The Counterterrorism Funding Matrix

John Podhoretz notes:

If what DHS wanted to say was that the monuments and icons in New York City and Washington are now protected about as well as they could be, then Chertoff should have come out and said it and defended it. Maybe that would be a defensible position, given how much money Washington has provided us since 9/11. But what it has done is in no way defensible, either as a matter of fact, a matter of policy or a matter of simple common sense. But hey - it's a "two-by-two matrix"!

This is an excellent point. NYC and DC have received hundreds of millions of dollars over the past several years to beef up their respective counterterrorism operations and preparedness for terror attacks.

One could posit that the homeland security funding was cut because the City was asking for funding on items that aren't directly related to counter terrorism and homeland security preparations, including overtime for police and emergency personnel (Operation Atlas). Yes, that is a terrorism prevention operation, but it is personnel intensive and overtime is involved. That's an item that DHS said it would not cover, but DHS does cover beefing up security at a bridge or tunnel - camera installations or other security enhancements. Many of those improvements have been made with earlier disbursements.

It's the appearance of the cuts, in light of the fact that NYC remains the top terror target, and not some of the other locations throughout the country that received an increase in funding, that brings much of the outrage.

And there were problems with the way New York City submitted its application for the homeland security funding. Yet, it bears repeating what I mentioned yesterday. Something is terribly wrong with the process when you can find that New York City does not have a single national monument or icon:

And apparently that didn't register with anyone, despite the fact that we had a huge gala in New York City in 1983 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge (which is considered a modern wonder of the world)or the 1986 centennial for the Statue of Liberty - both of which attracted huge crowds and the world's largest fireworks display, and tons of diplomats, including President Reagan (at the Statue of Liberty event).

And yes, I know that the US Supreme Court ruled that the Statue is actually located in New Jersey and not New York, but the ferry access is provided from Battery Park in NYC - so it should count as a New York City icon/monument.

The Empire State Building is the tallest building in NYC since the WTC was destroyed by Islamic terrorists on 9/11, that is. It just celebrated its 75th anniversary. Even after the WTC was first built, the ESB was considered the face of NYC.

We've got Grand Central Station, which is more than 90 years old, and 575,000 visitors and 125,000 commuters daily. In other words, this one facility alone handles more people on a daily basis than many areas that got dedicated funds. In fact, it can handle more in a day than some entire states' populations (see Alaska,Wyoming and Vermont).

As if you needed additional proof of the icon status of some of those structures, the NYS DMV license plates issues customized plates for the NYC metro region features the WTC and Brooklyn Bridge. The statewide general plate features Niagara Falls and midtown Manhattan, including the Empire State Building.

UPDATE:
It would appear that those buildings and structures mentioned above were considered, just not in the national monument/icon category. They were categorized so that they would score the highest points in the matrix - and drive the most money to the City and State of New York. Both John Hawkins and The Corner make this point. It's unfortunate that this information was not made available and people quickly jumped to the conclusion (as I did) that the funding formula missed important, critical, and historic structures throughout the city. Further, Hawkins notes:

Despite the implication that New York is being short changed, they're getting $124.5 million dollars out of the $711 million dollar allotted for the whole country. That's 17.5% of all the money. So, are they one of the two biggest targets (along with DC)? Sure, but they are getting a lot of the money, too.

That sounds about right. We are talking about fighting for an even bigger share of the pie.