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November 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda NEW YORK — The show was supposed to go on. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a midday press conference Friday that the ING New York City Marathon would lift New Yorkers’ spirits following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, much like it did after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
But the anti-marathon backlash rose Friday as the death toll in New York reached 41, the city’s the transit system remained crippled and the storm’s economic damage was estimated at $50 billion. The marathon’s starting line was to have been on hard-hit Staten Island, where homes and lives were lost this week.
Politicians were objecting, race participants decided to protest instead instead of run, and a Facebook group in favor of canceling the race quickly gained 50,000 members — about the number of runners registered for the marathon.
A hotel owner in Staten Island decided he would close his doors to runners and give shelter to those without power and water.
Late Friday afternoon, the city decided to cancel the marathon.
“Its clear that the best thing for New York and the best thing for the marathon and the future is, unfortunately, to move on,” said Mary Wittenberg, director of the marathon. “This isn’t the year or the time to run it. It’s crushing and really difficult. One of the toughest decisions we ever made.”
Since 1970, the marathon has been a feel-good event for New Yorkers that seems to bring out the best in people: the lines of revelers holding up signs along First Avenue in Manhattan, the fans who camp out at the more deserted stretches, the 80-year-olds who still manage to cross the finish line.
It’s also an event that has historically meant large sums of money for the city. In 2011, the economic impact of the race was estimated at $340 million, with an additional $34 million going to charities. This year, economic impact was predicted at $350 million.
But after the storm, people started doing the math: 93,600 bottles of water; 30,000 energy bars; 40,000 cups of coffee, 1,700 portable toilets. That was on list of resources slated for the Staten Island start line alone, according to New York Road Runners, the organization that operates the marathon. In years past, the marathon has also included 6,000 volunteers, some of whom are medically trained.
The New York Post calculated that two marathon power generators running 24 hours a day in Central Park could power 400 homes. The lights may be back on in much of Lower Manhattan, but 700,000 New Yorkers have been without electricity for days, making the city an eerie version of itself.
Several city agencies either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for the number of personnel, vehicles and the amount of resources that would have been put towards the marathon this year.
Protestors said the city should focus resources on storm recovery, not the marathon. Still, some said it was unlikely that emergency repsonders would have been drained by the race. And there’s a case to be made for the event’s powerful economic effects. Thousands of people from around the country and the world come to New York to run the marathon and to watch. They would have been an enlivening force on businesses that have taken a hit in the last week.
“I don’t think that many resources are diverted in the sense that something constructive by emergency personnel that could be done would have been done at the time,” Jim Diffley, senior director and chief regional economist at IHS Global Insight, told The Huffington Post. “I don’t see that as an issue, frankly. I can’t imagine that the marathon drains that much.”
Diffley noted that the marathon brings people from out of town, including many who are affluent and stay in the city for multiple days.
But Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo, told The Huffington Post that while the marathon would potentially be good for the city’s morale, it wasn’t necessary to boost the economy.
“Right now, we just need to get things fixed up and running again so the economy can grow,” Vitner said.
Christine Hickey, spokewoman for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center — which sponsors Fred’s Team and benefits from the marathon — said that the organization understood the sensitivity surrounding the issues of holding the race.
“We have 818 runners, which raised about $3.6 million,” Hickey said. “We’ve had 35 cancellations due to the hurricane, not due to the controversy.”
In the end, the city changed its mind about the marathon. No one said it had to do with a lack of resources for those in need. Instead, a joint statement from the mayor’s office and New York Road Runners explained that those in charge wanted the race to remain a force to unite people:
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.
Scroll down for live blog updates.
HuffPost blogger Rep. Ed Markey writes:
Information, in advance of storms and to aid relief after, plays a critical role. That is why both NOAA and FEMA must have the resources they need to protect families.
As Gov. Chris Christie mentioned in remarks this week, the loss of life could have been much worse. No one took Sandy lightly, as early warning and real time information derived from NOAA’s satellites and forecasts saved lives.
This is a perfect example of the dangers of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) budget proposal. That short-sighted scheme would cut $250 million from the NOAA’s satellite program, crippling our weather prediction capability. NOAA ran an analysis in 2011 that found without data from the satellite closest to the end of its shelf life, the accuracy of its forecasts for major storms like blizzards and hurricanes would decrease by approximately 50 percent.
That’s the difference between knowing the storm will bring heavy rain or cause a flash flood and would place lives at risk.
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@ ASPCA : NYC ALERT: 24-hour hotline for evacuees to report pets who need rescue! **347-573-1561** #sandypets Please RT |
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@ NBCPhiladelphia : After the #INGNYCM was canceled, @Philly_Marathon offers marathoners a race to run if they raise money for charity. http://t.co/WKNWbpoy |
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@ BreakingNews : CNN puts US death toll from Superstorm Sandy at 106 – @CNN http://t.co/00351ytV |
HuffPost’s Alice Hines and Mark Gongloff report:
At 3 p.m. on the Friday after Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, the St. Jacobi church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, was overflowing with boxes of water bottles, piles of clothes and volunteers baking bread pudding. The mood was busy and hopeful as 350 people helped sort donations from across Brooklyn to be sent out to neighborhoods like Staten Island and Far Rockaway that were devastated by the storm.
But one key element was missing: gasoline.
“We have a lot of everything right now,” said Diana Aguinaga, a dental hygienist who was volunteering at the donation hub, a joint effort of 350.org and Occupy Wall Street. “What we really need is a car with gas.” Outside the church, there were about 15 parked drivers loading and unloading supplies, though not all of them had enough gas in their tank to go as far as was needed.
HuffPost’s Ben Hallman reports:
On Thursday afternoon, firemen set up a few grills near an intersection here and cooked burgers for hungry residents in this beach community devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
On Friday afternoon, the grills were gone. The firemen were now training a hose on a row of businesses and homes around the corner that had burned down at the height of the storm. The only lunch option for those in need was a small pile of packaged goods dumped in a unappetizing heap on the dirty ground near a crowded mobile phone charging station set up by police. The nearest hot meal was more than a mile away, past the smoldering ruins, at an intersection where Ajay Singh and three other Sikh men from Queens had come of their own initiative to dole out steaming bowls of rice and beans and toasted bread made in their church kitchen.
HuffPost’s Jaweed Kaleem and Lucas Kavner report:
Waiting in a 45-minute line Friday morning at a Hess gas station in Center Moriches, Long Island, to fill up a portable fuel tank, Chip Daniel noticed sudden a flurry of police cars surrounding the station. He heard shouts and stomping, and the groaning of drivers in the packed crowd of cars in what is becoming an increasingly familiar scene at New York and New Jersey gas stations in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
“There was some jackass trying to cut the line and they called the cops. Four police cars came up to him and he began arguing with the police,” said Daniels, 44. “It took them some time, but finally he went back to his own spot.”
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@ eyewitnessnyc : NY Aquarium loses part of fish collection to superstorm #Sandy #SandyABC7 http://t.co/jtXXzQKM |
HuffPost’s Tim Stenovec reports:
In Coffey Park, just steps from where the National Guard was helping distribute food and water to residents, a large AT&T truck sat, two orange generators resting silently on the sidewalk next to it.
Despite the company’s intention for the vehicle to serve as a mobile power station, the truck was waiting on equipment necessary to charge phones, and had been turning people away all day.
To close tonight’s benefit concert, Brian Williams spoke of himself and Jon Stewart as “two Jersey boys,” and yet “it doesn’t look like our Jersey shore anymore.” Jon Stewart added, “Resilience is going to get everyone through this.”
The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports:
Gov. Chris Christie signed an executive order today instituting gas rationing for the purchase of fuel by motorists in 12 counties.
Calling the fuel supply a “shortage” that could endanger public health, safety and welfare, the rationing will take place in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Monmouth, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.
Read more here.
Jon Stewart at telethon: “You never think it’s going to be your home or where you grew up… but you swallow your pride… and ask for help.”
Watch here. To donate, visit http://www.redcross.org./
HuffPost’s Lila Shapiro reports:
At a time when public approval of labor unions is near an all-time low, union workers are charged with much of the dirty and dangerous work of cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy. Here, along one the hardest-hit stretches of New York waterfront, union workers fixed Internet connections, disconnected gas pipes to prevent explosions and patrolled the streets in cop cars and ambulances.
Read more here.
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@ weatherchannel : Again, as you watch the benefit, a reminder that we’ll match every penny you donate if you do it here: http://t.co/i8141soB |
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@ GovChristie : I’ve declared a limited state of energy emergency regarding the supply of motor fuel in 12 counties. #Sandy |
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@ NYCMayorsOffice : There are no HOV restrictions this weekend. Follow @MTAInsider for latest public transit news. |
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@ nydailynews : The @NYRR has said it will donate all marathon supplies to #Sandy relief efforts http://t.co/ViLRqyQU |
Marathon runners who aren’t coming to NYC are being urged to donate their hotel rooms. Read the story here.
HuffPost’s Bianca Bosker reports:
Blackouts in lower Manhattan have revived an ancient practice: talking to other people without repeatedly looking at your smartphone.
When her dorm in Union Square lost power on Monday night, Elise Michael, a first-year student at the Cardozo School of Law, joined more than a dozen others in the cramped, candle-lit quarters of her friend’s room. There, they practiced the analog art of telling stories and paying attention.
“It was really nice to walk in and see a big group of people in a small space not looking at phones, not watching things,” said Michael. “I was close to most of the people there, but it was different. We shared more stories and more intimate stories than we would have otherwise.”
Read the full story here.
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@ ConEdison : #ConEdison has restored over 100,000 customers in #Manhattan. Crews will continue to work 24/7 until all are restored. |
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@ nationalgridus : Our #NY crews are working hard to bring back gas service to #Brooklyn & #StatenIsland customers with outages. #NYSandy |
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@ ConEdison : #ConEdison just restored power to the #MadisonSquare Network. Home to 30,000 customers. |
The NBA’s decision not to cancel tonight’s Heat-Knicks game at Madison Square Garden didn’t sit well with Miami’s Dwyane Wade, who plans to donate his game paycheck — $209,536.59, before taxes –- to Sandy relief efforts, reports the Associated Press.
“If we’re in a car and we’re in traffic for three hours, what are other people who are really affected by this, what are they doing? How are they getting around, how are they moving, et cetera?” Wade said after the Heat’s morning shootaround at Madison Square Garden.
“So it was just like, come on man, we shouldn’t be here to play a basketball game. If anything, we should be here to do something to help the city.”
HuffPost’s Janean Chun reports:
Zipcar rentals have been flying out of the company’s lots in New York in recent days, thanks to a company policy that allows customers to rent vehicles with full tanks but return them with only a little gas left. Rentals spiked on Thursday and Friday, said Dan Curtin, Zipcar’s vice president of operations and service quality.
For a commuting alternative completely free of dependence on public transportation and gas, many New Yorkers have also turned to bicycles in Sandy’s aftermath. Toga Bikes, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, has seen its business and foot traffic double since the hurricane, according to manager Eddie Meek.
Read the full story here.
The power outage in Lower Manhattan has created a gauntlet of dangerous street intersections, as can be seen in this car accident at the Houston and Varick Street crossing on Friday Nov. 2, 2012. (Damon Dahlen, AOL)
Brooklyn drivers are backed up nearly a mile on 3rd avenue, waiting to refill their gas tanks.
Lights return to lower Manhattan, as seen across the river in Williamsburg.
With cable TV power finally restored, 86-year-old Gloria Connolly and her 200 neighbors, all holed up for four days in dark unheated Leisure Park retirement apartments in Lakewood N.J., got their first glimpse of the devastation that the rest of the world has been watching for days.
“Their jaws dropped and there were tears,” said Gloria’s daughter, Jan Connolly, 53, who is special events director at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J. Jan left her own home in Neptune City, N.J., on Monday morning, evacuating to her mother’s independent living unit to be with her. Yesterday, she said, the reality of the storm’s destruction hit home for the elderly residents who have been living without power or TV since Sandy struck. For the first time, they saw images of what Sandy had done to their former homes, their children’s homes and the neighborhoods they raised their families in.
Read the full story here.
Source Article from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/02/-new-york-city-marathon-cancellation_n_2066921.html
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