Friday, November 02, 2012

 

Tweets credit journalist Heidi Moore with stopping the New York City marathon


Right now, the scenes from New York City look like this: the entire area of Manhattan island below the Empire State building is completely dark, without power or water or transportation.

Fuel for cars is scarce; lines at gas stations extend for hours; there is a fuel spill in New Jersey; and there are reports of gas is being rationed.

Many people are spending a lot of time figuring out where they're going to get their next shower

The headquarters of Verizon – communications hub of the city and the region – is flooded with water on nearly four basement levels.

In other words, apparently this is the perfect time and place for 50,000 runners and their family and friends to hit the city for the New York City Marathon on Sunday.



by Larry Geller

Some tweets are crediting Guardian (UK) journalist Heidi Moore (@Moorehn) with stopping the New York City Marathon. Check out her article (Run the New York Marathon, now? That's a terrible idea, 11/1/2012) on the Guardian website. It’s one of those articles that’s impossible to snip. She did such an eloquent and convincing job that I have no doubt that the tweeters speak truth.

(There was tremendous pressure from the public, many runners and others to call it off, though the decision to cancel was apparently only made Friday afternoon. More at After Days of Pressure, Marathon Is Off, New York Times, 11/2/2012.)

Those police, portapotties and other resources could be put to better uses. It’s good that the city came to its senses. Of course, it’s tough on those who just arrived and expected to compete on Sunday.  There are other tweets suggesting that they might now volunteer to help the relief effort or even donate their hotel rooms to those evacuated from their homes.

Whether or not Moore’s article stopped the Marathon, it’s a well-written article. Don’t go by my skimpy snip above, read it yourself.

Moore has 23.5K followers on Twitter, according to her profile page. Make that 23.5K + 1, I’ve just clicked Follow as well.



Comments:

It is difficult to comprehend the selfishness of the runners who couldn't understand why the call off. I would have liked those 50000 runners to say how can we help those in need in your city?
 

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