NYC Marathon Canceled, Reports NBC News

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

@Reuters: No word on rescheduled date for NYC Marathon - NBC News

New York City Marathon will be canceled: city official

Fri Nov 2, 2012 5:34pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York City Marathon, one of the premier U.S. distance-running events, will not take place as planned on Sunday, a New York city official said.

City officials and the organizers of the marathon have been under pressure to cancel the event as the Northeast struggles to recover from heavy flooding and power outages caused by superstorm Sandy.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE8A103R20121102

[Chakab]

1. Good. I have no idea what

Bloomberg was doing dragging it on this long.

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. Political manuevering; he wanted to hear the rightie hate merchants flip out.

[awoke_in_2003]

36. Not trying to defend him...

but he has a few things on his plate.

[progressivebydesign]

2. Hope it's a reschedule. A lot of charities and local businesses depend on the event.

Have they mentioned a possible reschedule? Having the Marathon at a better time is going to mean A LOT of recovery money for small businesses and charities affected by Sandy.

[SoapBox]

3. Seeing it now on CNBC.

[speedoo]

4. WCBS tv in NYC says it's postponed.

No source cited.

[Graybeard]

6. And the right decision imo.

Too bad his original go ahead was a big mis-step by Mayor Bloomie in his good handling of the crisis.

[pnwmom]

19. It wasn't "good handling" of the crisis when he turned down FEMA help preparing for it.

Help that NJ and other states were glad to take.

[Earth_First]

7. Kudos

Good decision.

[CreekDog]

8. finally some sanity

moving on is one thing, but moving on when people are still needing life-saving help is another.

[Earth_First]

9. Moving on post-9/11 v. Hurricane Sandy

Holding the NYC Marathon in the weeks following 9/11 was one thing.
It proved to the world that we would not be deterred.

Holding the NYC Marathon to spite a hurricane? Assinine. It proves nothing. To no one.

[christx30]

43. But if we don't hold the marathon,

the hurricane wins!

[TDale313]

10. Good decision.

Hopefully they can reschedule.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. The NY Times sent an alert.

I think this is finally a good decision.

[Nye Bevan]

12. Perhaps it was today's NY Post cover, with the humongous generators in Central Park,

which were there to keep the "media tent" climate controlled, that finally forced Bloomberg's hand.

[hrmjustin]

13. Good! Nobody here wants this. I was in Staten Island today to check on relatives, and nobody in SI

wanted the marathon. Good move from our clueless mayor.

[closeupready]

14. Likely a painful call, but people in the city are really hurting.

Use public resources to get back life to normal as soon as possible. K&R

[KoKo]

22. Or, was a clever pitch to try to make him get back in the good with Business folks after he endorsed

Obama?

[KoKo]

24. What Public Resources? Huh?

[closeupready]

34. Law enforcement for crowd control, to prevent looting,

to help get food out to the hungry and homeless - all the things needed to rebuild that cost money.

[mike dub]

37. correct

I ran the Boston Marathon once (Walt Disney World Marathon *many times) and the amount of law enforcement and EMT standby on just that one marathon is astounding, to me. The Boston Marathon runs through 5 ?? municipalities on its way into downtown Boston and police from each town line and guard the cross-streets all along the entire 26.2 mile course. Although great events, marathons are a huge drain on public resources.

First as an American, I agree with the cancellation of the NYC Marathon in the wake of the storm. But also as a marathoner I think it's a great call --with some hotels (Staten Island, for sure) rightfully housing folks displaced and homeless due to the storm, and unable to turn rooms over for arriving marathoners. Better to cancel the event than also have marathoners from outside the region having nowhere to stay the day or two before the marathon. ...and marathoners who've been "tapering" (reducing weekly training run mileage from 50-60 miles a week to 10 miles a week, in order to fatten up the glycogen stores in the body) can be particularly crabby and type-A about travel and lodging arrangements.

Good call ...finally.

[Gin]

16. Bridges would have been closed most of the day

What was he thinking? Glad he stopped this race....maybe all the runners will help out while there.

[nolabear]

17. The right thing. Glad they did it.

[oswaldactedalone]

18. Easy call

that Bloomberg screwed up. At least he got the endorsement thing right.

[KoKo]

20. What was Bloomberg thinking to allow this to go on. He did so well and crashed

and burned on this one. Where the hell were those Marathoners going to stay on Staten Island when so many are without power that the destitute who could scrape some dollars up probably were already in the hotels that functioned on the island (if any still do).

It was a horrible move on his part ...made him seem like like a Faker!

[magical thyme]

21. 12,000 animal's lives are hanging in the balance at the NY Aquarium

Resources need to be deployed first where they will save lives -- including dependent animals lives.

At least 2 groups of runners were planning to leave the marathon to deliver supplies on Staten Island. Good on them!

[dipsydoodle]

23. The appropriate course of action

.

[SidDithers]

25. The right call, but it should have made Wednesday...

at the latest. Many runners travel to NY on the Thursday or Friday before the race.

Sid

[Patiod]

26. Agreed. Now they will still be competing with flood victims for hotel rooms

But at least bridges and roads won't be closed and generators and bottled water can go where they belong.

[geckosfeet]

27. Jeeez. Lots of runners were travelling to NYC today. Is this late announcement

just a cynical ploy to get them in the city for a night?

Lot's of people bought plane tickets etc. and were wondering what was going to happen. Now that they are in the city they have no choice but to stay for at a night.

I think cancelling was the right thing - but wtf - why did they wait so long to make the decision. It was a no brainer as far I can see.

[FailureToCommunicate]

28. Maybe the runners,et all, can just leave the money they would have spent. Donate it to

the relief effort...

http://www.redcross.org/

[TBF]

29. Crazy that it wasn't immediately cancelled -

now folks are out airfare.

As a fellow (former) runner/marathoner I can imagine the disappointment, but to add costs on it too is going to make folks really angry. Not your best work Bloomberg.

[jimlup]

30. I'm relieved... as a runner I was worried that people would blame running

Now they'll blame the politicians. Wish they had canceled earlier as many runners will already be in transit.

[uwbadgerdem]

38. One of my training partners was set to run in the 2:25 to 2:30 range...

This was announced about 3 hours after his flight left. Totally the right decision, but a bummer for all the folks who trained for half a year and dropped a G or more on the trip. Obviously nothing compared to the suffering of so many New Yorkers... just wish they would have bagged the race immediately.

Knowing my bud he'll spend the weekend doing whatever releif work he can find. But shoot, he was going to run reeeeally fast!

[defacto7]

31. a wise decision...

Bloomberg probably was thinking it would be good for NY to feel resilient and unstoppable as a buck up kind of action. In this case, that was NOT what was needed. It's too serious just to do the "NY is above this" kind of thing. There are serious needs.

[beachgirl2365]

32. FINALLY-! did someone knock some sense into him?

NOw they need to get those generators out of the park and deployed to areas that are truly in need!.........they have the capacity to power up to 400 houses each, and there were 3 of them just sitting there?.....................for shame Bloomberg...............No excuse on that one!

[Skittles]

33. I originally thought it was OK for the show to go on

I was wrong - I did not think about the logistics of sheltering those folk in places that are sheltering hurricane victims, or the security that would need to be diverted.

[uwbadgerdem]

39. same here

At first I thought, good, they will still have the race. Then I thought, wait, how the hell will they do that and at what cost?

It's the right decision, just made a couple days too late.

[Purveyor]

35. Finally. eom

[DemoTex]

40. Good move

It was becoming a lightning rod, and rightly so.

[Superbot]

41. Good

Now the resources needed for the marathon can be directed towards the people who need it right now. I'm sure the President had a few things to have to do with it. Thanks so much!!

[Tx4obama]

42. Kick! n/t

[alarimer]

44. I'm wondering if they should move/cancel the football game as well.

Although I guess there aren't as many police/EMT involved there, and most people drive in for the game then leave. And it's not like they're all running through the streets.