City officials say the Big Apple is ready for a terror trial — but many New Yorkers living near the federal courthouse fear heightened security will turn their neighborhoods into armed camps that will drive out residents and business.
“Who in their right mind is going to come to Chinatown to shop or eat when there are snipers on the rooftops?” asked Jan Lee, a longtime Mott Street landlord and antiques dealer.
Residents of the Civic Center area just south of Chinatown also fear being terror targets.
“They’re putting us at risk for no good reason,” said Jeanie Chin, who lives in the 240-unit Chatham Towers.
Chin said she remembers the security lockdown after 9/11 and predicted what is coming will be even worse.
At a City Council hearing yesterday, outgoing Councilman Alan Gerson also called it unfair to hold the trial in an area that’s “been through so much.”