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CNN Saturday Morning News

The Novak Zone: Interview With Anthony Williams

Aired April 19, 2003 - 09:31   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Washington, D.C., is struggling to make a comeback after the attacks on September 11. The mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams, joins CNN's Robert Novak to talk about bringing people back to the nation's capital and much more, for this week's edition of "The Novak Zone."
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: "The Novak Zone."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST: Welcome to "The Novak Zone."

I'm Robert Novak at the Wilson Building, the city hall of the nation's capital, with the mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams.

Mayor Williams, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there have been fewer tourists in Washington, more police, fewer guided tours. Will this great city, the nation's capital, ever get back to normal?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Well, I think it will. I mean, after 9/11, we had a period of stagnation. We had a period of reduction in tourists. But we brought everyone together. We had two successive multimedia campaigns. One was on "The West Wing," one was done by the folks up -- who had done work up in New York's Screen Gems.

And by the time the Cherry Blossom Festival rolled around, we actually had 20 more people at the Cherry Blossom Festival in that year as opposed to the year prior to -- the season prior to 9/11. So we brought people back.

The problem is with the war, the threat of war and then the war itself, with the, you know, elevation of the threat level to orange, we've once again seen a reduction, not to mention the, you know, decline in consumer confidence, decline in the business traveler. With the war over now, we are hoping to regroup, redouble our efforts, and get people back once again.

It -- a key factor, though, this time, is going to be the underlying economy and consumer confidence.

NOVAK: Mayor Williams, as you go into Washington, not far from where we are, Pennsylvania Avenue, of course, has been closed. They have all kinds of bunkers. It looks like a fortification there. There's a police car that sits at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And they had missiles emplacements on the Mall for a while.

Do you think there's a -- and there's tours are very limited. Do you think there's an excessive amount of protection being provided by the authorities for Washington, D.C.?

WILLIAMS: Well, the message I send is that Washington's a safe city. And because we're a safe city, we are an open city. We are open. People want to come here and enjoy themselves and do business here.

But having said, I think we have gone overboard in many instances. I think a model of what we ought to be doing is, well, for example, London, where they've had for -- they had the attack on M.I., they had attack on 10 Downing Street. They've blown up the train station, they blew up the Queen's Guards. And yet there's a sense of London being an open city.

I think we can learn a lot of lessons from other cities around the world that have actually faced terrorism and do a little better job of it.

We want a safe city, but we also want an open city.

NOVAK: Mr. Mayor, it appears now the fighting is over in Iraq. Did you, as the mayor of Washington, D.C., did you have concern, real concern, that that period of warfare would be seized as an opportunity by terrorists to make an attack? There was -- "Washington Post" had a story that the al Qaeda was going -- was interested in attacking the Metro system in Washington. Was that a real worry the past few weeks?

WILLIAMS: There was a -- whenever we have international activity like the Persian Gulf, the war in Iraq, whenever we have an elevated threat level, certainly there's a concern on my part of what that means for our city. But what I've always told people is that we understand that in many respects we are at ground zero. We understand that, we understand that there is a heightened risk here.

But as -- for all things, being America's capital, we've got to be an open city.

NOVAK: Mr. Mayor, many of the license plates in the District of Columbia say, "Taxation Without representation."

WILLIAMS: I know you live here, and you support that, right?

NOVAK: No, I don't.

WILLIAMS: I didn't think so.

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), but we don't want to get into that (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WILLIAMS: I know, I know.

NOVAK: But Mr. Mayor, this is an attempt to get Congress, the Republican-controlled Congress, to go for statehood or at least representation in Congress. But you're -- you've been -- you'll be developed into a very successful political candidate. You know politics. Do you think that has any impact at all, putting that on the license plate, on getting the Congress to do something they don't want to do?

WILLIAMS: Well, I think it gets a preeminent journalist like yourself talking about it on national TV. It does get it into the popular currency and into the discussion. But in and of itself, will it move the ball forward in and of itself? I don't think so.

But it does get the discussion out there. And I think that's important, because you talk about the war in Iraq, you know, the District, we've suffered more casualties than just all but six states. And I think if we're out fighting for democracy in Iraq, we ought to have democracy here in our city.

NOVAK: If I can make a personal comment, I went through three days of training at the Panoz (ph) Driving School at the Sebring International Raceway to participate in the celebrity division of the second annual D.C. Grand Prix, which has been canceled, apparently because the D.C. -- the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- the cars make too much noise. Is -- what is the problem in the District of Columbia? That was a wonderful event that everybody liked. Was it necessary to cancel that?

WILLIAMS: Well, I think whenever you're doing the -- I mean, one of the things that we've got to do in all our cities is, we've got to create a climate for investment, an environment of success, and at the same time do it in a way that preserves a livable city. And it's very, very difficult to do. It's difficult to do anything like a road race in a major American city. It proved to be difficult here.

NOVAK: It was a great event, though, last year.

WILLIAMS: It was great for our hotels, it was great for our tourism. We've got to find news ways to do the same thing.

NOVAK: Now the big question for the mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams.

Mr. Williams, the nation's capital does not have a team playing the national pastime, baseball. And the trial lawyer who owns the Baltimore Orioles says he will sue if we get a team here. Is he going to keep baseball away from the nation's capital?

WILLIAMS: No, I think baseball will come to this region. And when it comes to this region, it will come here to Washington, D.C., because of all things, the national pastime ought to be in the national capital. I mean, can you imagine a national -- another national monument in this city, this one to baseball, thousands of fans enjoying themselves with a panoramic view of the capital in the Washington monument? It's spectacular, breath-taking.

NOVAK: Mayor Anthony Williams, thank you very much...

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Bob. NOVAK: ... for being in "The Novak Zone."

And thank you for listening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 19, 2003 - 09:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Washington, D.C., is struggling to make a comeback after the attacks on September 11. The mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams, joins CNN's Robert Novak to talk about bringing people back to the nation's capital and much more, for this week's edition of "The Novak Zone."
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: "The Novak Zone."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST: Welcome to "The Novak Zone."

I'm Robert Novak at the Wilson Building, the city hall of the nation's capital, with the mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams.

Mayor Williams, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there have been fewer tourists in Washington, more police, fewer guided tours. Will this great city, the nation's capital, ever get back to normal?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Well, I think it will. I mean, after 9/11, we had a period of stagnation. We had a period of reduction in tourists. But we brought everyone together. We had two successive multimedia campaigns. One was on "The West Wing," one was done by the folks up -- who had done work up in New York's Screen Gems.

And by the time the Cherry Blossom Festival rolled around, we actually had 20 more people at the Cherry Blossom Festival in that year as opposed to the year prior to -- the season prior to 9/11. So we brought people back.

The problem is with the war, the threat of war and then the war itself, with the, you know, elevation of the threat level to orange, we've once again seen a reduction, not to mention the, you know, decline in consumer confidence, decline in the business traveler. With the war over now, we are hoping to regroup, redouble our efforts, and get people back once again.

It -- a key factor, though, this time, is going to be the underlying economy and consumer confidence.

NOVAK: Mayor Williams, as you go into Washington, not far from where we are, Pennsylvania Avenue, of course, has been closed. They have all kinds of bunkers. It looks like a fortification there. There's a police car that sits at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And they had missiles emplacements on the Mall for a while.

Do you think there's a -- and there's tours are very limited. Do you think there's an excessive amount of protection being provided by the authorities for Washington, D.C.?

WILLIAMS: Well, the message I send is that Washington's a safe city. And because we're a safe city, we are an open city. We are open. People want to come here and enjoy themselves and do business here.

But having said, I think we have gone overboard in many instances. I think a model of what we ought to be doing is, well, for example, London, where they've had for -- they had the attack on M.I., they had attack on 10 Downing Street. They've blown up the train station, they blew up the Queen's Guards. And yet there's a sense of London being an open city.

I think we can learn a lot of lessons from other cities around the world that have actually faced terrorism and do a little better job of it.

We want a safe city, but we also want an open city.

NOVAK: Mr. Mayor, it appears now the fighting is over in Iraq. Did you, as the mayor of Washington, D.C., did you have concern, real concern, that that period of warfare would be seized as an opportunity by terrorists to make an attack? There was -- "Washington Post" had a story that the al Qaeda was going -- was interested in attacking the Metro system in Washington. Was that a real worry the past few weeks?

WILLIAMS: There was a -- whenever we have international activity like the Persian Gulf, the war in Iraq, whenever we have an elevated threat level, certainly there's a concern on my part of what that means for our city. But what I've always told people is that we understand that in many respects we are at ground zero. We understand that, we understand that there is a heightened risk here.

But as -- for all things, being America's capital, we've got to be an open city.

NOVAK: Mr. Mayor, many of the license plates in the District of Columbia say, "Taxation Without representation."

WILLIAMS: I know you live here, and you support that, right?

NOVAK: No, I don't.

WILLIAMS: I didn't think so.

NOVAK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), but we don't want to get into that (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WILLIAMS: I know, I know.

NOVAK: But Mr. Mayor, this is an attempt to get Congress, the Republican-controlled Congress, to go for statehood or at least representation in Congress. But you're -- you've been -- you'll be developed into a very successful political candidate. You know politics. Do you think that has any impact at all, putting that on the license plate, on getting the Congress to do something they don't want to do?

WILLIAMS: Well, I think it gets a preeminent journalist like yourself talking about it on national TV. It does get it into the popular currency and into the discussion. But in and of itself, will it move the ball forward in and of itself? I don't think so.

But it does get the discussion out there. And I think that's important, because you talk about the war in Iraq, you know, the District, we've suffered more casualties than just all but six states. And I think if we're out fighting for democracy in Iraq, we ought to have democracy here in our city.

NOVAK: If I can make a personal comment, I went through three days of training at the Panoz (ph) Driving School at the Sebring International Raceway to participate in the celebrity division of the second annual D.C. Grand Prix, which has been canceled, apparently because the D.C. -- the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- the cars make too much noise. Is -- what is the problem in the District of Columbia? That was a wonderful event that everybody liked. Was it necessary to cancel that?

WILLIAMS: Well, I think whenever you're doing the -- I mean, one of the things that we've got to do in all our cities is, we've got to create a climate for investment, an environment of success, and at the same time do it in a way that preserves a livable city. And it's very, very difficult to do. It's difficult to do anything like a road race in a major American city. It proved to be difficult here.

NOVAK: It was a great event, though, last year.

WILLIAMS: It was great for our hotels, it was great for our tourism. We've got to find news ways to do the same thing.

NOVAK: Now the big question for the mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams.

Mr. Williams, the nation's capital does not have a team playing the national pastime, baseball. And the trial lawyer who owns the Baltimore Orioles says he will sue if we get a team here. Is he going to keep baseball away from the nation's capital?

WILLIAMS: No, I think baseball will come to this region. And when it comes to this region, it will come here to Washington, D.C., because of all things, the national pastime ought to be in the national capital. I mean, can you imagine a national -- another national monument in this city, this one to baseball, thousands of fans enjoying themselves with a panoramic view of the capital in the Washington monument? It's spectacular, breath-taking.

NOVAK: Mayor Anthony Williams, thank you very much...

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Bob. NOVAK: ... for being in "The Novak Zone."

And thank you for listening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com