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American Morning

America's New War: Mayors Across Country Reviewing Security and Financial Concerns

Aired September 20, 2001 - 11:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: What happened in New York City last week has mayors across the country reviewing their security measures and their city's financial stability.

We've gathered four mayors together this morning, Jim Hahn, who just took over the reins in Los Angeles, Marc Morial of New Orleans, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Wellington Webb of Denver, Colorado, and Bobbie Peters of Columbus, Georgia, who joins us from CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

Mayor Peters, first to you first. Your community is home to a major military base, Fort Benning. A time of testing in your community, sir?

MAYOR BOBBY PETERS, COLUMBUS, GEORGIA: Well, we're very proud of Fort Benning. That, as you know, has the national designation as the best army installation in the world year after year. So they are on high alert, they're at delta. And Columbus, Georgia and Fort Benning have been together for many years. The 20 years I've been in office I've really seen the cause of the efforts of our entire (UNINTELLIGIBLE) community, a tremendous support for our military and our domestic (UNINTELLIGIBLE), police, fire, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). So we're proud of there, we support them. We support our president, and I think they all have one resolve, and that is that we're going to get through this together united as a country.

The -- I think the bottom line is that September 11th was a unification day for all of America, and we are very proud of our military. America cannot be dominated or intimated by fear. And we intend to be through this for the long haul.

You know, 85 percent of your economic output comes from your cities. So certainly, Columbus, and all cities across the nation will be effected by this, but we are ready for that. I think once we went this, though the efforts of the president and our military, then we'll get back to -- the economy will increase.

KING: Let's continue with that theme now with Mayor Morial in New Orleans.

Sir, your city a major tourist destination. Obviously Americans a little skittish about flying right now. if my memory is correct, your city is scheduled to host the Super Bowl. MAYOR MARC MORIAL, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: We're going to host the Super...

KING: What is the sense -- what is your sense of the economic impact from this devastating event? And what can you do about it?

MORIAL: John, last week was probably the worst week we've ever had, because with the skies shut down no one could in fact travel. But we're on the mend and on the rebound right now.

And because aviation and travel and aviation safety is crucial to our economies, the mayors through the U.S. Conference of Mayors have called for the federalization of airport security. We think that's an essential step to certainly reassure the traveling public of the safety and security of airliners, airports and the skies. And we are going to work with Secretary Mineta, certainly with President Bush to take all steps necessary to reassure the traveling public of the safety and security in the skies.

That's essential to all of the cities, like mine, who depend upon travel, both business and leisure travel as an essential ingredient in our economy.

What we're doing here now, we're doing some specialized marketing. many of the hotels and restaurants are also working on discount programs, certainly to try to encourage people who may live in the region, who may be...

KING: Gentlemen, I want you to stand by.

(INTERRUPTED BY PRESS CONFERENCE)

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