It is exactly because we are a city that embraces freedom, that welcomes everyone and encourages their dreams, that New York remains on the front lines in the war on terror.

Bloomberg links New York’s vulnerability to terrorism with its defining civic virtues: openness, pluralism, and opportunity. The sentence argues that the very qualities that make the city a global magnet—welcoming “everyone” and encouraging “dreams”—also place it symbolically and practically at the center of conflicts with extremist movements that oppose such freedoms. Implicitly, the quote rejects the idea that security requires closing the city off; instead it frames resilience as maintaining liberal, inclusive values even under threat. It also functions as a civic rallying statement, casting New Yorkers as participants on the “front lines” not by choice of war, but by commitment to an open society.