For the first 1,167 days of Mr. Lhota’s tenure as deputy mayor for operations in the Giuliani administration, his proverbial binder sat untouched on his desk became an instrument for Sept. 11, 2001. As he ticked through a series of unimaginable decisions on that day, rousing the White House, summoning the National Guard, has manifested Mr. Lhota’s approach to the unfolding crisis, revealing a Boy Scout’s obsession with preparedness and a bureaucrat’s faith in the problem-solving powers of government. Today, as he struggles to promote himself as the battle-tested candidate for mayor, armed with a rare command of City Hall’s operations, pressure points and bottlenecks, his role in overseeing the response to the attacks remains a potent credential, unmatched by his rivals. However, as Mr. Lhota did prevent the authorities from turning Manhattan into a closed-off bunker, or when his longtime insistence on backing up essential government computer systems proved prescient, and or when his biography as the son of a city police lieutenant and grandson of a firefighter gave him credibility in delicate talks with victims’ families, the same cruel efficiency on Sept. 11 demonstrated Mr. Lhota’s mettle as a leader, it also laid bare weaknesses in his judgment. He had nevertheless participated in the fateful decision to place the city’s Office of Emergency Management command center inside a high-rise next to the World Trade Center towers, even though the towers had been the target of a previous terror strike, in 1993. (mainly referring to a NYTimes News article)
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 11:44:52 +0000
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