It was 90 degrees late Tuesday morning as a crowd gathered outside the firehouse of Rescue 1 to rededicate West 43rd Street in the name of Captain Terence S. Hatton, one of the legends our city lost on September 11th.

Mayor Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg were both on hand to pay their personal respects, alongside two fire commissioners and veterans of two City Hall administrations. But all eyes were on Beth Petrone-Hatton and her daughter, Terri Elizabeth, a sprightly 3-year-old slathered in sunscreen, born eight months after her father died.

She has grown up with stories of her father, and the simple facts must make him sound like a superhero. Decorated for bravery 19 times in a 21-year career, he volunteered for the most dangerous jobs and his valor inspired enduring devotion from his men. He was the son of a firefighter, designed state-of-the-art rescue equipment in his spare time, fell in love with the mayor’s executive assistant, and was married on a hot sunshine day at Gracie Mansion. His dedication was complete through the day that he and his band of brothers climbed the stairwell of the World Trade Center, undaunted by the unprecedented danger, looking to save lives in a final act of courage and love.

Watching his daughter pull the string to unveil the street sign bearing his name, flanked by both mayors, and hearing the Emerald Society FDNY bagpipers launch into “Going Home,” the song which accompanied so many funeral processions in the fall of 2001, sparked a shuddering shock of recognition.

We have come so far as a city, building upon epic struggles and individual sacrifices, the courage and commitment of real people who in retrospect sometimes seem superhuman. We need to constantly rededicate ourselves to their spirit.

In this early summer heat of an election year, it is a good time to reflect on how far we have come and how we have gotten here. Because the gains made in New York’s ongoing resurgence risk being lost if we take them for granted.

People walking past what will now be known as “Captain Terence S. Hatton Way” see a street dotted with residential buildings on the border of the booming tourist and business destination of Times Square. But 15 short years ago, it was a desolate extension of a very different Times Square where thugs, muggers, and drug dealers had the right of way. The city was rotting from its heart, and conventional wisdom said we were helpless to bring about any real change. New York was believed to be an “ungovernable city,” averaging six murders a day, with one out of every seven New Yorkers on welfare. Racial tensions constantly threatened to boil over, and big businesses were leaving the city at a breakneck pace. With quality of life considered a luxury, New Yorkers wanted to bail out as well – one poll showed that 59% of New Yorkers said they’d leave the city the next day if they could.

Compared to the attacks of September 11, this was a slow-moving crisis, but its effects were ultimately no less devastating. It was a decline captured in Fred Siegel’s iconic “The Future Once Happened Here.” Now the urbanologist has returned with “The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life,” which bookends our city’s transformation to date. It should be required reading for New Yorkers seeking to understand our resilient city’s climb from chaos.

Mr. Giuliani and his band of brothers did not accept the idea of inevitable decline. They immediately began instituting aggressive reforms in policing, welfare policy, and quality of life. The unapologetic assertion of mayoral power made many self-styled liberal activists bristle at the pace of change; they attacked Mr. Giuliani as a near-dictator or worse. When it became apparent that the reforms were achieving community improvements – especially in poor and minority neighborhoods – they had long promised, it was argued that such evolutions would have occurred on their own accord, regardless of who was mayor. But the record of comparative success suggests otherwise. If murder rates had remained at their earlier levels, New York City would have suffered the equivalent of an additional three September 11ths in lives lost.

Our city’s renewed strength and confidence helped us to overcome the devastation of September 11, and its legacy can be seen in the continued historic drops in crime, reinvigorated building development, and a fundamentally more united city. The tagline on Mr. Bloomberg’s new television ads proclaim that he is “building on the Giuliani legacy,” and it is easy to see why.

At the end of the day, however, the continued transformation of the city cannot be considered the responsibility of any one individual. Each of us has a responsibility to remember the hard road that has gotten us to this place, to live up to – in our own way, and as best we can – the determination and courage of men like Captain Terry Hatton. A street renaming can seem like a small thing in the life of a city, but sometimes it can help us rededicate ourselves, so that New Yorkers of Terri Elizabeth’s generation can build on our hard-won experience and not have to learn such painful lessons again on their own.