Posted on: Monday, October 29, 2001

Editorial
Bio-scare: No room for competitiveness

On one level, it was no more than a false alarm. No one was hurt by the anthrax scare that tied up Bethel Street last week, and all agencies having responsibilities for responding to the next one can — indeed, must — learn a lot from the experience.

Mayor Jeremy Harris appears generally to be right when he says the city's emergency response followed established protocols. It's now clear, however, that the interagency procedures agreed to in years gone by were in large part theoretical. Actual experience points up some severe and unexpected differences.

It should be enough to say, Let's learn from the experience, make the required adjustments and move on. We'll be better prepared next time.

Unfortunately, however, there has been an ugly undercurrent of competitiveness, followed by unseemly finger-pointing, between responsible agencies. Gov. Ben Cayetano was sharply critical of the city's response, and particularly of the mayor's role. Numerous critics thought the mayor, while doing his job properly, was a bit tone-deaf about how much of the spotlight he needed to grab. The Postal Service at first felt slighted and out of the loop. And Harris went to great lengths to defend his performance.

All of this is disappointing and counterproductive.

There's a place for competitiveness. Recall, for example, when both the city and the state proposed to build separate baseball complexes, both claiming they'd be able to lure professional teams for training and exhibition games. It was clear from the beginning there was insufficient demand for two complexes, and to date neither has been built.

It was the airing of these two proposals in a political context that determined whether they would sink or swim. That's the way the process is supposed to work.

But there's no room for one-upmanship in the realm of disaster preparedness. When the real thing happens, we'll only get one chance to get it right. For this deadly serious endeavor, politicians must forgo their egos and ambitions and give public safety No. 1 priority.