It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

... but it's a neighborhood that Mister Rogers would not recognize. The newest terror threats to New York City are being taken very seriously. Fears that the New York Stock Exchange and other lower Manhattan targets might be struck by Al Qaeda operatives have led the city to bolster its already-high terror alert. With my sister and friends working in or near the financial district, it took many of them quite a long time to get to work this morning. The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was closed to Manhattan-bound commercial traffic; the Holland Tunnel and the Williamsburg Bridge have also been closed to trucks and vans. This has put the city in traffic knots, as commercial vehicles seek other means to get into Manhattan.

With a tiger on the loose in Queens the other day, with temperatures finally soaring into the hot and humid high 80s—the"dog days" of August have arrived—and with the GOP convention due here (along with tens of thousands of protesters) at the end of the month, New Yorkers remain among the most resilient of people. Still. It's not making for a stress-free existence here in the Baked Apple, and while it's reassuring to see machine-gun loaded guys and gals in battle fatigues guarding various key spots throughout the city, it gives one the feeling of a police state.

We can debate the causes of this current war. We can debate whether or not these constant terror warnings are real, imagined, or politically motivated. (I take these particular threats seriously, but that's what happens when you've lost people you knew at the World Trade Center.)

What is undebatable is that the effects of this state of affairs are being felt right here in my neighborhood. And it doesn't feel all that good.