The queues for security checks at the airport are calmer and move faster. There are fewer false alerts for suspicious packages to disturb the city's subway system. And white powder is more likely to be associated with drugs than anthrax.
More than 41/2 years after 9/11, New York seems to have regained its normal rhythm. But a slew of events this month is stirring up the bad memories, showing those of us who lived in the city in those dark days that we will never, ever be able to fully escape them.
Some remains of victims have only just been found on the top of the shattered Deutsche Bank Building near Ground Zero, a building that hovers grimly over the site. Empty and impossible to clean, it can't be easily pulled down either, for fear that it would create a new cloud of toxic dust in the process. There are increasing reports that the dust and fumes that spewed out of the World Trade Centre site may have led to cancers and other horrific health consequences for firefighters, police officers and others who helped to search for victims in the weeks after September 11.
Add to that the nightmarish testimony of Zacarias Moussaoui. He pleaded guilty last year to six counts of conspiracy in connection with the 9/11 attacks, and has made it clear - during his sentencing hearings - that he enjoys the pain suffered by relatives of the victims.
Then this week brought the release of the movie United 93, about the hijacked flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. The trailer of the film, with scenes of passengers making final mobile-phone calls to loved ones, is so disturbing to some viewers that a Manhattan theatre pulled it. At a showing this week, journalists and families of the victims were in tears.
The lingering fear in the minds of many New Yorkers was captured at the preview this week of Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang's installation work in the roof garden of the Metropolitan Museum. Two life-size crocodile models are poked with dozens of sharp tools confiscated at airport security checkpoints. Several birds lie dead at the foot of a large piece of glass. A stone wall is carved with images of major events around the world since that day. And an ethereal black cloud is produced by setting off smoke flares from the garden every day. These carry the artist's messages: the strongest can be the most fragile, and anguish often lies under a sunny sky.
