New York Marathon canceled in wake of Superstorm Sandy

• Bloomberg caved to pressure after insisting city was prepared to host marathon and offer support to victims, comparing moment to city's resilience after 9/11
• New York residents were angry that emergency services would be diverted towards Sunday's marathon and away from relief efforts
• Mayor said it was clear holding the marathon had become 'the source of controversy and division' in the city

By Beth Stebner

PUBLISHED: 16:30 EST, 2 November 2012 | UPDATED: 21:23 EST, 2 November 2012

The New York City Marathon has been canceled after protestors questioned the race's timeliness following Sandy's destruction.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement this evening that the annual 26.2-mile race will not be held this Sunday, despite workers spending the days after Sandy preparing the course.

Mayor Bloomberg had previously defended his stance to have the race go ahead, despite the fact that millions across the five boroughs remain without clean water, food, and electricity.

In Central Park today...

'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,' Mayor Bloomberg said in the statement.

'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.'

He added: '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 race is likely to be held at a later date although no details were given as to when this would take place.

It is also unclear whether any of the nearly 50,000 runners who were expected to compete in Sunday’s marathon, thousands of whom traveled to New York from other countries, would be compensated in any way.

The move to cancel the event is historic as it has been held every year since 1970, including in 2001 when the marathon took place just two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But the cancellation was almost inevitable after opposition, from runners as well as politicians and residents of the worst affected areas, intensified as days wore on post-storm.

At a news conference on Friday, Mayor Bloomberg defended his initial decision to go ahead with the marathon as a way to raise money for the city and boost morale less than a week after Sandy knocked out power and left a death toll of nearly 100 people.

He noted that his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, went ahead with the New York Marathon two months after 9/11.

‘If you go back to 9/11, Rudy made the right decision in those days to run the marathon and pull people together,' Bloomberg said.

The mayor added that the marathon's organizers are ‘running this race to help New York City, and the donations from all the runners in the club will be a great help for our relief efforts.’

Earlier this week, the mayor said the race wouldn't siphon off resources from the storm recovery, noting electricity is expected to be restored to all of Manhattan by race day, freeing up ‘an enormous number of police.’

On Friday evening, 65,000 residents of lower Manhattan were rejoicing as Con Edison restored power to their neighbourhoods after suffering for days in the dark.

But the views on whether the marathon should go ahead were still extremely polarized.

Fox Business’ Charles Gasparino sensationally tweeted this afternoon that he heard the marathon could be cancelled.’

personally i hope those traders are wrong abt the marathon and wrong abt obama beating romney. she shall see...

‘Wall street execs say NYC marathon CANCELLED,’ he wrote Friday afternoon, later tweeting: ‘Personally I hope those traders are wrong about the marathon and wrong about Obama beating Romney. She (sic) shall see.’

Following the two explosive tweets, many people responded negatively to him. ‘Just that you put that sort of cr** rumor in a tweet is a reason not to follow you,’ wrote one.’

Gasparino fired back: ‘I cant help it if ur (sic) too dumb not to ready EXACTLY what I said.’

A spokesperson for ING told MailOnline on Friday afternoon that she was unaware there were rumors that the marathon could be canceled.

The New York Road Runners, which partners with ING for each race, could not immediately be reached.

Business owner Paul Wilson agreed with Bloomberg’s desire to continue with the marathon. Wilson, who owns Bar East on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, said the weekend after the superstorm was ‘the perfect time to have it.’

He said: ‘I don’t think the timing could have been better.’

Runners along the 26.2-mile course pass right next to Wilson’s bar.

The course runs from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on hard-hit Staten Island to Central Park, sending runners through all five boroughs.

The course of the marathon wasn't going to be changed if it went ahead on Sunday, as there was little damage along the route.

Mayor Bloomberg was expected to cave to pressure after opposition from New Yorkers to holding the much loved event while the death toll from Superstorm Sandy was still rising continued to swell.

Even before Bloomberg's announcement this evening, as organisers put finishing touches to the finish line, Staten Island residents were crying as they saw their devastated neighborhood.

Residents - some of whom have had to wade through local dumpsters to find food and supplies - were demanding to know why generators used for the race were not being used to help those in desperate need.

A third generator would not even have been used unless there was an emergency - causing even more friction between organisers and residents over what Mayor Bloomberg considered an emergency.

For days officials in the storm-ravaged tri-state area insisted that plans to go ahead with the New York Marathon would not affect recovery efforts, but they were in the minority.

Congressman Michael Grimm, whose district includes the devastated borough of Staten Island, was one of several prominent politicians who today voiced his fury that the annual race was going ahead, even while many on the island are without water, food, and electricity.

‘There’s no question I’m angry about it,’ the representative said.

‘The city of New York is talking about getting water out of the Battery Tunnel and getting ready for the marathon. We’re pulling bodies out of the water.’

Speaking with the TODAY show, Rep Grimm, who represents the 13th District of New York, said that residents of the borough are barely coping in the wake of Sandy, and the last thing on their minds is a race.

‘There are those walking the street and they seem almost hopeless,’ he said. ‘They’ve lost everything and there’s nowhere for them to go.'

Nevertheless, the Mayor's office said: ‘Our recover efforts are ongoing and none of those will be impacted by the marathon. No resources will be diverted.’

'There are people right now that have no heat who have no food and are sitting in the dark.

'To say that we have enough resources just isn’t accurate. There’s a lot of unanswered questions. We feel that no one understands us.'

Staten Island Councilman James Oddo echoed Rep Grimm’s anger.

He said: 'The notion of diverting even one police officer, one first responder, one asset away from this carnage, is beyond irrational,’ he told the Daily News.

Earlier, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he saw none of the damage or power outtages as insurmountable, and defended the decision to hold the race, insisting resources wouldn't be diverted from storm victims.

He noted at a news conference on Thursday that electricity was expected to be restored to all of Manhattan by race day, freeing up ‘up an enormous number of police.’

‘This city is a city where we have to go on,’ he said.

But many New Yorkers didn't feel that accurately reflected the current situation.

A petition on Change.org asked Bloomberg and other officials to postpone the ING Marathon until the spring of next year.

‘Police, fire, and other emergency services should not be diverted to the Marathon during this time of crisis,’ the petition reads. ‘This event is always a positive event and it should not be turned into a hugely negative drain on city resources.’

Some critics were also questioning whether the marathon should go ahead at all.

As the city is under emergency executive orders, the governor, mayor or even the President could order that the generators be used for more humanitarian reasons, the New York Post reports.

With parts of the city expected to be without power for a week, the Post also reports that other valuable resources have been sent to help prepare for Sunday's marathon, including more than a dozen police flatbed trucks, which were previous working at disaster points.

Councilwoman Margaret Chin of Chinatown told The Post how she requested an emergency generator to pump water to stranded elderly residents.

But she says she was told by the Office of Emergency Management that 'there are other priorities'.

Asked about the criticism from politicians, New York Road Runners President Mary Wittenberg said a city going through a crisis must find the right time to move forward. She believes Sunday can be that day.

‘It's hard in these moments to know what's best to do,’ she told the Associated Press. ‘The city believes this is best to do right now.’

The marathon brings an estimated $340million into the city. Organizers will also use it as a backdrop to raise money for recovery efforts. Race organizer NYRR will donate $1million to the fund and said more than $1.5million in pledges already had been secured from sponsors.

The Post reports that the Hilton Garden Inn will not honour reservations from marathon runners if it means removing refugees of Sandy.

The general manager Frank Sanchez said: 'While we understand they have reservations, we know they are going back to their regular lives in two days. Our neighbors will not have that opportunity.'

The organisers have allegedly paid $37,500 simply for the licence to run the generators.

Road Runners spokesman Richard Finn told the Post: 'These are our private generators. We are not draining any resources from the city’s plan to recover.'

In an editorial, the New York Daily News said: 'Running the NYC Marathon on Sunday through the five boroughs is not what this city needs.

'Who needs electricity, when we can watch tens of thousands of runners testing their physical limits on our streets?

'That’s how it will be sold to America. And of course, this is nonsense. It is almost always nonsense when we turn sports events into something more important than what they are.

'The Marathon is being run, mainly, because it would be a pain in the neck to reschedule, and because it would cost organizers and local businesses a ton of money.

'Not because this race is of any importance to the people who are huddled in shelters right now, still waiting for some hot water, or sitting homeless after their buildings have burned to the ground.

'And definitely not because it is the right thing to do.'

Video: Mayor Bloomberg announces the marathon will still take place - watch the mayor speak and see reactions from New Yorkers

NBC: 'New York should postpone the marathon'

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