( CNN ) -- Police reports that the suspects in the deadly Boston bombings were planning to extend the killing spree to New York barely qualifies as news in our city . New Yorkers have lived through too much , too often , to get jumpy at the prospect of a failed attack by a pair of isolated maniacs . That might seem strange to outsiders , but New York has come to accept its status as the world 's No.1 terrorist target -- and defiantly refused to cower or collapse . This is the place , remember , that recently marked the 20-year anniversary of the awful day when Kuwaiti-born Ramzi Yousef drove a rented truck into a parking lot beneath the World Trade Center and exploded a bomb . Six people were murdered , and more than 1,000 injured . With the hindsight of history , we now know the 1993 bombing was , in the words of the FBI , `` something of a deadly dress rehearsal '' for the terrible attack of 9/11 that destroyed the twin towers . But it was also a wake-up call to federal investigators , who uncovered a vast , frightening plot to wreak havoc in the city . In 1995 , a jury convicted 10 men -- led by blind , Egyptian-born Omar Abdel Rahman -- of conspiring to bomb the United Nations , two major tunnels and a bridge , along with a federal office building . Had the plot succeeded , it could have killed countless thousands of innocent people . Ever since then , New York and federal authorities have been on a high alert that has never relaxed . New York is where the first Joint Terrorism Task Force was created in the 1980s ; it combines personnel from different federal , state and local law enforcement agencies under the same roof to minimize conflicts and confusion in the effort . Year after year , New Yorkers have grown accustomed to press conferences featuring the FBI , customs officials , New York police and other agencies revealing startling plots to bomb bridges , subways , airports , banks , synagogues and other targets . In 2009 , a tip to the task force broke up a ring that was planning to bomb the subways . In 2010 , Faisal Shahzad was arrested less than three days after trying to explode a car bomb in the middle of Times Square . In 2011 , a man named Jose Pimentel was arrested on terrorism charges in a plot to bomb various sites around the city ( his trial is pending ) , and in 2012 a Bangladeshi-born student named Quazi Nafis tried to detonate a bomb in front of the New York Federal Reserve Bank ( he pleaded guilty and now faces a life sentence ) . But even with one scary plot after another , New York has set record high numbers for tourism and residents . One of the most thriving neighborhoods , in fact , is the area near the World Trade Center , where a new , taller tower is nearly complete . One reason for the confidence of New Yorkers is the extraordinary visibility and ingenuity of the New York Police Department . For example , officers are permanently stationed at the entrances of the city 's major bridges and tunnels , and police frogmen dive into city rivers every day , checking the bases of the bridges for bombs . Police regularly stage anti-terrorism drills in which dozens of officers from all over the city are directed to converge quickly on a central spot , a practice run to minimize confusion if they need to swarm into an area during a real attack . And the New York police have officers stationed in 11 cities around the world , tasked with tracking international anti-terrorism efforts and going to the scene of terrorist attacks . Their job , in the words of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly , is to ask `` the New York question '' : What can we learn that will shed light on possible dangers in the city ? The international team also directly relays information back to the New York Police Department intelligence division . So when Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference to announce that the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were planning to travel to Times Square to cause further mayhem , New Yorkers pretty much shrugged it off . To an extraordinary extent -- and with good reason -- the city considers itself on permanent alert , with a high level of vigilance that is our best protection . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Errol Louis .
Errol Louis : Police say Boston bombing suspects planning to strike in Times Square . He says news did n't faze New Yorkers used to constant vigilance , police presence . He says plots since 1993 have made city build mighty , far-flung security infrastructure .