What is Bloomberg Thinking?

Are You Kidding Me?

Entire communities in the New York City region are devastated, most still without power and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to run the New York City Marathon as scheduled on Sunday. What planet is he living on? Has he even seen the destruction in his own city? Talk about your lack of perspective. I have family members staying in a hotel 75 miles from their home just so they can function with some electricity and Bloomberg is putting on a sporting event that spans over 26 miles and requires a huge amount of police and other infrastructure support. New Yorkers are waiting in lines for hours just to get gas and Bloomberg is putting on a sporting event that can't help but take efforts away from the recovery of his city. Forty miles down the coast, seaside towns are covered in sand, hundreds of homes destroyed by the fury of the ocean and Bloomberg is putting on a sporting event that requires thousands of people to come to New York, find accommodations and secure transportation to the race site. His arrogance and lack of compassion for his own constituents is appalling, especially for a city that had to go through the extensive healing process following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers.

I'm not a New Yorker, so perhaps I'm off base here. But in a sense, we're all New Yorkers. It's the flagship city of our country, the home to the United Nations and the Statue of Liberty. Many of us are descendants of immigrants who entered this country by passing through New York on their way to destinations throughout this great nation. So no, I'm not a New Yorker, but I think we all have the right to our opinion on Bloomberg's insensitivity. It's probably too late for him to reconsider and he won't read this blog anyway, but  next time he needs to think a little more about putting an infrastructure intensive sporting event ahead of the well being of the citizens of his city.