INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
LOCAL
LOCALS UPSET BY PARKING PLAN PAGE 3 EMISSIONS NEED ATTENTION PAGE 5 SHOOTING INVESTIGATED PAGE 11 Visit us online at smdp.com
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2007
Volume 6 Issue 257
Santa Monica Daily Press
TOXIC TOYS CALLED OUT SEE PAGE 6
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE SETTLING IN ISSUE
Some things linger forever Locals remember the terror attacks of September 11th BY MELODY HANATANI I Daily Press Staff Writer CITYWIDE On a September afternoon six years ago, David Harbatkin left his Brooklyn home to attend a hockey game in Manhattan, driving underneath the World Trade Center en route to his destination. The following day, two planes struck the Twin Towers, a colossal attack that fell the skyscrapers, taking down with it close to 2,600 people. For weeks the shadow of the deadly attacks loomed over lower Manhattan and nearby boroughs, its pestering pres-
ence refusing to leave. “I could smell the towers for two weeks over at my house,” Harbatkin said on Monday. “It was surreal and it was very chaotic for the first two weeks, probably even longer.” Today, Harbatkin, who has since moved to West L.A. in 2003, feels his sense of security is unscathed in the post Sept. 11 world, despite believing the country is under a greater threat because of the war in Iraq. “I don’t walk around daily worrying about it,” said Harbatkin who works in a travel agency in Santa Monica. It’s been exactly six years since the deadliest homeland attack in U.S. history and the American public has been on heightened alert since. Though the threat of a terrorist attack may not consume their lives, Americans as a whole seem to be a little bit more wary now than before Sept. 11, 2001, keeping a watchful eye for bags left unattended on a subway
car or a person appearing suspiciously nervous in an airport. “I think in general, people feel a little bit less secure than we did before Sept. 11,” said Mayor Richard Bloom. “I think the events will live with us for our lifetime and change the way we think about the world that we live in.” Though the cities are located on opposite ends of the country, the impact was felt in Santa Monica where several families lost love ones that perished in the attacks in Manhattan, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. Local authorities have stepped up efforts to ensure the public’s safety. For the Santa Monica Police Department, this includes collaboration with federal and county law enforcement agencies and the installation of surveillance cameras on the Santa Monica Pier and Third Street Promenade. SEE REMEMBER PAGE 7
PUBLIC SAFETY
THAT SINKING FEELING
Water main failure creates major sinkhole
STORY BY MELODY HANATANI PAGE 10
Photo courtesy City of Santa Monica
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