Catholic Online Forum

Finally some sanity......CANCELLED

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Bob C

Absolutely!

Surely, there are higher priorities right now to which to allocate the resources it takes to ensure that several thousand runners are able to safely negotiate 26 miles and 385 yards through the boroughs of storm-ravaged New York City!

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In Christ,

Jim B

I will consider your position if stated with firm, well-thought-out, quiet reasoning. Hateful diatribe, ad hominem attacks and shouted rhetoric don't impress.

One hotel owner, refused to put the refuges out on the street for the runners that had reservations. Good for him.

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Bob C

Mayor Bloomberg took a great deal of well-deserved flack for the idea of going on with the marathon when there's so much wrong - particularly if it's true that they haven't accounted for all the missing/dead. With the starting line in Staten Island, of all places - as hard hit as any place in the city, if not harder, but apparently receiving less attention & support.


It sounds as though the borough president is justifiably peeved, to say the least. I found myself thinking that if NJ Gov Christie were in his position, he would have a National Guard tank or police riot unit parked across the approach to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, barring any runner from crossing the starting line.


The Mayor sounded twice as foolish when he blithely stated that staging the marathon wouldn't divert resources needed for hurricane recovery. As if the event doesn't take an army of police, sanitation workers, etc, etc...

Then when he agreed it shouldn't go on as scheduled, he couldn't admit he was wrong or even try to use some adept political doubletalk such as "...after further consultation with all the stakeholders, I've concluded that...". He comes out with a whopper - something about not wanting the marathon to become divisive or controversial. There was nothing divisive or controversial about the marathon - people either want it or don't (in normal circumstances). These circumstances are not normal, however, and it appears the large majority of those who had time to think about it understood that before he did.

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Rob

Was appalled when I heard they were planning to go ahead, now I am relieved.

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Ian DC
Blessed Ever Virgin Mary -- Sanctuary and resting-place of the Blessed Trinity where God dwells in greater and more divine splendour than anywhere else in the universe

I can't believe they were actually thinking about having this thing right after all of the devastation in the area!

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God bless,
Perry
+++

Broadway tradition: the show must go on.

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David L (CA)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” - Groucho Marx

So why was it not appropriate for the marathon 'show' to go on, but it was just fine for the Giants to play a home game?

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squirt
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Jamais le mal n’aura le dernier mot. La foi et l’amour déplacent les montagnes de la haine.
- Marguerite (Maggy) Barankitse

Because the Medowlands is on private property and doesn't require the enormous support of city workers. I understand that the marathon requires up to 2000 city police officers alone, plus sanitation etc.

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Bob C

Actually, I don't think it is private property.

The Giants (and the Jets) are tenants of the state (specifically, the NJ Sports and Exhibition Authority) at the Meadowlands complex, aren't they?

An event at Giants Stadium - errr... MetLife Stadium does involve some number of public employees - state police, local police (I think), fully staffing the toll plazas on the Turnpike, sometimes they run extra trains on the closest commuter rail branch. It's not like the scale of the Marathon, certainly.

There was some debate and commentary about the decision to go on with the game. I think there were several factors. The Marathon would've been right in the face of some of the worst hit areas, where people were still accounting for the dead and missing - the football game did not involve that. The Marathon diverts a lot of police - the football game... well, I hope they State Police were largely on priority duty and the game detail work was handled by local police departments. The Marathon would have shut or serverely curtailed use of several main highways, bridges and streets at a time when several main arteries and mass transit alternatives were out of service during the emergency - that was not the case (at least not to anywhere near the same degree) at the football game. Also, the Marathon had the option of rescheduling, where it would be much more difficult to fit that into the NFL's schedule.

Also, to apply rock/paper/scissors logic - Christie beats Bloomberg.

The Steelers made a very nice gesture - deciding to fly in the morning of the game and leave their reserved hotel space available for shelter purposes.

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Rob

Thanks for the details, Rob.

I've only been to NYC once .. when I was 12 years old ... so I have very little idea of the layout of the city and where the football stadium is, etc.

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squirt
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Jamais le mal n’aura le dernier mot. La foi et l’amour déplacent les montagnes de la haine.
- Marguerite (Maggy) Barankitse

I read somewhere that it was, but you are probably right

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Bob C

You're welcome.

The NYC marathon first started about 40 years ago. The course was something like 4 or 6 laps of a reservoir or lake in Central Park, I think - whatever was needed to make the requisite 26.2 miles. The course has for many years now run through all five boroughs of New York City - starting on the Staten Island side of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, across the Narrows to Brooklyn, through to Queens, across the 59th Street Bridge to Manhattan, north across the Harlem River into the Bronx and back across to Manhattan and the finish line at Central Park. It winds its way along bridges, expressways, parks and city streets; through and past residential, industrial, and commercial landscapes.


The football stadium is some miles away in NJ. The Giants were founded in NYC, and played there for at least 45 years, but after a short spell in Connecticut at the Yale Bowl, they have made their home in East Rutherford, NJ, since the mid 1970s. The only things "New York" about them are the "ny" on their helmets (I guess they received good feedback on that point from enough of the fanbase during its annual appearance with the retro or "throwback" uniforms to make it the default form - personally, I prefer the GIANTS version), the fact that their corporate headquarters remains in New York, and that the networks invariably turn their blimp cameras to the NYC skyline for an establishing shot instead of acknowledging the existence of NJ*.


* I wouldn't be surprised if that last is a result of contractural obligations by the network to the NFL and its sponsors. There are probably things spelled out in the contract - "Thou shalt say NY Giants", "Thou shalt say MetLife Stadium (not "The Meadowlands").

Requirements like that are the only conceivable reason that baseball broadcasters continue to be a party to something stupid by saying something awkward like "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" - but I digress...

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Rob

Well, if it were still the old setup, I would immodestly insist I was right. But...

Giants Stadium is gone, I think the Brendan Byrne Arena - err.... Continental Airlines Arena - errr.... Izod Center is gone - no, wait! To my surprise, Wikipedia says it yet stands. I don't know the status of the new stadium, and I don't know the status of the other development on the property - a giant retail/entertainment complex once called "Xanadu" (think pleasure dome, but not quite stately, and only Kubla Khan would've had enough money to finish it) but now called "American Dream Meadowlands".

Perhaps they are private.

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Rob