Cancel the NYC Marathon or Not?

Wow, this one is a tough question, generating lots of debate from runners and non-runners, from participants and non-participants.

The arguments for:
*Generates lots of money for the city
*Would provide a ray of hope at a time the city is in need
*The city infrastructure will be fixed (more or less) by Saturday, meaning that Sunday's race would cause undue hardship
*Much of the course goes through areas relatively unaffected by the storm

The arguments against:
*Drive through lower Manhattan right now
*Police, fire, safety officials would be pulled away from the people in need
*The city shuts down for the marathon; it's already shut down now in many places
*It's insensitive
*Transportation issues will make it difficult Sunday for many people to reach the start

I'm boiling down a bunch of the main arguments into bullet points, so forgive me for missing the nuances. And there may be others.

Here's another question: If you were planning to run Sunday, but believe the race should be canceled, will you run? Will you defer?

The runner-grandiose part of me says yes, let's have the race. We can persevere. We can overcome. I ran home from mid-town on Wednesday and thought - yeah, the race can do it.

The realistic part of me just took a bus home through lower Manhattan.   I'm a lot less sure of it now. At a time where people don't have basic necessities (working toilets, water, food), the city should put all its efforts into helping them, rather than staging a race.   There are other years, other times. *It's just a race.*  There are National Guard on the streets distributing food and water. Geez.

Some other coverage:
*New York Times:  Marathon Presses on as Backlash Builds
*Runners World: NYRR unveils recovery fund, promises transit info