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=20 =20 &= nbsp; &n= bsp; &nb= sp; &nbs= p; = ; =20 October 2002

The = More Things Stay=20 the Same:
September 11 and Its = Wake

=20

Ray = Suarez

= =20

As horrifying as it was, the killing = of one=20 airline employee and one passenger near the El Al ticket counter at Los = Angeles=20 International Airport on July 4 this year served as a good illustration = of how=20 antsy America has become. Multiple police forces responded, though the = presumed=20 killer also was dead. One of America=92s largest airports was shut down, = flights=20 grounded, and arrivals delayed. What still at this writing is assumed to = be a=20 random crime, the ineffective work of a lone gunman, had riveted the = attention=20 of newsrooms across the country to TV screens while Americans barbecued = and=20 played.

A murder in a public place=97one of = some 12,000=20 handgun killings expected this year across America=97became national = news,=20 launched interagency investigations, and brought the mayor of Los = Angeles out=20 for a series of news conferences. In the midst of a war with clearly = stated=20 goals but no predictable end, elected officials across the country can = only=20 sympathize with the predicament James Hahn found himself facing on the = Fourth of=20 July, as reporters fired their questions: What if this isn=92t the = extent of it?=20 How will we know . . . and when?

What=92s Taken=20 Place?
Since last fall, we=92ve run through any number of=20 =93first-time sinces,=94 and they=92ll continue long after the one-year = anniversary of=20 the terrorist attack. New Year=92s revelers flocked to Times Square in = New York=20 City and tried to have an uninhibited good time while surrounded by = heavily=20 armed, uniformed personnel. Patrons spinning the turnstiles on their way = into=20 the Super Bowl were photographed. The National Mall in Washington, = D.C.=97a potent=20 symbol for decades of the right of free assembly=97became more like an = airport=20 concourse for the Fourth of July concert and fireworks.

Metropolitan infrastructure, already = taxed to=20 enable hosting the Olympics, had to be ramped up even higher for the = Salt Lake=20 City games. Local officials watched as the federal government extended = every=20 possible resource to their community. The mayor told me of hardened = perimeters,=20 cleared airspace over the city during the opening and closing = ceremonies, and=20 some 7,000 law enforcement and National Guard personnel on hand for the=20 games.

Because he was overseeing a world = showcase,=20 Mayor Rocky Anderson got more help than other mayors: =93Since September = 11, we=92ve=20 had approximately an additional $35 million contributed by the federal=20 government to help out with our security effort. But, of course, it gets = more=20 expensive for local and state law enforcement, too, because we=92ve got = to make up=20 for the increased needs throughout the rest of the = community.=94

Mayor Sharpe James of Newark says = that=20 proximity to the World Trade Center towers, together with his city=92s = links to=20 Lower Manhattan=92s financial industry, has not helped the city=92s = books. In fact,=20 the costs have overwhelmed the added economic activity brought to Newark = by=20 firms formerly housed in the towers: =93We are looking at cutting city = services=20 and laying off people. . . . And we think that=92s wrong. And we think = that=92s the=20 whole philosophical question.

=93The U.S. Congress, rightfully, = has rallied=20 behind President Bush to give him a war mandate to fight terrorism and = any other=20 enemy. We agree with that. What we do not understand is, why Congress = hasn=92t=20 rallied to fight a war against poverty, a war against unemployment, or a = war to=20 improve the quality of life in our communities? They=92re the same = dollars,=20 whether we=92re dropping bombs on the caveman in Afghanistan or saving = some of=20 those bombs and turning them into an infusion of federal dollars into = our=20 cities.=94

As of the summer, the White House = had reported=20 transfers of more than $1 billion to states to help defray = terrorist-related=20 costs. The federal government, too, is strapped, and the latest figures = from the=20 Office of Management and Budget show a fast-growing deficit.

Managers, police chiefs, county = supervisors,=20 elected officials, and state governors, in their National Guard = capacity, have=20 had somehow to stretch to accommodate new demands on their people, as = well as to=20 provide all the other services they did before the hijacked jets fell on = their=20 targets. They have done this while revenue sharing from states has = declined, tax=20 revenues have dropped in a slowed economy, and the public has been = wondering if=20 any amount of spending can really keep them safe.

Recently, the president of the U.S. = Conference=20 of Mayors, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, told a reporter that it was = difficult to=20 keep a city on high alert. =93I=92ve only gotten one call from the = Attorney General=20 saying that Boston was going to be under attack by terrorism. We checked = with=20 everyone else. No one had any information. This was on a Friday. On = Sunday, the=20 FBI says it cannot corroborate this warning.

=93So what happened, it froze our = city for an=20 entire weekend because they told the state and the city. Well, we = weren=92t=20 talking to anyone, [yet] it got out to the press, and the press was = asking me=20 all weekend: What is going to happen to our city? Well, we had no = information,=20 only our intelligence. We had a good task force working that included = the Boston=20 police and the FBI during the past several years. So we had all the = information=20 that was the so-called good information, turned bad. And so it is the = warnings=20 that people get frightened about. I don=92t know how you deal with=20 those.=94

Are We Safe? Are = Our Freedoms=20 in Danger?
In the midst of repeated warnings=97and = continued lack of=20 attack=97who can blame the public for not knowing what to think about = which=20 measures, or what spending, is really going to make them safe? Civil=20 libertarians who were quiet and compliant in the weeks following the = attacks now=20 are wondering about measures like the Patriot Act, which loosens the = laws of=20 evidence, the establishment of probable cause, and the rules governing = the=20 jailing of suspects.

Public sentiment has not so far = swung behind=20 those who worry about increased levels of surveillance and government = access to=20 private information. It is impossible to know whether the = long-threatened second=20 attack will harden a fearful populace, making people more likely to = protect life=20 and limb than our individual liberties. If, after a second attack, none = of the=20 new measures is proved to have outwitted those who want to kill large = numbers of=20 innocents, how will the public and opinion makers react toward efforts = by the=20 Bush administration to secure even more sweeping powers?

Cynics will point out that new = federal powers=20 in the war on drugs, in immigration-control effects, border protection, = and=20 computer surveillance are all things the Ashcroft-era Justice Department = wanted=20 anyway but were unlikely to get before September of last year. But, at = the same=20 time, elected officials are unlikely to fight against these new powers = at a time=20 of national danger.

It=92s a simple illustration of the=20 local-government conundrum: Should cities and counties accept federal=20 coordination, even when there=92s no federal cash? For how long? = Forever? If a new=20 terror attack happens, the new ways of doing business will seem fully = justified.=20 If nothing happens, the new ways of doing business will seem = self-evidently=20 successful.

In the first weeks after the = September 11=20 attacks, architects and social theorists started to speculate about the = future=20 utility of cities, of skyscrapers, of the whole modern array of built=20 environments making up modern American life. Conferences in New York and = Washington wondered aloud whether anyone would work=97voluntarily=97on = the 75th=20 floor of a building, or would want to be in big crowds again. But, in = more than=20 a dozen trips back to Manhattan=92s skyscraper canyons, and during trips = to=20 Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, Orlando, San Jose, and other = metropolitan=20 areas, large and small, this reporter has come to believe that this hand = wringing is premature.

A longing for normal life has = infused daily=20 life. Jalalabad and Kandahar seem far, far away. Fireworks displays have = packed=20 parks, baseball games have filled stadiums, and airports have begun to = fill up=20 again. The very relaxation that federal government officials warned us = against=20 seems to be here. Despite the steady stream of alerts, only a minority = of=20 Americans told a recent poll that they think another big attack is on = the way.=20 People in shopping malls and on downtown streets tell me they=92re more = cautious.=20 Yes, but not in a way that=92s radically changed their daily = lives.

Despite goals announced for hiring = new=20 personnel, for bag screening and for the assumption of responsibility = for=20 airport security, federal agencies have not met their targets and may = not do so=20 for many months to come. There have been some heated exchanges in = hearings at=20 the Capitol over these shortcomings, but little public outcry has been = heard,=20 even from the flying public.

Future=20 Measures
Nine months after the anthrax mailings that = constituted=20 the most serious biological attack in American history, a trickle of = federal=20 funds just started moving to localities to help pay for emergency = measures in=20 case of bioterrorist attack. =93This is only the first year, and in this = context,=20 it=92s going to take maybe five years to build the systems and = capacity,=94 said=20 Thomas Milne of the National Association of County and City Health=20 Officials.

In the months since the first = anthrax-laced=20 letters were detected at the Capitol, the ability of local agencies to = deal with=20 such attacks appears to be little changed. The federal government, slow = to=20 respond with one voice to the anthrax crisis, also has been slow in = helping to=20 beef up local expertise in advance of another attack.

The president=92s proposal to create = a new=20 Department of Homeland Security has started to run into its first = interference=20 from elected officials, who have begun to question the grouping of so = many=20 unlike functions into a single department. The Brookings Institution has = followed this criticism with a comprehensive report that advised a = go-slow=20 attitude toward clustering so many disparate federal departments into = one super=20 agency.

In a recent op-ed piece in the New = York Times,=20 former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan noted the lack of local = involvement=20 called for in the future Homeland Security Department. Riordan and his = coauthor,=20 Professor Amy Zegart of UCLA, wrote that the federal government=92s = message to=20 cities and counties is clear: Help will not be coming any time soon. In = this=20 absence of federal guidance, local agencies have gotten moving anyway, = beginning=20 the work of coordinating their local response in case of = attack.

After decades in which localities = have been=20 told not to wait for the federal government to solve their problems, the = lesson=20 appears to be hitting home. Only the federal government can put a navy = to sea,=20 long-range bombers in the air, and a national strategy together to fight = any=20 threat. But, to use the hard-earned parlance of the early 21st century, = =93first=20 responders=94 are local people. Local people will set the agenda for = change close=20 to home and will reach, on the one hand, a level of accommodation to new = security measures or, on the other, a level of comfort with the risk of = keeping=20 things as they were.

Sure, plenty has changed. As I write = these=20 words, late one Washington, D.C., night, a military jet is unleashing = its roar=20 over my neighborhood, a little more than a mile from the vice = president=92s house.=20 My mayor and city council are wrestling with an unexpected austerity = budget,=20 after finding that extensive federal spending after September 11 will = not make=20 up for the losses from tourism, conference business, and the dot-com=20 meltdown.

But as I talk to people around the = country, I=20 am struck by how little has changed and by how determined Americans are = that=20 change come only on their own terms. It=92s a reassuring thing to find = so little=20 panic. Citizens might be a little more panicky if they saw local = governments=92=20 budget meetings for next year.

Ray Suarez is a senior = correspondent for=20 the television program The NewsHour with Jim Lehre Washington, = D.C. He=20 was a keynote presenter at the ICMA 2002 Annual Conference in=20 Philadelphia.=20

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