San Jose as the city most ready

Somewhere amid the tawny mountains of this sprawling metropolis, there is a secret facility that holds a cache of antibiotics designed to counter biological threats from anthrax to smallpox.

In police precincts and firehouses here, almost every officer and firefighter has received training on what to do in a nuclear or chemical emergency - and when rescue crews respond to calls, they bring along sensors that detect hazardous materials.

This is San Jose, considered by many to be the city best prepared to deal with a terrorist attack. In many ways, that's hardly surprising. From its disaster preparedness to its child-care policies, this city of broad avenues and palm trees has a rich tradition of cutting-edge public policy.

But in light of the recent terrorist strikes, experts say, the nation's other urban hubs can't afford to lag behind much longer.

As the economy falters, finding the money to replicate San Jose's response plans could be problematic. With many Americans already wary of visiting population centers, though, big cities must now find ways to reassure citizens that they are safe. Otherwise, should strikes continue, the urban revival of the past decade could begin to vanish in a fright flight to suburbs and rural areas.

"This is going to become a big problem for cities," says Joel Kotkin, author of "The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution is Reshaping the American Landscape." "We may see the beginnings of what we saw in the 1960s and '70s. The reason people left [cities] was the crime wave. This is sort of a crime wave in a different way."

Such a demographic reversal, of course, is far from assured. Cities have responded in various ways to the new threats, from cordoning off streets to posting armed guards near potential targets. These measures - combined with the fact that there have been no new large-scale urban attacks since Sept. 11 - seem to have helped quell public concerns.

Yet throughout the US, there is an acute awareness that all cities must be prepared to act quickly in the event of a terrorist strike. Few cities have prepared more thoroughly than San Jose.

Through "sentinel sites" such as chain-store pharmacies, the city can see if there has been a run on certain kinds of medications - suggesting the possibility of a biological strike. When law-enforcement officials are called to a scene, they have robots capable of handling tasks too dangerous for humans.

Perhaps more important than such equipment and supplies, however, is the emphasis San Jose puts on training and planning, experts say. Police officers receive classroom training each year on how to respond to terrorist attacks, while firefighters take a refresher course every 18 months. Live-action exercises are also ongoing, though the dates and locations are kept secret.

"San Jose is doing one of the best jobs, if not the best job, in the country," says Olden Henson, former chairman of the National League of Cities' public-safety committee. "It began early."

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