What can you do???? Seems obvious to me- DON'T BE THERE! Working in NYC (or any other large city for that matter) is, in my opinion, a choice against one's own survival for many reasons.
For many living anywhere else would be a choice that also hurt their chances of survival. Deciding to do a lot of things risks your survival. Deciding not to do many of those things would be choosing to survive, and lesson the living you did while alive. And leaving in fear, that's simply not my game, and that is what certain terrorists would want me to do.