on the bright side, maybe the city won't be able to afford those "important announcements - from the new york city police department. if you see something suspicious ..." that plague every subway ride. that will be a relief

Nola: it must be difficult living in a state of liberals. (New York)

The funding formula should be very simple - NYC gets what it needs period. Why the hell does the NYPD have their own anti-terrorist intel divison? Because the feds are sure as hell not going to protect us since they are worried about asses - covering their own and kissing others.

you're all crazy. every last one of you.

The Gothamist crybabies are at it again: they snivel and whine when security is increased, then they snivel and whine when security is decreased. One minute they cry about living in a police state, the next minute they are convinced we're all about to die. It must be difficult living in a state of perpetual adolescence.

I don't understand....Gothamist is a website about New York! It's read by New Yorkers and people who might not live here, but still love New York. Why is there even a debate on this comment board? Shouldn't we all be on the same side? Sheeeeeesh.

Of course, I meant, "whenever I leave the city..." Sorry.

Hadenough, I couldn't agree with you more. I've always considered my nationality to be New Yorker. It staggers me, whenever the leave the city, how free people feel to tell me how much they hate the city, while I am too polite to tell them that I would rather shoot myself than live in Kneecap, Iowa. One asshole even told me how much "nicer" New York was after 9/11, and asked if I didn't like it better now.

Secession sounds better and better.

Obviously an attack at a shopping mall would have an economic and psychological impact, but think about what the US bombs (or tries to bomb) when it fights a war: ministries of defense, finance, communication, etc.

We make a mistake when we simply characterize the people we are fighting as terrorists. Al Qaeda believes it is fighting a war against the US and therefore will bomb strategic targets. If all they wanted to do was terrorize and put dents in the economy, don't you think they would have bombed a mall by now? That's not to say it won't happen, but we're more likely to see big targets get hit. The WTC was hit twice, after all.

It's not a Manhattan-centric view. It's a strategic target-centric view. Ports in Newark, Long Beach, Houston, Miami, etc. should be secured. Nuclear plants in New Hampshire should be secured. The Hoover Dam should be secured. It's about spending our money wisely, which the federal government clearly can't do. Those potential targets need more money than an office building in Milwaukee.

Considering the rape job Wall Street gives the rest of the country I think it only fair New York pays more in taxes than it gets back.

no federal funds are being used. there is, however, a combination of city, state, and private funds that are being used.

You don't think attacking a port or a shopping mall or anything else that isn't in Manhattan can't have an economic impact? If people stop going to the mall I think you would see an economic slow down. I guess Amazon and Fed Ex would have an uptick in business. Or one shoulder launched missile attack would probably put a dent in the travel industry. And that's not just me saying that. Chuck "Fear Monger" Schumer says it all the time. I'm glad you're not an intelligence analyst.

are you sure no public funds at all is going into the WTC memorial?

where does the LMDC get it's funding?

how long did it take the OK city memorial to be built?

I rest my case.

Who gives a good goddamn if people think New Yorkers are self-absorbed assholes? We ARE assholes! And we're proud of it.

We're glad to be an island away from the rest of the god-forsaken USA. To them, they might say we "whine," but au contraire. We "demand," while you call it whining.

Observe a visiting backwoods Midwesterner ordering a slice and a drink and he receives the wrong order, compared to a New Yorker who receives a wrong order, and you tell me which one whines and which one fucking DEMANDS his shit. And that's just pizza, kids.

WTC memorial money is mostly coming from private donations and state money, not the federal budget. So you are comparing apples and oranges. Less money to the WTC memorial will not necessarily translate into more money for NYC security.

When New York City secedes where should we send the bill for things like the FAA, FDA, CDC, NIH, CIA, SEC, etc. etc. Or do you plan to build your own agencies? And since New York barely has a port left shall we tack on some taxes before we export goods to the city?

in a slight defense of omaha, the money is probably being spent on the offutt air force base (SAC headquarters)...

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said that "I'm going to do everything I can to make them very sorry they made this decision." And Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) made the brilliant observation that "We lost almost 3,000 people that day...yet Washington is blind to what happened." I guess he's right, if you interpret the largest reorganization of government since World War Two as evidence of blindness to that awful day's events.

One NYC newspaper's coverage of the funding cuts accused DHS of focusing on "unlikely terror targets like Kentucky and Wyoming." Ummmm, anyone remember a little place called Dalles, Oregon? Or maybe Birmingham, Alabama? How about Oklahoma City -- does that ring a bell?

Another NYC newspaper's article described allocations to other cities as "money to guard nothing." Nice attitude. Real nice.

My suggestion? Take the money out of the unbelievably hubristic $billion-plus that New Yorkers want to spend on their 9/11 memorial. That's right, "billion." With a "b." As compared to the $29 million spent on the Oklahoma City memorial (168 Americans killed), the $182 million spent on the WWII memorial (400,000 Americans dead), or the $4.2 million for the Vietnam War memorial and the $6 million for the Korean War memorial (56,000 and 54,000 Americans dead, respectively). (Source: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/05/20/memorial/print.html)

What's that you say? A billion is a wee bit over the top? Heck no, it's not excessive! How dare you question whether our tragedy is the tragediest tragedy ever! And the terrorist threat against us remains the terroristiest-threatiest ever! We're New York, dammit! Waaaaah!

To paraphrase Herbert Morrison's 1937 reporting of the Hindenburg crash: "Oh, the hyperbole."

In no way do I mean to downplay the terrible losses suffered on 9/11 -- indeed, I was one of the federal responders that day and am well aware of the awful consequences of the attacks. Nor do I intend to understate the very significant threats that face NYC. But folks, a little perspective is sorely needed.

Is it any wonder nobody likes New Yorkers when they come off like a whinier, more self-absorbed bunch of babies than the Miami Cubans (which until now I frankly didn't know was possible)?

#22 -- get out of your mom's basement in Bayonne already. Your ridiculous comments about the country as a whole and the people who live outside New York City (which you probably just mean to be Manhattan) highlights your intolerance for anyone's views but your own.

As for NY's terror funding, I agree it seems a little low. But let's remember that the Statue of Liberty is already protected by the feds (the state and city pay nothing and do nothing to maintain or protect this monument) and the waters around Manhattan are filled with a lot more Coast Guard personnel now then pre-9/11. That should help with the Brooklyn Bridge, one would think.

The better arguments are Times Square, the Empire State Building, Wall Street, etc.

Why the ESB over the Jefferson Memorial? That's easy. Why did terrorists pick the WTC over the Washington Monument? Because terrorists believe they are waging a war, so they strike what they consider strategic targets: centers of business, defense, and government. (The WTC, the Pentagon, and either the White House or the Capitol Building, depending on where flight 93 was supposed to hit.) This is the same strategy a nation might take in a war, only with people flying suicide missions rather than pilots flying fighter jets.

If all the terrorists wanted to do was create more terror they could have easily blown up a mailbox or a shopping mall and killed a few people by now. But their goal is to create mass hysteria. Blowing up no more than 50 - 100 tourists at a monument wouldn't create the same effect as knocking down a building in the economic capital of the U.S. and killing thousands.

That's not the result of "center of the universe" thinking, it's the result of what we've seen. If terrorists wanted to blow up a house in Omaha, they could have done it by now. Unfortunately, they have a much longer outlook than we do.

Washington and New York will remain high targets as long as our government and business headquarters (or symbols of those headquarters, such as the NYSE) remain in those cities.

It seems less about New York being the center of the universe and more about cities like Omaha saying, "Hey! Where's my pork?"