new york marathon... why not do the right thing?

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  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
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    from the Mayor

    "He insisted the race wouldn't siphon off resources from the storm recovery, noting electricity is expected to be restored to all of Manhattan by race day, freeing up "up an enormous number of police."

    so,,,there ya go...now I suppose the haters will say the Mayor is lying
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    There are giant generators there to power the "media tent". Those generators should be powering the highrises with elderly people in them who have no heat or electricity.... or maybe to one of those hospitals that needed to be evacuated because their generators failed.

    ALL of the Emergency Services workers are over extended and exhausted, many of them having been on duty since BEFORE the storm started. They cannot go home because, gee, they don't have one, or there is no power..... And their relief workers are stuck in flooded areas, have no gas, cannot get to work. They have no more clean uniforms. They are taking cold showers at the hospital, because the hospital is on backup power only.

    Plus, the damn race starts on Staten Island. The place where people are stuck still needing to be rescued. The place where even the Red Cross has not gotten in to.

    People are supposed to be there handing out water to the runners. WTF? There are people with no drinking water, because the water systems are contaminated.

    Anybody who thinks it should go on is insane.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Oh.... and....

    People who have been in hotels because their homes are destroyed or uninhabitable are being told they have to leave because "marathon people have reservations"

    WTF. Do not be displacing our people who have lost everything.
  • GrannySparkle
    GrannySparkle Posts: 225 Member
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    from the Mayor

    "He insisted the race wouldn't siphon off resources from the storm recovery, noting electricity is expected to be restored to all of Manhattan by race day, freeing up "up an enormous number of police."

    so,,,there ya go...now I suppose the haters will say the Mayor is lying

    I won't say he is lying...I will say he is WRONG.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    The effing Mayor needs to get his head out of his @ss and go talk to the MILLIONS of people who are suffering and ask them if they would like some generators and water and blankets and hotel rooms.
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
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    I think it is a good thing to still have it. Life goes on and its a good example to get off your butt and keep living and to not give up no matter what.

    Some times life doesn't go on. Right now people are fighting do their lives, for their families. People are getting removed from hotels to accommodate visitors, to go where? When someone or their child dies because they can't get access to food, clean water, shelter life is not going on. See to the citizens and then see to the hobbyists. .
  • Cruz2Fit
    Cruz2Fit Posts: 159 Member
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    LET THE MARATHON GO FORWARD!!! Holding the marathon will be a boost to the local economy, especially to the smaller businesses. Not holding the marathon is not an alternative which puts everyone else back to where they were pre-Sandy. If there is no marathon, on Monday there will still be people who are hungry, homeless, in need of medical attention, etc... I am not being heartless, but stopping this major endeavor is a far more complicated proposition than "having a little respect for those in sorrow and in need."

    In fact, cancelling it will provide even less benefit to them. There's a real cost-benefit analysis to be made here. Not many of us discussing the issue have all of the information necessary to know whether cancelling is in the best interests of the city. All we have are “gut feelings.” Can’t run a city based on “gut feelings.” Is there a greater financial benefit to holding the marathon even while it will require allocating resources such as police and firefighters to the marathon? Or is the allocation of resources best without this huge event? Most of us are not qualified to answer this question.

    Hind-sight will tell us who was right and who was wrong… Unless, New Yorkers are so upset about the whole issue that they sabotage the marathon and making it more of a cost than a benefit.


    BTW, I will be at NYC at the end of this month and will run a 5k for the Arthritis Foundation. I hope it does not get cancelled.
  • Cruz2Fit
    Cruz2Fit Posts: 159 Member
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    Oh.... and....

    People who have been in hotels because their homes are destroyed or uninhabitable are being told they have to leave because "marathon people have reservations"

    WTF. Do not be displacing our people who have lost everything.

    Hotels are private businesses. If they opened their doors as a form of help and relief, God bless them. But, are they obligated to keep doing so, and for how long? What about their overhead and costs? Water costs money, electricity costs money, without customers they have no money.... Perhaps all of those people who expect private businesses to keep their doors to help the relief effort at no cost are also willing to open their homes and host a family or two... If all New Yorkers did this, surely EVERYONE would have a warm place to sleep tonight. But that probably won't happen. Stop expecting others to do what you are unwilling to do yourself!
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Yeah, what about the lives that could be saved. There are people with no water. How long can you live without water? 3 days.
    There are old people with no heat. Do you know what the temperature is going down to in the next 3 days? More people are going to die from this. And all of the resources going to the marathon could save some of them. Is the $$ to business worth someone's life?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Perhaps all of those people who expect private businesses to keep their doors to help the relief effort at no cost are also willing to open their homes and host a family or two... If all New Yorkers did this, surely EVERYONE would have a warm place to sleep tonight. But that probably won't happen. Stop expecting others to do what you are unwilling to do yourself!

    This is happening, but you are not seeing the big picture. People are stranded in totally devastated areas and they cannot GET to anywhere. There is no GAS. They have no food, no drinking water and no heat. For 4 DAYS, and no relief in sight. The buses are on very limited service where there is service and there are hundreds and hundreds of people trying to get on a bus that only holds 50.

    There are buses lined up to take the marathoners to the starting line...... when New Yorkers cannot even get where they need to go.
  • lloydrt
    lloydrt Posts: 1,121 Member
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    breaking news..........its been cancelled

    I think that was a good thing, ........In my own opinion
  • littlelaura
    littlelaura Posts: 1,028 Member
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    ^happy to hear this, while I appreciate the hard work it takes to train by someone doing the races and know its by lottery so its a big deal to be picked to be in the race, also the work by people hosting the race, to organize and keep everything as such, I just think its a good thing to postpone this for another time perhaps redo the race letting the same people that were to be in this race run it. I was happy to see that over 20,000 of the 47,000 registered to race had petitioned for this to be cancelled and if not planned to boycott. Thank you for supporting NY'ers.
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
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    breaking news..........its been cancelled

    I think that was a good thing, ........In my own opinion

    I think it's a good decision for the sake of the relief workers and resources needed elsewhere, but it makes me wonder about people and how we view the suffering of others when marathons go on every day while people are dying for want of shelter, food, and clean water. Why care now and not before about resources that could have gone to alleviating some of that suffering?
  • pixietoes
    pixietoes Posts: 1,591 Member
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    Well, I've done two half-marathons and honestly I can't say I encountered a lot of need for my attention while I was doing them. I can tell you that every jacket, sweat pants and sweatshirt are picked up from the road after they are discarded by participants and donated to shelters. Also extra supplies of water and Gatorade and after the race snacks were sent along to places where they could be used.

    What more would you like to see marathons involved in regarding the needs in the town where the race is held? I will say that I'm glad that the use of emergency personnel will not be taken away from people in need to patrol the race. Canceling this event makes a lot of sense to me.
  • mlb929
    mlb929 Posts: 1,974 Member
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    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/marathon-is-cancelled-finally.html?mbid=social_retw.

    This was a great article on why it would have been cancelled. It really puts it into perspective.
  • LlfeChangingExp
    LlfeChangingExp Posts: 6
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    I recently started running. I have ran a few 5k's. I get the addiction and the reason why we run races. I do not get why the marathon is still going forward this year.

    The town is in all sorts of disarray. There are many people without food, power, heat, water, homes, gas, etc. this list can go on and on. There are reports of people eating out of dumpsters because they dont have food or their homes were washed away or burnt down. Yet the marathon has generators sitting by at the ready to make food for the people running the marathon. Generators that would best be used to help restore some power to peoples homes and apartment buildings. There are elderly people who need elevators to get out of their buildings who cant because they dont have power. Yet the marathon has generators just sitting by waiting to be fired up to make some pasta.

    There are medical tents set up all over the place to tend to the runners, when people have been beaten, battered from the storm who could use the medical attention. there are plenty of cops on hand to block off streets and keep the runners safe. cops and fire fighters and emergency personnel that could be utilized way better than they are now.

    I know it is a big deal. i totally get it. I get that you may have trained for a long time preparing yourself physically and mentally and even emotionally for this event. Why not do the right thing and cancel or postpone this marathon for a while until New York can get itself put back together. They still aren't certain that there are not people still stranded. There was a story of a woman who got trapped with her two kids in the storm. They tried to seek shelter in a guys home and he denied them the help. the waves from the storm washed the two kids away. They found the two kids about a half mile from where they were washed away, dead. People are grieving, people are trying to clean up or make sense of it all. Some people are in shock as they lost all of their belongings including the shelter they called home.

    They dont need to see these people running thru their tattered streets, smiling and having a good time. They need help. Why not put those generators sitting there on standby to good use and power up a few homes or buildings. Why not let the cops, fire fighters, and emergency personnel tend to those that actually need it due to this disaster.

    Its time to do the right thing and cancel/post pone this race and let New York heal themselves or help heal them. Then you can come back and run the race like it was intended in the first place. Only bad can come from continuing to run this race. People will rebel over this. People have lost everything they own, in some cases they have lost their loved ones as well. Its not the time to do this.

    People are having a hard time moving around the city as it is. I hear stories of 3 hour long waits just so these people can get to a bus just to get taken anywhere near where they work or live. 3 hour WAIT. then how long of a drive, plus time to walk from who knows where to where you work. now DOUBLE THAT. because they still have to get home. now you are going to clutter up the area with more people, closing off MORE STREETS. This is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Good luck to anyone who is running it, and i hope for the best for you. In my opinion its the wrong decision.

    I agree completely .. Im from Staten Island NY and its just so sad to see the devastation here. :cry: Im glad it was cancelled.

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