So the second blast was almost directly in front of my office building and although the bombing took place over a week ago today was my first day back in the building. Apart from the physical damage, both human and otherwise, done from the bombings they were enormously disruptive to the city. During the shootout/chase the entire city was SHUT DOWN including taxis, public trans, everything. The amount of money lost due to that sort of paralysis is probably incalculable.
For my part, it was a pain in the ass trying to work from home given what I do so I can say for sure my company definitely took a productivity hit.
Anyway, the city did a good job of cleaning up and frankly Boylston street has never looked cleaner. The two blast sites have fresh concrete but the windows near by are mostly boarded up still. Flowers are starting to pile up at the two sites now and of course there are always crowds of people snapping pictures. Apparently the FBI found the lid of the second pressure cooker on the roof of my building along with ton of BBs. How they found black BBs on top of a black roof I don't know - goes to show how meticulous their search must have been.
There are cops everywhere still. And I mean everywhere. I heard Biden was in town today so that may explain it, but frankly this is growing tiresome. I am very pro-police, don't get me wrong but seeing officers every 100 yards and patrol cars parked everywhere is a dark reminder of what happened not too long ago.
Walking to the gym, which is on the other side of the city from blasts, they taped off a whole block nearby because apparently they were chasing some kids and they wanted to check to make sure they didn't "discard anything while running." Jesus, I thought, this is the state of things now? This sucks...
I'm glad to hear that some aspects of your life are returning to being routine and as normal as possible following the attack.
I share your concern for what lies ahead in the aftermath of this tragedy. I hope you and yours are ok and that neither our lives nor our freedoms are changed in any negative way.
Glad you and your office is OK.
I, too, am a law and order supporter and am pro-police. My concerns with civil liberties aren't with the local or state police but from the analysts who claim their job is to be "pessimists." I have some doubt as to their ability to distinguish between reality and paranoia. You may recall they shut down the city of Boston several years ago over a marketing campaign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare).
I'm glad they caught the bad guy.
I have questions as to whether the Back Bay needed such a strong visible presence in the aftermath.
It's good that you have returned so quickly. I rarely if ever return to what became Ground Zero in Manhattan and never will, which is probably mentally unhealthy for me in many ways.
Quote from: Bison on April 24, 2013, 08:23:06 PM
I'm glad to hear that some aspects of your life are returning to being routine and as normal as possible following the attack.
What Bison said.