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by Phillip Matier
and Andrew Ross
September 12, 2001
For Mayor Willie
Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came late Monday when he
got a call from what he described as his airport security - - a full
eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist attacks -- advising
him that Americans should be cautious about their air travel.
The mayor, who was
booked to fly to New York yesterday morning from San Francisco
International Airport, said the call "didn't come in any alarming
fashion, which is why I'm hesitant to make an alarming statement."
In fact, at the
time, he didn't pay it much mind.
"It was not an
abnormal call. I'm always concerned if my flight is going to be on time,
and they always alert me when I ought to be careful."
Exactly where the
call came from is a bit of a mystery. The mayor would say only that it
came from "my security people at the airport."
Mike McCarron,
assistant deputy director at SFO, said the Federal Aviation
Administration "routinely" issues security notices about possible
threats. He said two or three such notices have been received in the
past couple of months, but none in recent days.
Whatever the case,
Brown didn't think about it again until he was up, dressed and waiting
for his ride to the airport for an 8 a.m. flight to New York, where he
was to attend a state retirement board meeting. That was when he turned
on the TV, and like millions of other Americans, saw the twin towers of
the World Trade Center crumble and the Pentagon go up in smoke.
Before the mayor
was even out the door, District Attorney Terence Hallinan - - the man
Brown said just last week should be recalled -- was checking in and
offering help.
What followed was
a conversation made up of equal parts gravity and formality.
"You know, you're
the first call I've gotten on this," Brown said to Hallinan, as they
were signing off.
With that, the
mayor hung up and headed for City Hall. Along the way, he made the call
to close all city buildings for the day and city schools as well.
He also talked
with representatives of the Bank of America building and the
Transamerica Pyramid, who agreed that because the structures were such
high- profile symbols they too should be closed for the day.
Once Brown arrived
at City Hall, calls were made in quick order to Municipal Railway
director Michael Burns: "I want a complete backup in case anything
happens to the subway tunnels," Brown said.
The Coast Guard:
"To make sure the bridges were being protected."
And to the health,
police and fire departments to make sure they were staffed for the
emergency.
The last call went
to Tom Ammiano, the mayor's longtime political nemesis and president of
the Board of Supervisors.
"We may have to
declare a state of emergency, although it's not something I want to do
at this point because it kicks in all sorts of things -- but we may have
to be ready," the mayor said.
Ammiano apparently
agreed, because an hour or so later -- when the two sat next to each
other at a city department heads meeting at the command center -- the
call was made for only a "limited" state of emergency. One that would
allow the courts, city offices and schools to close, but still keep the
city pretty much in working order.
"What I want," the
mayor said, "is for things to be to run as normally as possible, but
sagely."
And for the most
part they did. As for what comes next?
"With any luck,
we'll be back to normal by tomorrow -- but with a heightened sense of
awareness," Brown said as he sipped coffee with reporters at Citizen
Cake on Grove Street.
But as for
long-term safety?
"We can only do
what we can," the mayor said, adding, "Hell, if they can't protect the
Pentagon from attack, what can they protect?"
BART BLOCKS: Don't
go looking for a rest room on BART -- they're all locked.
According to BART
information officer Ron Rodriguez, a memorandum went out yesterday
ordering all station rest rooms to be locked until further notice.
They've also put out the word to watch for suspicious packages.
THE OTHER BROWN:
Over in Oakland, Mayor Jerry Brown was trying his best to keep things
normal as well.
"We're carrying
on," Brown said. "I think the most important thing is for people to stay
calm and understand that the power of terrorism is psychological.
"The goal is to
sow disunity and to undermine our faith in the leadership of the
country."
A few blocks away,
Democratic pollster Paul Maslin sat in his office high- rise and
wondered about the long-term effect of the attacks.
"It's like one
part Pearl Harbor, one part Northern Ireland and one part I don't know
what," was how Maslin summed it up.
Maslin -- who does
polling for Gov. Gray Davis, among others -- said the strangest call he
got yesterday was from one of the biggest Democratic consultants in
Washington, D.C., who had just bolted his apartment.
"This was a grown
man in his 50s, and he was scared out of his wits because he'd heard
that a second plane was headed for the Pentagon," Maslin said.
"We can't even
begin to gauge the long-term effects of this yet, but I will say, I
don't think we'll ever be the same."
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