This past week, Q-line asked:
For the first time in its history, the Honda LA Marathon presented by K-Swiss will end in Santa Monica. The race takes place Sunday, March 21. Will you be out cheering on the masses of runners or will you be upset by the road closures the event creates?
Here are your responses:
“I’m glad the L.A. Marathon is
coming to Santa Monica. I want it to be renamed the Santa Monica Marathon because it’s ending in our city. So, once again, we’ll take it from L.A., and it’s now going to be called the Santa Monica Marathon.”
“This L.A. Marathon is yet another colossal nightmare insisted on Santa Monica by the self-serving idiots on the City Council. It guarantees to be one big mess and very disruptive to the citizens of Santa Monica and the environs. Somebody’s making some big bucks. I’ll be hiding out at home for the day, and trying not to think about it.”
“Whoever decided to allow this run to go through San Vicente Boulevard and Ocean Avenue never considered that they would be disrupting the lives of the many people living on these streets. Because Ocean Avenue will be closed between 6 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. I will not be able to drive out of my building but will have to park overnight on a side street if I want to go anywhere Sunday morning. Anyone needing to go to the airport for a Sunday flight or to work or to drive anywhere on Sunday morning will be unable to drive out of their buildings. Also I hope that no one on Ocean Avenue has a heart attack or stroke and dies waiting for an ambulance to wind its way through the 25,000 runners. Aside from the traffic problems from the hoards of runners and the deployment of loudspeakers with music along the route will be an unwelcome disturbance of our peace and quiet. There is no good reason to run the marathon through residential streets other than the city to profit from a monumental event at the expense of the people living there.”
“What are you talking about? Of course I’m going to be out cheering for the city of San Malicious? We’re a world-famous city. So of course I’m going to. Wow, the people that are running.”
“Why don’t you print a map of the marathon routes and the hours in which these streets will be closed in the Westside for those of us who are being inconvenienced by the closure of streets. For example, by the Beverly Western Hotel, they said the side streets will be closed March 21, or perhaps they meant Wilshire — it wasn’t clear. And that was the only sign I saw and it didn’t say anything. I think there needs to be a great deal more in print. Not all of us have e-mail, and many of us older people are out in those places and we have a schedule. Maybe we like to go to Westwood to eat or maybe go to stores or whatever.”
“Any activity that promotes good health and improves the human physical condition I am 100 percent in agreement with. If folks would give up consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes and then those who are capable start exercising by walking briskly, running, bike riding and swimming the health of our nation would improve dramatically overnight. Thus enabling medical doctors to spend more time on the golf course and medical insurance companies pondering to derive where their next customers will come from. Trust me folks, if you do not use it, you will lose it. Then illness sets in due to a weakened immune system. So with that thought in mind, and considering that there are no losers in a marathon race, let’s cheer and applaud those who accomplished this great energy-expending feat of finishing the marathon and admire those who entered and tried to finish the marathon.”
“We live on a small street on the north side of San Vicente Boulevard and according to the sign that the city put out, we will not be able to leave our street from 2 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. I don’t know what genius at the city decided that this would be a good idea, but we feel like we’re being held hostage here. I assume they must have some contingency plan for emergency vehicles. We have a lot of elderly people on our street. If someone had a heart attack, what a mess. So no, we’re not happy about this.”
“Another one of your dumb
questions — you treat us all like we’re silly, stupid children. Of course I’ll be cheering for the masses. You know, if I’m going to get upset about road closures, and all that, I’m a pretty bad person, you know, and I’m not. So of course I’ll be cheering for the people that are doing something good. You should try it.”
“Just when you thought it was again safe to trust the political hacks in this town, they stick us with ‘Rumpathon.’ That’s the dirty end the good citizens of Santa Monica get hosting yet another costly and meaningless activity. Only Frank McCourt who owns the marathon will benefit from this massive tax write-off, plus the retirement package he dispenses to those city officials who support his kiss-rump fest. What do we get? I remember the ‘84 Olympics which produced total gridlock, exactly what the City Council cretins want. They love the idea of making it harder to drive your car. Runners and bicyclists are some of the biggest a-holes on our streets. Now you can add the City Council for another useless event that takes away what little enjoyment left to middle-class car owners.”
“Yes, I’m very upset about the marathon coming down into Santa Monica. I think it was a very ill-planned decision. I don’t think there was much public input, if any. It’s going to be an absolute traffic snafu of epic proportions, I’m predicating. Bad idea.”
“Sorry to be a grouch but I think the L.A. Marathon coming to Santa Monica is a terrible idea because our traffic does not go through and this whole city is going to be shut down. All the parking structures are shut down — half the city, on the north side, is shut down. And it’s not a good idea to bring things to Santa Monica.”
