BREAKING NEWS: Bloomberg Administration Cancels Hurricane-Controversial Marathon- Creates Extra Pressure For Similar Nets Opener Postponement

As of about 5:30 this afternoon the Bloomberg administration succumbed and cancelled the New York City Marathon in order to end the controversy about holding the marathon while the city is still straining to devote the resources it needs to recover from superstorm Hurricane Sandy.  Given the equivalencies in play that now puts a lot of extra pressure on the administration to postpone or cancel the Saturday night basketball game as well for which appreciable public resources are also being specially devoted at this time.

Moments before the announcement of the cancellation I had put up an article raising the question of whether because of comparability between the events the Nets and Barclays owners would be asked to contribute to hurricane relief as the marathon runners had been requested to:  Friday, November 2, 2012, Bloomberg Asks Runners In Now Controversial Marathon to Donate To Hurricane Relief: Will Similar Request Be Made Concerning Nets Game?

Right now in connection with the cancellation of the marathon people are saying that a sports event cannot take precedence over the recovery efforts.

Bloomberg Asks Runners In Now Controversial Marathon To Donate To Hurricane Relief: Will Similar Request Be Made Concerning Nets Game?

Mayor at this afternoon's press conference where he said marathon runners should donate to hurricane relief efforts

(Added 5:34 PM: Note Breaking news addendum about marathon cancellation at the bottom of this post.)

At his mayoral press conference this afternoon on the measures being taken to put New York City back on its feet after superstorm Hurricane Sandy Mayor Bloomberg addressed the controversial decision to go ahead with the city’s annual marathon, as scheduled, starting Sunday morning.

At his mayoral press conference yesterday Bloomberg linked discussion of proceeding with the marathon with plans for the scheduling of the Nets inaugural basketball game at the so-called “Barclays” Center.  That opening game, which was postponed, is now being held the Saturday night before the marathon.  Bloomberg had originally wanted the opening Knicks vs. Nets game to be held Wednesday night, even without working mass transit and even though it was hard on the heals of Monday’s storm.

At this afternoon’s conference Bloomberg told everyone that the marathoners participating on Sunday morning were being asked to contribute $26.20 each toward hurricane relief, apparently as a measure to make proceeding with the marathon more acceptable despite the fact that, inevitably, some public resources will have to be diverted into the marathon while the city, particularly Staten Island where the marathon starts, is still dealing with significant storm recovery efforts on multiple fronts.  (The amount of $26.20 was chosen to represent the 26.2 mile length of the Marathon.  The mayor says he hopes some marathoners will contribute more.)

The city will also be diverting appreciable resources in support of Saturday night’s basketball game.  Will the Nets and "Barclays" arena owners (Bruce Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov) similarly be asked to make special donations toward hurricane relief to offset likely public irritation about public resources being diverted to their enterprise while hurricane relief is still so importantly underway?  Maybe.  The thing is that the diversion of public resources into the Nets and the “Barclays” Center is already way beyond outrageous and that is why Noticing New York publicly urged that Barbra Streisand write a check for $700,000.00 to the public (or whatever part of that amount her conscience dictated) as reparation for the vast amount of public subsidy that can be attributed as the public cost of her two concerts performed at the “Barclays” arena.  See: Friday, October 19, 2012, Political Thoughts In Her Email Aside, Streisand Owes Response To Community Letter Asking “Why Play Barclays?” Plus Maybe A $700,000 Check!

The "Barclays" Center advertising oculus showing Barbra Streisand, one of the singers who has not answered an open letter from the community questioning why she was performing at the Ratner/Prokhorov arena 

If the Nets and “Barclays” owners write a check will the amount begin to cover the subsidy poured into the arena?

Also at this afternoon’s press conference the mayor itemized a credited list of contributions toward hurricane relief from firms like Goldman Sachs and real estate firms upon whom Bloomberg has gone out of his way to confer benefit.  The list was like a commercial for those firms.  Will the donations be in any way equal to the public cost of benefits Bloomberg has conferred on such firms during his tenure as mayor?

I doubt it.

Addendum, at 5:34 PM:  Note the following breaking news: The marathon has just been cancelled (shortly after this post went up) by the Bloomberg administration.  In terms of the equivalencies in play that puts a lot of extra pressure on the administration to postpone or cancel the Saturday night basketball game as well.  Right now people are saying about the marathon that a sports event cannot take precedence over the recovery efforts. 

Despite Expected Kudos, Bloomberg Tires of Hurricane Relief Administration Role: That, Or He Tremendously Disrespects Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano

Nice day for helicopters?

Despite receiving the predictable kudos for his high-profile mayoral role in the storm relief administration efforts following Hurricane Sandy, Michael Bloomberg seems to be getting rather bored with it all . . . Either that, or he has a terrific disrespect for Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was here in New York on behalf of the federal government to assist with the delivery of FEMA aide.

Yesterday Bloomberg and other local New York politicians, Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Assembly Leader Shelly Silver included, stood with Janet Napolitano as she described the measures being taken the by federal government to aid New York City and the rest of the afflicted region.  The other elected officials were stoicly attentive to her words in the typical fashion to which we have all become inured.  Bloomberg, standing only two feet behind Secretary Janet Napolitano, could not have been more conspicuously disengaged.

This is my best profile, Mr. DeMille

Bloomberg bounced up and down on his feet.  He looked at the sky, this way and that.  He looked at his shoes.  He stared off sideways into the far distance, presenting his visage in complete profile.  With a big grin he made conversation with what appeared to be another more junior federal official standing with him behind  Napolitano.  He made strange faces, squinting and rolling up his eyes.

Grin, trading a few jokes

Maybe Bloomberg didn’t think that the federal government’s delivery of FEMA aid to the stricken city and region was a big deal.  Maybe Bloomberg didn’t think that the local NBC station was going to feature coverage of the delivery of that aid, running this video clip during their extended special coverage of recovery related events.

A "did-you-really-say-that?" startle

Maybe Bloomberg was noticing and was judgmental that when Secretary Napolitano delivers information that has been prepared for the public’s consumption she doesn’t race through a reading of her words at a fast rate similar to the mayor’s own that helps communicate the fabled businesslike efficiency he promotes as his métier.  Maybe Bloomberg is just impatient when he has to stand by and listen, surrendering the stage to someone not officially on his payroll.  Certainly it couldn’t have been that Napolitano is a woman: Bloomberg has hired many women and even promotes them to high positions.

Squint

Was it that on Saturday, the day before the storm, Bloomberg had told FEMA the city would not need FEMA help?: The mayor grew testy during the question and answer segment of at his afternoon press conference today when asked about that, saying that the city could rely on its own NYPD police and NYFD firemen, notwithstanding that several times during the press conference Bloomberg did refer to FEMA help that had been necessary in a number of other respects.

As Bloomberg repeatedly swiveled his attention heavenward I couldn’t help wonder what he might be looking for or thinking about.  His helicopter?  Was he thinking that this was one exceptional week he wouldn’t be able to scoot out to the airport and fly his private plane for one of his regular extended weekends at his Bermuda home?  But if he went to Bermuda this weekend he’d miss the Nets basketball game opening the "Barclays" Center he promoted at three successive hurricane relief press conferences.  That opening game was postponed until this Saturday night although Bloomberg had originally wanted the opening Knicks vs. Nets game to be held Wednesday night, even without working mass transit, hard on the heals of Monday’s storm.

As can be seen, Bloomberg has been very good at racing through the statistics concerning the services the city officials under his command are admirably providing.  It remains, though, that sometimes Bloomberg is not busy reading from these prepared scripts for which he is getting accolades.  Then his actions disclose that maybe his mind is often somewhere else.  Maybe part of all that racing through things, together with Bloomberg’s infamous impatience, is about something other than just business efficiency. . . his personal concern with wanting to get on with other very different things.

Tilting my head far enough this way who can I see over Janet's shoulder?

I can just picture it. . .

Furrowed

Hey, Mom, I Won’t Be Home Tonight: The Parks Are So Dangerous They Say They Can't Let Me Out And I Have To Spend The Night In Them

Parks Department employees telling two of a whole string of bicyclists that they can't leave the park because it would be too dangerous to let them enter the park 

Admitted, after a superstorm of the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy there is a lot for everyone to do, dealing with and making sense of, things afterward.  By and large I think our government and emergency workers are doing their very best and acquitting themselves well.  I am sure that most everyone is earnestly doing the things they think they ought to do and I’ll endorse this as a time for us all to pull together.  But that doesn’t mean that when you see something supremely silly it should be off-limits to comment on it.

Coming down the Manhattan’s West Side bike route along the river today I saw New York City Parks Department workers at 59th Street cordoning off a section of that route because it was “a park” and they were therefore not going to allow people to cross their erected cordon and enter.  They were doing this despite the fact that the section of park they were closing off was heavily occupied and the bike traffic coming through the park along the bike route, arriving from the north (and already in the "park"), was much higher then usual, maybe five or more bikes every minute.

The Parks Department workers were busy more impressively fortifying parts of the cordoned off entrance with more tape and some newly arriving wire fencing.  The bikers arriving in a steady stream at the still not very effective barrier were being halted and told that they could not cross any of the tape demarcations being set up.  The bikers were told that the park was being closed because those were the orders the Parks Department employees had received (because the park was theoretically dangerous) and therefore the bikers, would not be permitted to pass through or go around the tape demarcations of the barricaded entrance in order to leave it.  When the bikers asked what they should do (most of them were impatient) they were told to go find another entrance/exit to leave the theoretically dangerous park.  The workers suggested that bikers should leave the park the same way they had arrived.  But, as was pointed out, if park workers were closing off egress around the entire perimeter of the theoretically dangerous park that wasn’t going to be a possibility.

Other people enjoying the park on the hill in the background- Click to enlarge

Since I had originally come down from the north I knew that the boundaries of the park were probably still as entirely porous as they had been shortly before: You could find your way into the park confronting no barrier at all or, other places, entrances of the park showed tattered shreds of tape evidencing that at one time during the Sunday/Monday storm the park had been declared off limits. These vestigial pieces of history were being ignored by women pushing baby carriages and all sorts of other New Yorkers, which is why the park was so chock full. Nevertheless, all these citizens would wind up being locked in the park for night if the Parks Department succeeded in delivering enough wire and manpower to secure the perimeter.

The good news was that this was Thursday afternoon and, just hours before, Mayor Bloomberg had announced at an afternoon press conference that as of Saturday morning he deemed that the danger in the parks would be over proclaiming that all the New Yorkers who had been cooped up for a week could then come out and play communally in the parks as the weekend arrived.

I don’t mean to disparage the legitimate danger of trees or of parks, especially when they get subjected to any kind of storm, but none of this makes sense.  Obviously, what would have made sense is for the Parks Department workers to allow people to go past the barriers to leave the “dangerous” park while telling them they were not welcome to return until Saturday AM.
 
Was the heavily visited park dangerous this afternoon ?  Arguably It was maybe slightly dangerous but if there was danger it would have been from a tree and it’s a fairly new park so almost all the trees are of the smaller variety.  There were so many bikers on the bike route going through it for an important reason: With so much mass transit out of commission in the city due to the storm biking was very likely the most attractive and efficient transportation alternative there was.  The West Side bike path along the river was especially attractive for biking because the electricity being out in lower Manhattan meant that traffic lights were out.  The riverside bike path makes it possible to avoid dealing with all but a few traffic lights.  Yes, it's true that traffic lights were working up north at 59th Street but once you’ve embarked on such a good route is one then inclined to detour, heading out into car traffic?  Riding through the park may have been the safer thing to do.

The fact is the likelihood of any serious risk in the park (and similarly walking much of the rest of the city in general) was pretty minimal and well worth taking.  By announcing that the city parks were closed, the city may hope to avoid legal liability if anything happens in this space of time.  Will the parks suddenly be significantly safer as of Saturday morning?  Not likely.  Another approach to avoiding city liability way would be for the city to caution people that there are dangers and that the city can’t assure that the parks are safe as might normally be hoped.

No doubt, when big storms hit it is important for everyone to stay conscious that storms change the environment rearranging, the typical equation with respect to danger, but when things get tipped who knows exactly where or what the danger will be.  I have tried to be conscious walking all the city streets this week: A weakened tree or masonry could fall on any city street.  Telling the public at his press conference that the parks are dangerous so that they should not yet go out into them, Bloomberg offered as a confirming illustration an incident of two children who died in the days following the storm when, staying home and not venturing outside, a tree fell on their home.  (That unfortunate incident happened in North Salem, New York.)  Suggestions tendered in retrospect are never truly helpful, but perhaps venturing outside to assess the situation might have altered fate’s course in that instance.  It's horrible to think, but you never know.

The mayor has sometimes addressed New Yorkers during this crisis as if they are absolutely incapable of being responsible for themselves.  At one press conference he advised New Yorkers not to take the initiative to deal with downed trees and tree limbs on their own: To “leave it to the professionals.”  Do we, by living in the city, become incompetent to deal with matters of nature?  I’ve spent a lot of my life in rural environments and the idea people there would be advised never to pick up a chain saw or clear their own land of limbs and branches seems absurd.  Isn’t it enough to remind New Yorkers that trees can be heavy (as the Mayor actually said) and tell them that if they have not dealt with such things before don’t assume they know as much as they need to know to take on these tasks?  (Obviously, stay away from any downed electric wires if you are in an area of the city where electric wires are above the ground.)  But at the same time certainly a lot of New Yorkers know enough to competently take on some of these tasks! 

Must everything be handled with corporatist nicety by personnel trained and certified and working for some large organization to whom an exclusive franchise has been handed over?

I went out after the height of the storm when the winds were down to seventeen miles an hour, though gusting occasionally higher.  By that time the storm was nowhere near as bad as many storms we regularly experience.  The police, shooing me away with a recorded announcement, didn’t want me to view the East  River from the foot of Remsen Street (a perch of high vantage) “because it was not safe.”  But I was not under a tree or anything that could fall on me and there was little wind.  I had hoped to get a good picture for Noticing New York of the not yet receded storm surge waters still in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Why?   Because seeing is believing and without images and pictorial evidence we may not believe in global warming.  If we all have to go indoors whenever nature is being nature, and come out only a week later when the authorities have cleaned up afterwards we may even cease believing in nature altogether.

Park patrons ignoring the yellow tape and barricades to keep them out

As it was, I went through much of New York today and New Yorkers were consistently ignoring police tapes and filling the city’s parks.  In doing so they were not only getting out for sorely needed respite in a time of stress, they were also informing themselves about their city’s relationship with nature and the harbor waters that surround it.

Strollers in the park

City Hall Park, one Park that was locked safe and secure, with Bloomberg's City Hall in background

Entrance to Brooklyn Heights Promenade: Brooklynites broke through replaced yellow tape so many times you can no longer count the remaining scraps

So much has been said about Bloomberg’s paternalistic approach to the citizens of New York that I am hardly adding anything to note it too.  I myself have interventionist tendencies and am known to make it a point when I find friends and acquaintances smoking to tell them that they really need to consider how bad bad it is for them and that my cousin, a smoker, died of lung cancer at thirty-five leaving behind her two young sons.  I also wish that people would limit the volumes of sugared soft drinks they consume, believing that it is one of the worst things they can do to themselves.  I am therefore naturally sympathetic to the idea of making large bottles of the stuff illegal even if I have qualms about whether I think that is a good idea.

My own paternalistic urges aside, in some cases, like with these Parks Department workers who decided they must trap New Yorkers in a New York park because it would have been too unsafe to allow them to enter in the first place, Bloomberg’s paternalism simply provides examples of Bloomberg’s inferior judgement being substituted for our own: I am thinking of another case in point that arose during this hurricane crisis. At the same time Bloomberg was instructing that New Yorkers should all stay out of the city parks until Saturday morning he was telling the populace that would listen that he thought it would be a great idea, despite the hurricane crisis, for everyone, including himself, to figure out how to make it to the Knicks vs. Nets night basketball game that was supposed to have inaugurated the basketball season at the “Barclays” Center yesterday.  The game was called off when people realized what bad judgment that would involve and that, besides, the police probably have better things to do.

Bloomberg Masterful In Superstorm Sandy Disaster, Except When He’s NOT: “Barclays” Center Promos and Global Warming

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has joined the list of New York politicians who will be remembered for their masterful no-nonsense handling of overwhelming disasters: Giuliani and Pataki preceded him with their handling of 9/11 and now Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo faced by the unprecedented inundation of New York City by superstorm Hurricane Sandy will follow. . . .

. . . Bloomberg confronted the public, reading out status reports with cool, just-the-facts-you-need in-a-disaster efficiency that will earn him positive recognition, except when he just couldn’t help himself, and strayed off course.  In the course of two back-to-back news conferences on the extraordinary disaster accompanying hurricane he twice embarrassed himself, each time taking time out from the business of the hurricane relief efforts and reports on deaths to swing into promotion for the so-called “Barclays” basketball arena (which he has started calling a “stadium”- does he think a full scale stadium could have been squeezed into the neighborhood?).

The first time, Tuesday evening, Bloomberg told the public he was looking forward to attending a Nets game at the arena the very next night (taking an early break from overseeing response to the disaster).   The second time, a scant few hours later on Wednesday afternoon, Bloomberg reversed himself, saying that the basketball game he hoped would be held Wednesday night would be postponed at his recommendation.

Bloomberg recounting that a certain news service (his own) says the the Nets game he plans to attend will be held as scheduled despite the hurricane disaster.

Here is the exchange from Tuesday evening.  It begins with a question from a female reporter amongst the press corp sent to cover the human and mega-financial disaster the city faces that was symptomatic of where the New York press’s head is at in terms of escalating the show business promotion of “Barclays” as a story that consistently trumps real news (like the political corruption that built the arena):

Female Reporter: Here in Brooklyn, [obviously- or inaudible?] there’s a big event, the Knicks vs. the Nets opening game.  I know that transportation is limited. Is that game going to be rescheduled or . . .  (inaudible as she is cut off)

Bloomberg:  I don't know.  I did see the story on a well-known news service that said (giggle*) that the NBA was going ahead with the three games, I guess tomorrow night, and they had not decided yet about Thursday night's game.  Uhm, I hope they do it. I plan to go.  It's going to be tough to get there because, remember, one of the great things about the Barclay's Center is the great mass transit that runs under it; unfortunately for the moment, not a lot is running under it.  What they are going to do, I don't know, but if it's scheduled I will go.  I think it's going to be a great arena and it's a great thing for Brooklyn, and so. . . [moves on to the next and last question]

(* What the giggle was about was Bloomberg’s amusement that the “well-known news service” to which he referred was his own company Bloomberg, L.P. and I guess he reads what his own service reports about Nets sports events even during city disasters.  Watching the video- the exchange is at 20:45 you can decide whether the sound of amusement Bloomberg makes when he obliquely refers to his conflict of interest is best described as a giggle, a small guffaw or just something of a “tssk.”)

Notably, Bloomberg’s tongue doesn’t trip at all over the “Barclays” name for the arena despite the scandal associated with the bank after which we have now named portions of the city.

Bloomberg announcing Nets game is being cancelled on his recommendation

Today at 3:14 P.M. Bloomberg completely reversed himself.  (That is, if saying you hope a game won’t be cancelled and that you will take time off from dealing with the disaster to go to it and then recommending that the game instead be cancelled amounts to a complete reversal?)  Here is what Bloomberg said after speaking about how this Halloween parents should be careful to ensure responsible trick or treating and reminding everyone that the Halloween parade had been postponed (because police officers have to do other more important things right now).  Bloomberg had already announced on Tuesday evening that the Halloween parade would be postponed.

At my recommendation the NBA has canceled tomorrow night's game between the Knicks and the Nets.  It was going to be the first Nets game in the new stadium.  Now the first Nets game will be Saturday at 7:30 at the Barclays Center.  The Nets play the Toronto Raptors and this game will be rescheduled. The NBA will be working with the city to provide extra bus services for Saturday night because the subways may not be back after that.  There is plenty of mass transit that's one of the beauties of the Barclays Center.  Unfortunately, it just . . we didn't count on Sandy.  Hopefully, Sandy doesn't come along very often.  I am sorry about the game.  I was personally going to take my daughters and Diana.  We were looking forward to it. It's a great stadium.  It would've been a great game, but the bottom line is there is not a lot of mass transit. Our police have plenty of other things to do.  I know lots of fans are going to be disappointed.  And the players are disappointed.  You should know the players wanted to play this, but . . ah. .   I did talk to the NBA and recommended that . . ah . . . Asked them to . .  uh . .  cancel the game.  It's all up to me.

Bloomberg then went on to say that the city's annual marathon being held on Sunday (when most of the power will would be back on) was not being canceled.

Atlantic Yards Report has covered this already and also created an edited videos mashup of Bloomberg’s two mid-hurricane disaster press promotional statements about the Nets games below:  Wednesday, October 31, 2012, Bloomberg, with no chagrin about reconfirmation yesterday of Brooklyn Nets debut, announces inaugural game against Knicks postponed "at my recommendation"; NBA expresses sympathy with "all those affected"; CEO Yormark does a 180-degree turn.


How could Bloomberg embarrass himself more?  By acknowledging that the hurricane superstorm reflects a changing climate (it almost certainly does) but hedging about whether climate change is caused by human beings (something that's absolutely certain).  At the same press conference Tuesday, Bloomberg said:

Is a storm like this that’s so strong and so unusual a “global warning” incident?  I think what is clear is that the climate’s changing.  Nobody knows whether it is a cicular or a secular thing.  (Sic.)

When Bloomberg said “cicular” he probably meant “cyclical.”   When he said “secular” I thought he probably meant having do to do with day-to-day human activity rather than the divine (not what it actually means- sort of like “secular humanism”) instead of its more obscure meaning of  “occurring or persisting over an indefinitely long period.”  Now, I’m not so sure but in any case it seems clear he meant to say that while he believes climate change is clearly upon us he was irresponsibly dodging endorsement of the scientific consensus that the change in climate is caused by humans.

Putting the Nyet in the New Jersey Nets! Deron Williams . . . Turkey?

I never thought NPR was a good venue for the sports stories that almost inevitably provoke my snooze reflex, but . . . . .

On Friday National Public Radio’s “All Thing Considered” played a story about the prospect that the NBA basketbal season might be cancelled because of a labor dispute. Sportswriter Stefan Fatsis told his interviewer, NPR’s Guy Raz:

The latest news is not good, Guy. The league already has postponed the start of training camps, cancelled its preseason. Now it says it's going to cancel the first two weeks of the regular season, which was supposed to start November 1st if no deal is reached by Monday.

And then he got into an example using New Jersey Nets player Deron Williams about how players are going to be drifting off to other locales to make money:

If the regular season games are cancelled, it's going to be the first work stoppage in the NBA since 1998 and I think then you're going to start to see players get on planes and go to Europe so that they can play some basketball and make some money.

One NBA star already got to work there this week, Deron Williams of the New Jersey Nets. He made his debut from Besiktas Milangaz of Turkey. He scored just seven points. He was fouled hard. He was booed mercilessly in a road loss to a Belgian team in a tiny and hostile arena.

The NBA guys are going to find that it's not quite as welcoming in Europe as it might be on their home courts.

(See: With NBA Season In Jeopardy, WNBA Plays On, October 7, 2011.)

I guess I can feel for some poor lonely bloke getting “booed mercilessly” when he is away on foreign soil. Nevertheless, I am not a fan of professional sports in general* and am myself booing mercilessly the construction for the Nets of the Ratner/Prokhorov (“Barclays”) arena, all the wretched connivances behind it and all the public detriment it will bring. If an NBA player’s strike lasts long enough or can otherwise effect a toppling of Messrs. Ratner and Prokhorov’s publicly financed arena bonds I'll be thrilled. When it comes to booing or cheering locales, brownstone Brooklyn is where I don't want to see the Net's players deployed.

(* See: Friday, September 24, 2010, Sports Culture Capper: Yankees, Professional Sports and Criminals Wearing Yankee Hats.)