Dirty Hands Fail or Win?

Mayor Bloomberg

As we all know--or at least I hope we know--during the last week of October, mother nature unexpectedly decided to wreak havoc on the East Coast. Better known as Hurricane Sandy, this storm devastated the state of New York and flooded many of the neighboring states for two days. As a result, Americans across the nation opened their wallets to donate to hurricane relief funds and the Red Cross. Yet, despite considering this the precursor to the infamous 2012 apocalypse, many people still held an optimistic view of the future. Specifically, many people like Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, held an optimisitc view of the future.

Even though half of NYC was flooded (LaGuardia Aiport, the 9/11 Memorial, subway systems); explosions and fires were erupting all over the city; and  people were without food, water, and electricity; Mayor Bloomberg announced that the New York Marathon would still take place on the Sunday after Sandy's rampage through the city.

 

You're probably wondering why, right? Like, what good could possibly come from allowing this marathon to still take place? Well, according to Bloomberg, New York desperately needed the money that the marathon was expected to rake in--because, for some reason, people still intended on coming to New York for the marathon. But of course things get worse. As it so happens, the hotels in which these travelers expected to stay in were temporarily holding hurricane victims and were at full capacity. So in order to make room for the travelers, Bloomberg had these victims removed from their lodgings in order to accomodate these out-of-state visitors. Needless to say, Bloomberg received a lot of backlash and protest, especially since the marathon ended up being cancelled anyway.

But here's the question, would Bloomberg still be getting hated on if the marathon had proved to be a success? Would people really still be mad? I would think not. I mean, yeah, the removal of the hurricane victims was really bad, but in the grand scheme of things that would have only been a minor sacrifice in bringing back economic stability to the city. So, to me, it is somewhat admirable that Bloomberg tried to do what he thought would make a better future more readily available. Moreover, I think it is admirable to  understand that harmless decisions are hard to come by in the face of natural disasters. Nevertheless, this is not where the story ends.

*Spoiler Alert* this story ends on a good note.

In what ended up being a HUGE fail for Mayor Bloomberg ended up being a huge win for the travelers who still participated in the marathon. Following the orignial path of the marathon, several hundred participants decided to deliver goods such as water, food, and clothes to victims along the route. As a result, hundreds of victims received enough aid to maintain them for a few more days. Now, although the good deeds of these people do not compensate for Bloomberg's seemingly stupid decisions, they do considerably help overshadow them. So hip hip hooray for them! As for Mayor Bloomberg, his future in politics may be coming to a near end.