Securing New York's Streets and Subways
City Journal Audio
Manhattan Institute
4.7 • 656 Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2017
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nicole Gelinas joins City Journal associate editor Seth Barron to discuss the recent bombing at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and how the city is managing the streets in midtown Manhattan to handle not only gridlocked traffic but also the threat of vehicle-based terrorist attacks on pedestrians.
On Monday, December 11, New York City was stunned when a 27-year-old man from Bangladesh attempted to detonate an amateur pipe bomb during the morning rush-hour commute. The incident took place less than two months after another man intentionally drove his truck onto a lower Manhattan bike path, killing eight people.
Following a number of deadly vehicle-based attacks in Europe, large global cities have taken precautions to preventwould-be terrorists from running over pedestrians with motor vehicles. But in New York, measures taken by the NYPD and city transportation agencies have left many people wondering if the streets are any more secure than before.
Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a columnist at the New York Post.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Seth Barron, associate editor of City Journal. |
| 0:03.7 | Recent terror attacks in Manhattan have highlighted the difficulty of protecting the city's streets and transit infrastructure. |
| 0:11.0 | So how is New York City City City's own Nicole Jolinas has been closely following the city's latest attempts to protect pedestrians on the street, |
| 0:21.6 | and she's written previously on subway security. |
| 0:23.6 | We'll talk to Nicole after this. |
| 0:25.6 | Hello, I'm City Journal editor Brian Anderson. |
| 0:36.6 | Thanks for joining us for the 10 Blocks podcast featuring urban policy and cultural commentary with City Journal editors, contributors, and special guests. |
| 0:48.4 | I'm Seth Bear, and you're listening to Ten Blocks. |
| 0:51.2 | Nicole, thanks for joining us today. |
| 0:52.9 | Thank you, Seth, for having me. |
| 0:55.1 | Monday morning, |
| 1:01.8 | there was a terrorist attack in the subway system under the Port Authority bus terminal. |
| 1:09.8 | Nicole, what kind of measures has the NYPD and the PAPD taken to prevent these kinds of attacks or deal with them? And how do you think they, how do you |
| 1:13.2 | think they did with it? Well, for more than a decade since train bombings in Madrid killed people, |
| 1:21.3 | the subway bombings in London on the tube and on the bus system killed people in 2005, the police department and the MTA |
| 1:30.3 | have taken measures to try to reduce the risk in the subway system. You'll see bomb-sniffing |
| 1:36.3 | dogs at sensitive locations. You'll see heavily armed national guardsmen, state troopers, and city police at some of the high-profile |
| 1:46.9 | stations, Grand Central Station, Port Authority and so forth. Not all the time, but some hours during |
| 1:51.9 | the day and sometimes when they think their risk is higher than others. And because the subway system |
| 1:58.1 | is a paid entry system, the police can stop you and ask to search your bag or search your belongings before you enter the system. |
| 2:10.5 | Now, you can, unlike being stopped on the street as a suspicious person, you can walk away from that and you can say, |
| 2:18.4 | I don't feel like being searched. |
... |
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