"NYC officials are preparing for a marathon, we're pulling bodies out of the water."

[Earth_First]

-Staten Island resident, NBC Nightly News

[Angry Dragon]

1. Should have postponed the marathon

[jsmirman]

3. Yes, as a native, no reason to run it now

people are still suffering - badly.

[hrmjustin]

2. This city does not need this now.

[rainbow4321]

4. Some city official was asked about this yesterday on the news

His response was "our city needs the revenue this brings, especially now".

Seemed kind of a cold response, IMHO.


I noticed it was the **same** re$ponse that the head of MTA said when he was asked by a reporter about why the bus fees would only be waived for one day (post storm)....his response "we need the revenue". You could tell the reporter was not happy with the answer.

Then the next day I read how the *gov* of NY stepped in and ordered all the mass trans fees to be waived thru Friday.

Sounds like the NY gov needs to intervene again and postpone the marathon, revenue or no revenue!

[Earth_First]

5. The mass transit system is inadequate to handle residents of NYC currently...

How do they possibly think that they have the infrastructure to host tens of thousands of extra volunteers, runners, friends and family right now?

#poordecisions

[HereSince1628]

6. For some it's important to shrug off disaster and get on with life

I'm not a NYC'er, so I haven't a clue about the prevailing sentiment.

Seems more like compartmentalization than prioritization, but maybe that's how it needs to be.

[hrmjustin]

7. I understand that point, but most people here in Brooklyn and Staten Island do not want it.

[Selatius]

10. The city official's response is a microcosm of the United States.

Money before human life. It seems money dictates all the major decisions in this country now.

[Rose Siding]

8. People used to live in the subways and I haven't heard anything about them.

How did they evacuate? Are they the bodies being found?

[jsmirman]

11. There's no way people were allowed to remain before the storm

they shut down the subway system prior to the storm, and you can believe people were cleared out, either willingly or forcibly. Their fate after that, I can't tell you.

But you need to have a clearer picture of New York City.

We are not a disorganized city and you should not have wild images of things that simply don't reflect reality.

[mzmolly]

9. Horrible.

[jsmirman]

12. Btw, that was a Tea Party Congressman, not just another resident

I don't know how to say this without it sounding insincere -

I feel with all my heart for the people who are suffering on Staten Island, I want government to address their needs, and some of the scenes from there are heartbreaking. They are still my neighbors.

Very quietly underneath, though - and this has no bearing on my desire to see them get help, it just speaks to my frustration with them every other month on the calendar - realize that Staten Island is the only Republican borough in New York City, and is wildly out of step with the rest of the boroughs. That Congressman is a Tea Party guy and represents what is maddening about Staten Island. The presidential returns in Staten Island are slightly closer than they used to be only because a number of black people have started to move to Staten Island, changing the borough's demographics to some extent.

But the long-time Staten Islanders, and the majority of Staten Islanders? Like Congressman Grimm they are the essence of "scream about how much big government is bullshit, curse the lack of government assistance to the high heavens."

Congressman Grimm is right. It's wrong to hold the Marathon when all of this is going on. I do, however, want to give you some perspective on this particular strain of New York culture. I want them to get help. I also want them to understand, when everything returns to normal, that people sometimes need help.

[Earth_First]

13. I stand corrected

It was Grimm.

Hmmm...

At any rate, I hear what you are saying with your response; though.

[jsmirman]

15. Yeah

I feel guilty even saying it, but I know my city very well.

[jimlup]

14. As a runner I wonder why

They couldn't have postponed it a week. Perhaps the logistics of that don't work.

I guess I will add that as a runner - this is a very BIG DEAL in the running community. Probably the one largest single event in our sport (road racing) all year. I would agree that perhaps it should have been canceled but it represents a huge event for the city and thus a huge influx of tourists and well I just don't know... both sides of the coin seem like bad choices.

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. Some of the runners aren't quite in agreement with holding the marathon just now.

NYCAviation ?@NYCAviation

Marathon runners on the organizer's Facebook page are promising to boycott the race: http://on.fb.me/Ry8qts
Retweeted by #pUNkEneMyOfTheState

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I can see both sides

Yes, the city needs the money, unsaid, a step towards normalcy. It actually matters psychologically

Otoh. The logistics are simply not there.

Shitty decision, sorry runners, but I would have canceled it, or postponed it two weeks...which sucks since the weather will suck in two weeks.