How Big City Mayors Deal With Terror

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It's not a great time to be in charge of a large city. On the one hand, nobody tells you anything: When John Ashcroft issued his general terrorism alert this week, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory found out from reporters. The federal government doesn't tell mayors before announcing these alerts, and it doesn't give specific information about what mayors should do. On the other, everybody has something to tell you: McCrory's fire department is getting 30-40 anthrax-related calls a week. "Tuesday night in a suburb outside Charlotte, someone reported a plane dropping white powder over a children's center," says McCrory. The city issued a full alert, closed the roads, and sent in men in contamination suits. Turns out the white powder was from a cement plant next door; a plane happened to go by, but nothing was dropped. Anyone else want to be mayor right now?

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Marc Morial, for one. "We look at ourselves as the domestic troops in this war," says the New Orleans mayor. "Cities are the front line." Morial, McCrory and other mayors are quickly learning what a war on terrorism means for the home front. And since Homeland Security Adviser Tom Ridge and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson have offered mixed messages, the mayors have to develop their own battle plans. Last week they met in Washington for an emergency summit of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They traded ideas on how to deal with airport security, prepare for biological and chemical threats and strengthen their health care systems. They also presented a set of recommendations for Ridge and President Bush, asking for an advisory role to Ridge's office, money to help pay for all the added security costs, and better communication with the FBI.

All these mayors know their job description has changed since the attacks. McCrory feels he is walking a fine line between security and democracy. How much security should the city impose? How cautious should people be? That's part of the problem the mayors have with the vague federal security alerts. McCrory sent a letter to Ridge this week asking for some specifics on how serious a threat is. Otherwise, he says, citizens just tend to assume the worst and stay home. He acknowledges the feds may not be able to do that. But he's trying to heighten security no more than he has to, protecting potential targets like the airport, skyscrapers and the water supply without forcing everyone to walk through metal detectors to get into the park.

For Morial, who's also president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a big question is how cities will pay for all this. He is asking the President and Congress for help. New Orleans has already been paying for police overtime and other security costs at a time when crucial tourism revenues are plummeting. McCrory's not asking for money until he figures out what Charlotte needs most. "Right now, everyone's asking for something, but we haven't done an assessment of where the money would be best used," he says.

No matter what plans cities draw up to handle future attacks, a big part of the mayor's job right now is just calming their citizens down. "Our people are looking to us for reassurance, leadership and frankness," says McCrory. That's not exactly easy when the mayor is still figuring out what to do. But this is a new war for everyone, and when the mayors devise a solid battle plan, they might want to share it with Ridge. He could use the help right now.