The New York City Marathon was canceled Friday in the wake of criticism that the race should not take place as the city struggles to recover from Hurricane Sandy.
Earlier Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg had insisted the race would take place Sunday despite some New Yorkers saying that holding the race would be insensitive and tie up police, generators and other resources when many are still suffering.
Bloomberg and New York Road Runners president Mary Wittenberg released a joint statement after the announcement:
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"The Marathon has been an integral part of New York City's life for 40 years and is an event tens of thousands of New Yorkers participate in and millions more watch. 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.
"The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination. We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it. We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event -- even one as meaningful as this -- to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track. The New York Road Runners will have additional information in the days ahead for participants."
Joan Wacks, whose Staten Island waterfront condo was swamped with 4 feet of water, had predicted authorities would still have been recovering bodies when the estimated 40,000 runners from around the world would have hit the streets for the 26.2-mile race. She had called the mayor "tone deaf."
"He is clueless without a paddle to the reality of what everyone else is dealing with," she said. "If there are any resources being put toward the marathon, that's wrong. I'm sorry, that's wrong."
At a news conference, Bloomberg had defended his decision as a way to raise money for the stricken city and boost morale six days after Sandy flooded neighborhoods, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses and k!lled at least 39 people.
Bloomberg said New York "has to show that we are here and we are going to recover" and "give people something to cheer about in what's been a very dismal week for a lot of people."
"You have to keep going and doing things," he said, "and you can grieve, you can cry and you can laugh all at the same time. That's what human beings are good at."
Noting that street lights should be back on in Manhattan by midnight Friday and parts of the transit system are up and running again, Bloomberg had given[..]urances the race would not take away police officers and other resources needed in the recovery.
He also pointed out that his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, went ahead with the marathon two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and "it pulled people together."
One of the world's pre-eminent road races, the New York City Marathon generates an estimated $340 million into the city. This time, the marathon's sponsors and organizers had dubbed it the "Race to Recover" and intended to use the event to raise money for the city to deal with the crisis. New York Road Runners, the race organizer, will donate $1 million and said sponsors have pledged more than $1.5 million.
"It's hard in these moments to know what's best to do," Wittenberg said. "The city believes this is best to do right now." A short time later the call was made to cancel the race.
The New York course runs from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on hard-hit Staten Island to Central Park, sending runners through all five boroughs. The course was not to be changed, since there was little damage along the route itself.
The damage all around it, however, ultimately swayed the decision.
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