Friday, November 2, 2012

NYC Marathon should be postponed


One of the hottest post-Hurricane Sandy arguments has to do with whether the New York City Marathon should go on as planned, just five days after the devastating storm.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others back the decision to hold the race as scheduled. The reasons are:

  1. The race will make New Yorkers feel better.
  2. The event will bring in lots of money for the city and local businesses.
  3. Few public resources and/or money will be used for the event.
There are other arguments in favor of not postponing the event, but those in a nutshell are the main reasons. Here are some reasons why I think it's totally wrong to hold the race:
  1. Too soon. It's conceivable that runners, who will begin in Staten Island, could actually pass by funeral processions or rescue personnel still searching for stranded residents. This isn't 9/11, where the dead bodies and ambulances were long gone by the time the marathon arrived. As horrible a tragedy as 9/11 was, it was nearly two months prior to the marathon. In fact, 9/11 was a geographically limited catastrophe. The carnage from Sandy is spread out all across the tri-state area. Staten Island, where the race begins, looks like some scene from an end-of-the-world movie. Look, in the days after 9/11, the NFL canceled football games that were to be played in stadiums far from Ground Zero. It only makes sense that a marathon, which will be run through or near some of the storm-damaged areas where people died and lost everything they owned, be postponed. 
  2. Perceptions. How do you tell people who are being looted that the city's finest are going to be on duty for the marathon instead of patrolling their neighborhoods. It doesn't matter who is paying for police services, the perception is that the city cares more about protecting racers and fans than residents. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation. This isn't a time for diverting resources to large, non-emergency events.
  3. Transportation. Have you seen what is happening in New York with the existing population trying to get around in the last few days without a subway system? Now the city is inviting tens of thousands of more people in for a race before the public transportation is even close to being fully operational. It makes no sense. It seems almost foolishly macho to insist that NYC will go on with the show. This was a natural disaster. We don't need to be defiant towards Mother Nature the way we were against the terrorists. There is no glory in holding this event in the shadow of such devastation and fresh suffering.
The marathon needs to be postponed. Even moving it back one week would at least allow for the odor of smoldering ashes in Queens and leaking natural gas in New York Harbor to dissipate. Yes, the logistics of that might be difficult, but so are the logistics of restoring large portions of a city.

To go on with the marathon now, without pause, makes me wonder about the priorities of the city that I was born in, at a hospital just a block or two from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which links Staten Island to Brooklyn -- the place where runners will start the race this weekend. No one is trying to take food off of anyone's plate or rain on anyone's parade. Those who are passionately arguing against holding the race are only asking that it be postponed, not canceled. If that means a little less tourism this weekend, so be it.

UPDATE: Less than two hours after this post, the mayor of New York City called off the marathon -- a decision even runners agreed with.