Mayor Bloomberg cancels New York Marathon after heavy attack from critics

Mayor Bloomberg cancels New York Marathon after heavy attack from critics

Just hours after the mayor said the annual race would go on, he announced it was not happening the week where 40 New Yorkers were killed and thousands more left homeless.

New York City Marathon banners adorn an entrance to New York's Central Park, Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. The course for Sunday's New York City Marathon would have been the same as last year's.

The embattled mayor, blasted by political pals and nasty cyber-critics, hung a quick U-turn Friday and canceled the annual New York Marathon just hours after insisting the race would go off as scheduled.

“While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division,” read a joint statement from the mayor and the New York Road Runners.

“The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination,” said the statement, issued barely 36 hours before the race’s start. “We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it.”

The decision was announced around 5:20 p.m. after the mayor endured a day-long marathon of invective for proceeding with Sunday’s race through five boroughs where 40 people perished in the last five days.

The marathon starts in Staten Island, where 19 people died – including two found dead on Friday.

Four hours earlier, he declared that the 40,000 runners would be at the starting line on Sunday morning to mark the run’s 40th anniversary. Instead, the city will awaken to the sounds of 80,000 silenced sneakers.

Among those separating themselves from the mayor for backing the race were longtime ally Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker, along with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

Most of the critics took exception to what they saw as Bloomberg’s insensitive marathon math: Putting 40,000 runners ahead of 8 million New Yorkers as the city struggled with Sandy’s aftermath of neighborhoods destroyed, lives lost, worlds turned upside down.

“This was the right call,” said de Blasio after the race was canceled.

“So many New Yorkers are struggling to hang on right now. I’ve seen it first-hand in Staten Island, southern Brooklyn, lower Manhattan and the Rockaways.

“Our neighbors need and deserve every resource and all the personnel we have. Let’s come together to take care of our people and get our entire city back on its feet.”

Quinn’s surprising criticism was less pointed: “The decision to move forward with the marathon is not a decision I would have made.”

But it was notable since she often echoes Bloomberg’s positions on a variety of subjects.

More than 2,000 cops are typically assigned to work the marathon.

About five years ago, the city started privatizing medical coverage at the event, although scores of city paramedics and EMTs are still assigned to the race.

Earlier in the day, the mayor defended his decision – noting the marathon was both an economic engine and a morale boost for the hurricane-weary city. He cited predecessor Rudolph Giuliani’s decision to hold the race after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that left lower Manhattan smoldering for weeks.

“If you remember, you go back to 9/11, I think Rudy made the right decision in those days to run the marathon – it pulled people together," the mayor said at a Friday news conference.

“And we have to find some way to express ourselves and show our solidarity with each other.”

The mayor noted that the New York Road Runners Club donated $1 million to the relief effort – and had asked all runners to contribute another $26.20 to the fund. The marathon, with runners coming to New York from around the globe, generates an estimated $340 million for city coffers.

Those numbers meant little to Staten Islander Joan Wacks, whose waterfront condo was swamped with 4 feet of water.

Bloomberg “is clueless without a paddle to the reality of what everyone else is dealing with,” she said. “We totally understand the public relations aspect, to show everyone survived. But this is not one of those times.”

Wacks predicted police and fire officials would have still been recovering bodies when runners reached the start line Sunday on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge – leaving the marathoners to compete in an active morgue.

Controller John Liu, who initially backed running the race, commended the mayor for changing his stance.

“It has become apparent over the last couple of days that there are still large parts of the city where recovery efforts are falling short, where fellow New Yorkers remain hungry and cold, and where there is now more and more looting,” he said. “Recovery efforts must come before the marathon.”

Sanitation union head Harry Nespoli was irate after hearing reports that some city workers were getting yanked from storm debris removal to work the marathon.

“I’ve been in Coney Island,” said Nespoli. “I’ve been in Rockaway. There are a lot of people out there who are hurting. We should be focusing on them now.”

The mayor was also running out of friends on social media, with a Facebook campaign urging that any money made from the Marathon should go to hurricane relief.

“Mr. Mayor it will show ‘INSENSITIVITY TO STATEN ISLAND’” if the races goes off, wrote one poster.

A petition posted on Change.org calling on Bloomberg to postpone the race until spring 2013 received more than 26,000 online signatures.

And a ‘Cancel the 2012 New York City Marathon’ Facebook page was inundated with close to 50,000 “likes.”

Another Facebook page urged runners to boycott the race and instead do volunteer work in the worst-hit areas of Staten Island.

Many runners were divided on whether to go forward with the race despite the pall of tragedy still hanging over the host city.

Mayumi Shimo, 37, of Columbus Circle, said it’s not the news she wanted to hear, but she won’t dwell on it.

“I understand both sides. I live in New York. I’ve seen the devastation. Much of the city is still dark,” she said. “I wanted to run. But I understand that other parts of the city need these

resources.”

Second-time marathoner, Paul Murray, 34, came from Norway to join the race – and he supported Bloomberg’s initial call for pushing ahead.

“I think that it’s good for them to have the race,” said the Oslo baggage handler. “I think it's a great celebration. Bloomberg said that 20,000 people would here, showing support. We are contributing to the city’s economy, rather than taking away.”

But Sean Haubert, 38 of Stratford, Conn., felt that Bloomberg ultimately made the right decision.

“I’m saddened that the race had to be cancelled, but not as sad as some of these images I’ve been seeing on TV,” said Haubert, the former social media editor for the NYRR.

“We're up in Connecticut and we got it pretty bad, although not as bad as New Jersey and New York did … I’m glad they finally came to their senses. Hopefully some of the resources can go to better use now.”

A group of rogue runners discussed plans to run the marathon route on their own – without any of the cheering spectators, helpful volunteers or official sponsorship.

Orlando Gonzalez, 39, was considering a clandestine run after his first shot at running New York disappeared.

“A lot of people want to run it anyway,” said Gonzalez, a New Jersey sports medicine doctor. “My colleague and I are really thinking about it. We said, ‘Let’s just do it.’ Why not? I’m ready. I trained for it.

“People are like, ‘We’re going to f------ run this thing.’”

Source : New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

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