Just read this in the Times.

Staten Island Hotel Owners Won't Kick Out Guests to Accommodate Runners. As anger percolates over the the decision to hold the New York City Marathon, at least two hotel owners on Staten Island, where the race starts, said they would not kick out those displaced by Hurricane Sandy to accommodate runners who have reserved a room.

The rest of the piece is on the Times site, without a working permalink. But I'm sure you get the idea.

The Mayor is a smart man, but he's made a very stupid decision, to have the marathon on Sunday. I can see the preparations happening right now in Central Park. It's a massive event that uses a lot of city resources at a time when all those resources should be used to restore power and transit and probably to some degree to save lives of New Yorkers. It's certainly possible that there's damage we don't even know about.

Maybe next year we can have a marathon. But this doesn't look like an ordinary disaster, like a snowstorm, which the mayor kind of blew a couple of winters ago.

It's important to do this rebuild right, and to include all the people of New York. Someone must get that. This is the premier American city not a monarchy. As long as there are New Yorkers suffering this way, we can't have a party.

One person said this is like Mardi Gras after Katrina. Emphatically it is not. I went to New Orleans five weeks after Katrina. There's no way that city could have had any kind of party at that point. And we're a much larger city and this wound is fresh, the bleeding and dying hasn't stopped. New Orleans had its party, seven months after the hurricane. Maybe we'll be ready for a party at that point.

People don't realize how much damage was done to our communities, and even more important to the infrastructure that connect us. It looks like these systems are really damaged. Months before they come online. it's time to sober up and get a clue, all of us. Especially our mayor.