ABSTRACT
A New Defensiveness Has Arisen since the September 11 terrorist attack. Concrete barriers, private guards, and police protect what were previously open plazas and buildings. The threat comes not only from the outside—from fanatics who hijack airplanes and crash them into buildings or send anthrax through the mail—but from the danger that Americans will overreact to the destruction of the Twin Towers by barricading public spaces and denying ourselves opportunities for expressing community, openness, and optimism.
