November 1, 2012: “We have a tough position that we are in right now” said Richard Nicotra, owner of the Hilton Garden hotel in the Bloomfield section of Staten Island. “How do I tell people that have no place to go, that have no home, that have no heat that you have to leave because I have to make room for somebody that wants to run a marathon? I can’t do that and if I have to make a choice between the Road Runners and a Staten Islander that needs a place to stay so they don’t die of hypothermia that’s an easy choice for me. I’m not throwing a Staten Islander out of my hotel. It’s just not going to happen and the Roadrunners are going to have to find another place.”
The response from Mary Wittenberg, president of New York Road Runners : “I think he’s got that exactly right. New York has gotta take care of New Yorkers first. Marathoners are resilient folks. I think the people who are coming here are no longer coming here to run a race. What we are finding with the international runners who are coming here is that they are bunking up. They are working with their travel partners. They are willing to find ways to be here and support the city.”