‘Security creep’ angers capital officials

WASHINGTON – Near the White House, stores now rely on handcarts – not trucks – to get their deliveries.

Ambulances face delays.

And officials worry about what will happen when summer ends and commuters once again push full-scale into the city’s center every day.

The recent round of terror-related security alerts has caused broad new restrictions in the nation’s capital, inconveniencing people who live and work here and leading to increasingly bitter words between federal and city officials.

“You can’t continue to close streets without doing death to commerce in this city – to tourism in this city, to the tax base in this city,” Mayor Anthony A. Williams said recently.

City officials have complained for a decade about “security creep” restricting access – and especially since Sept. 11, 2001, when the terror attacks prompted agencies’ security directors to put up more concrete barriers around federal buildings.

But when the Homeland Security Department raised the terror alert warning level for high-profile financial targets on Aug. 1, and new roadblocks and checkpoints were put up near the Capitol shortly afterward, District of Columbia officials reacted with an unprecedented level of outrage.

Trucks are now subject to cargo searches at random checkpoints around the city, and there are 14 permanent checkpoints near Capitol Hill. Commuter buses now face routine delays or detours.

While previous closures have prompted loose commitments to consult with the city beforehand, federal officials concede that has rarely occurred.

The dispute over the new Capitol roadblocks prompted an Aug. 9 meeting that produced an agreement for monthly meetings to discuss street-level security concerns – and Capitol police agreed to allow city emergency vehicles to proceed through their checkpoints.

White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend said recently that city officials are being consulted. But few are satisfied.

“This is a living city, and it simply cannot move if we have as many checkpoints and street closings as they have foisted on us,” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting representative to Congress.

Norton and others worry that when congressional staffers and large numbers of federal employees return to regular commuting in September, after the traditional August vacation, the city will face traffic gridlock.