Thus State College, Pennsylvania, and Yolo County, California, home to the University of California at Davis, are on Zandi's list of least-affected localities. Albuquerque, whose economy is the largest of the "resilient" cities, is home not only to a large campus of the University of New Mexico but also to the Sandia National Laboratory and Kirtland Air Force Base.
In Albuquerque, business leaders perceive possibilities at Sandia, where the work includes weapons design and energy research. Sandia may one day contribute to the battle against international terrorism, said Webb Johnson, director of business research at the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Before the attack, Sandia had sponsored a business forum that gave rise to a number of spinoff companies, he said, like Micro Optical Devices, which makes tiny solar cells for satellites and was acquired by Emcore of Somerset, New Jersey; and MesoSystems Technology, which sells devices that measure airborne contaminants.
Now, America's heightened sense of insecurity may give rise to even more commercial applications. Johnson spoke of Sandia's work in nanotechnology -- the science of engineering complex machines the size of a pinprick -- and the promise it holds for developing microscopic nerve-gas detection robots or spy satellites the size of grains of pollen.
But all that is in the future, Johnson added. In the here and now, Albuquerque's tourism sector is about to meet its first big test since the terrorists struck. This week, it is holding its hot-air balloon fiesta, normally the biggest tourist event of the year.
At first, when the Federal Aviation Administration banned all non-instrument-guided flying, city leaders were afraid they would have to cancel the festival, which has been held for 30 years, Johnson said. But then the authorities declared that the balloons could ascend. Now the big question around town is how many balloonists will brave the trip to New Mexico.
Johnson spotted his first balloon of the season last Wednesday morning, he said. He took it as a good sign.
"There seems to be a degree of confidence left," he said. "But it's fragile."
RSS