A New Sense of 'Normal'

Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A26

WHAT WILL it be like to live and work in Washington in the post-Sept. 11 era? It's far too soon to know the answer, but as area residents began to return to routines at week's end, they got some glimpses of the ways things may be different in days to come. Thursday morning, security checks at the entrance to the Ronald Reagan Building garage snarled traffic back across the 14th Street Bridge. Thursday afternoon security perimeters around the White House pushed outward, closing portions of crosstown streets and leaving homebound commuters gridlocked. While other airports around the nation moved back into business, Reagan National remained closed "temporarily but indefinitely." Stranded passengers and stymied motorists adapted, reacting for the most part with a patience and flexibility appropriate to frightening, unprecedented circumstances.

That will continue to be the proper response as authorities sort out the situation, assessing what threats remain and what measures are necessary to protect against them. With workers still laboring through the smoldering ruins at the Pentagon, no one can deny the overriding priority of security concerns. But as time goes on decisions will have to be made about what measures are going to be adopted for the long term. The potential consequences for the region are not small. Reagan National Airport pumps roughly $5 billion a year into the local economy, employing 10,000 workers and handling 45,000 passengers a day. Operations there are vital to the already-struggling Arlington-based US Airways. In the District, the 1995 closure of Pennsylvania Avenue dumped 29,000 cars onto other downtown streets (including several now blocked as part of the expanded White House perimeter), cost the city $800,000 so far in revenue from parking meters removed to keep traffic flowing, and left local merchants and developers fuming that business was damaged by the city's division.

This week more District businesses were operating inside security lines. Late Friday, the lines pulled back. It's not clear what the future will bring, but it is clear that federal decisions will create new definitions of business as usual for the city and the region. The awful events of this week have put a powerful new emphasis on security, but they haven't eliminated the need to weigh carefully both the effectiveness and the impact of any long-term measures. Local officials have a role to play here; as the conversation about the future continues, they belong at the table.