The grief does not end. As New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said during a recent memorial service I attended for those murdered at the World Trade Center. "Look what they have done to us."

One of the things the terrorists accomplished was to have corporate executives from the city's financial center reevaluate where, how and who will conduct their business. They do so in recognition that the commercial real estate market has profoundly changed and may never be the same. Nothing could, or should end Manhattan's dominance in this field but it is now understood that spreading out the assets of corporations is strategically wise if we expect to recover from a sustained war against terrorism. The question is what role does Nassau County's business corridor play in the wake of so much chaos?

New Jersey has already figured it out. They are moving quickly to provide as much prime office space as possible in hopes that the investment, jobs and prestige found inside these companies are relocated to the Garden State. How aggressive will New Jersey be in pursuing this strategy? Stephen Schultz of the Jersey City Economic Development Commission told a recent edition of the Financial Post, "It will change the skyline of New Jersey."

Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and the Village of Garden City have much to say to each other as this profound shift in economic power begins to gather momentum. They should consider the prompt creation of a taskforce that looks at the implications of what is taking place around them and what role they should be playing in response. They need to place on their mutual agenda progressive zoning and responsible development policies that would be most effective in projecting their ability to attract jobs, investment and orderly growth. Certainly they should take a clue from New Jersey where the economic aftershocks of Sept. 11 are not being treated as a distant curiosity but as a pragmatic set of facts placed before them.

In the photo archives of the London Blitz during World War II there is a picture of a milkman stepping around the wreckage of what was a residential block holding a six pack of milk, intent on making that delivery regardless of the Luftwaffe's havoc. That photo became an icon for a people and a country that could take it and still function as a society.

Long Island should do no less. As we seek to bring to justice those who committed 5,000 murders it is now the task of our community, county and nation to rebuild our economy and strengthen our society. If Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and the Village of Garden City fail to participate in the raucous arena of economic competition then we will have lost the moment for true and historic leadership.

Desmond Ryan

Ryan is the executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island.