New Yorkers shake off terror fears

NEW YORK—Television news trucks swarmed Manhattan’s 23rd Street, newly reopened after a pressure cooker bomb exploded Saturday night, but by today, New Yorkers had resumed their daily life with few signs of anxiety. The 29 people injured in the blast had left the hospital, and police had captured the alleged bomber, Ahmad Khan Rahami, in New Jersey.

Carpenters worked at businesses on 23rd Street, where windows shattered and doors splintered. “Yes! We are open! Come on inside!” read a homemade sign outside a gym. Sanitation personnel gathered twisted window screens and scraps of wood and metal into dumpsters, the same type of dumpster that concealed the homemade bomb.

Rahami allegedly left three devices in random locations that don’t seem like obvious terror targets: this street, 27th Street, and a trash can near a 5K race in Seaside Park, N.J. Authorities also found components of pipe bombs in a backpack at a train station in Elizabeth, N.J.

But the city refused to be rattled even when terrorists targeted more high-profile locations. In 2010, thanks to a tip from local vendors, police discovered a massive car bomb in Times Square that had failed to detonate. They discovered the bomb at 6:30 p.m., evacuated the area, and removed the bomb. Most Broadway shows surrounding the area continued with their performances.

Malibu Diner, a couple of doors down from where the bomb went off this weekend, reopened today. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped by the longtime neighborhood staple for lunch. The blast happened right beside a home for the blind, Visions at Selis Manor, and while the city evacuated the block, the 200 or so Visions residents remained at their home. The blind residents often eat at Malibu, which has for several years provided discount vouchers so the residents can have a place to socialize.

On Tuesday, diner co-owner Alex Grimpas was cheerful, though he noted traffic into the diner was down about 35 percent as of lunchtime. While we talked, a woman with a seeing-eye dog passed us. The blind residents say they know the number of steps from their building to the diner.

Grimpas, a Greek immigrant who is now a U.S. citizen, said when the bomb went off he got a call to evacuate the diner. But it has always been open round the clock, and he and co-owner Jose Collado had no idea where to find the key to lock up.

Barbara Police, who lives at Visions, asked the city to reopen the diner quickly so the residents had a place to eat. The city granted them a special exemption, and on Sunday and Monday, Malibu opened only to feed its blind neighbors. The diner had leftover food and told law enforcement officers swarming the street to come eat, and to use the restaurant’s facilities.

“There’s no normal yet,” said Grimpas. “But we feel safe.”

City officials streamed in Tuesday. Letitia James, the city’s public advocate, stopped by to thank Grimpas for serving Visions residents.

“This is their second home, this is their kitchen,” she said to him. “You did the right thing, thank you.”

Grimpas said it was something he “had to do.” He quoted a saying in Greek and then roughly translated for me: “Where the soil is, is my country, is my soil.”

In the rest of the city, life proceeded almost as if nothing had happened.

U.S President Barack Obama traveled to New York Sunday for the United Nations General Assembly, which opened without a hiccup. Shiny black limos clogged the east side of Manhattan, where New York Police Department officers formed security lines. Drivers waiting for VIPs snored in their front seats, and sanitation workers positioned sand trucks to provide an extra layer of security. Protestors gathered outside prominent hotels hosting unpopular heads of state.

At Rockefeller Center, tourists looked at maps and complained about the traffic radiating from the UN. Men in suits waited in line for a shoe shine. On the No. 1 subway train, a man in a bowtie played a clarinet, and a woman in a headscarf sat next to a woman in ripped jeans and a skimpy tank top. Australian tourists boarded wearing T-shirts proclaiming, “USA,” and carrying shopping bags from Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Elsewhere, directors and actors arrived in town for the New York Film Festival, just beginning. And Mets fans prepared for a critical series in Queens tonight, where their team could clinch a wild card spot in the playoffs.

“Terrorists will not get in the way of New Yorkers,” James told me.