to be moving and dignified, with rose petals strewn on the streets, an absence of speeches and the readings of inspiring historical words from Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, plus the names of all 2,819 who died.
When he’s not commemorating the event or going to funerals (even now, remains are still being identified), Bloomberg likes to put 9-11 in some larger perspective. “The big threats to Americans are not dirty bombs and bioterrorism,” he says. “They’re auto accidents and smoking.” To that end, Bloomberg has hiked the local cigarette tax and is pushing to ban all smoking from local bars and restaurants. His biggest goal for the future is education. Bloomberg succeeded where Giuliani failed in getting mayoral control of the school system. Now he and his new schools chancellor, Joel Klein, have to deliver on what he calls the “centerpiece” of his administration.
First the mayor has to ease out of a budget jam caused more by the recession than by September 11. With creative borrowing and layoffs, Bloomberg is on his way to closing a $5 billion deficit. But the $20 billion promised from Washington to help the city recover from the terrorist attacks is not flowing as quickly as New York lawmakers would like.
Money for prevention of the next terrorist attack is even tighter. Sen. Hillary Clinton says that when she asks soldiers returning from Afghanistan if they have the training and equipment they need to fight terrorism, they answer yes. When she asks frontline responders at home the same question, they answer no. New York, by most accounts, has the best emergency-response teams in the country, in part because they are the most experienced at it. But along with Washington, D.C., the city is also the most vulnerable. “We have to get to the head of the line [for federal funding], not as a matter of New York arrogance but because of the risk,” says Commissioner Kelly.
Kelly says he is focused on prevention and counterterrorism, but not at the expense of fighting crime, which has continued to drop (though budget cuts in community policing have some prosecutors worried). He’s beefing up the NYPD’s intelligence division (now headed by a former CIA director of operations), sending detectives as far as Yemen and Thailand to question suspects, posting officers with the FBI and Interpol, and using his own experience in Washington to break down the turf fights that have long hampered law enforcement.
A new hot line–staffed by 40 detectives–responds to tips from New Yorkers that the commissioner describes as usually “thoughtful.” Police dogs and showy surveillance equipment are routinely sent to landmarks, synagogues and other possible targets to deter terrorists who might be casing them. Police are recruiting from the Muslim community, but also more closely monitoring mosques and Arabic papers, as well as immigration and census records. “We’re doing a lot more identification of who is in New York,” Kelly says. “For a long time we didn’t have a handle on it.”
But Kelly admits that fully securing the city is simply impossible: “You could protect the place perfectly–and have no business here.” He acknowledges that the sprawling subways–targeted in foiled plans in New York and actually attacked by terrorists in Japan–are “a real concern.” While metal detectors in the subways wouldn’t be practical, it’s hard to discern what else is being done. The Washington, D.C., subway system is speeding up installation of a $22.5 million “toxin detection” apparatus that shows no signs of being installed in New York.
One example of insufficient preparation: dosimeters, pager-size devices that can detect radiation. The NYPD currently owns 100 of them, which rotate through police precincts and are used at big events. Bolstered by new technology that limits false positives, these devices should be standard for all police officers, some terrorism consultants believe. At a cost of $300 to $400 each for the 40,000 on the force, this would total up to $16 million, seemingly a small price to pay for enhanced security against a “dirty bomb” attack. Yet Kelly says the “money’s not there” for more dosimeters, even as the department moves ahead with plans for a $270 million underground command bunker. Bloomberg thinks the meters will just burden police: “Everybody can’t carry everything.”
Overall, the city seems more focused on prevention than on response. The mayor and his high command have under-taken elaborate disaster simulations–so-called tabletop exercises–for containing a bioterrorism attack, and the huge hospital system seems well prepared. But massive evacuation of a city like New York is simply not practical. “You have 8 million people,” Bloomberg says. “You could not get them all out of town.”
While a few New Yorkers are making their own preparations, most are surprisingly blase. There has been no run on gas masks or plastic sheeting and duct tape (to secure “safe rooms” in a bioterrorism attack). Bloomberg says “enormous efforts” are underway to respond in case of terrorism, though a random survey by NEWSWEEK showed that large corporations are making antiterrorism preparations on their own, without coordinating with the city.
Even frontline forces are underprotected. Robin Herbert, codirector of the Occupational Medicine Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital, says the “respiratory safety” of Ground Zero workers clearing the site was hampered by bulky equipment that was often in short supply.
The Fire Department of New York lost 343 souls–including a large chunk of top management. But now it is losing even more to retirement, particularly in the senior ranks. That’s partly a result of the enormous trauma in the department, but partly a quirk: pensions are pegged to pay levels in the final year of service, which were as much as a third higher during the past year, thanks to overtime. So the exit began. Meanwhile, the faulty fire radios that cost lives are being replaced. And both the fire and police departments are overhauling their dispatch plans. The practice of rushing to the scene on their own (as so many did on September 11, with fatal consequences) will be barred. From now on, all New York City firefighters and police will be required to go only where they are told.
Help for the families of victims has been generous. Contributions for relief poured in from around the world, and a college-scholarship fund for the children of the dead is meeting its target of raising $100 million. For those families agreeing not to sue, a federal compensation fund is offering larger settlements than in any previous disaster. Others have filed suit against Saudi Arabia, arguing that while the Saudi kingdom opposes Osama bin Laden, it has underwritten charities that funded terrorism.
Down at city hall, Mayor Bloomberg still spends much of his day dealing with September 11 fallout. The billionaire’s real office (not just for show) is a Dilbert-like cubicle in an open bullpen area, a symbol of his determination to stay connect-ed. “There’s almost a pride that we went through it,” he says of the city’s response to the attacks. “And we’re tougher for it.” Imagine that: the terrorists actually toughened up New Yorkers. That’s what happens when they hit us where we’re strong.
