A data point:
The heightened alert in New York City is indeed having an effect. Traffic crossing the Brooklyn Bridge this morning is being restricted and apparently closely examined, with attendant delays. The bridge was closed for a half-hour to investigate a suspicious package. And there are helicopters patrolling the neighborhood.
I need to go into Manhattan this morning, and the bridge is how I do it. Oh joy.
[Later:]
It took 45 minutes to drive the two-block approach to the Brooklyn Bridge this morning; police were screening on a car-by-car basis, and turned back several that didn’t meet the HOV2 requirement. (Presumably, suicide bombers don’t work in pairs.)
Otherwise, the city seems pretty normal. The 34th Street Heliport had about six takeoffs/landings in the hour or so that I was paying attention. It’s the start of Fleet Week today, so there’ll be a ton of sailors around from all over the world. Some might say this presents a target-rich environment.
Other than the traffic checkpoint, the most out-of-place thing I’ve seen today is the NBC News truck with the big-ass satellite uplink antenna (big-ass — that’s one of my technical terms) parked at the end of my block at the entrance to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The film crew has a pretty good overview of New York Harbor and the ships coming in, but when I saw the camera about 10 minutes ago, it was aimed squarely at the Statue of Liberty. Just in case, presumably.
