CB1 to Road Runners: Half-Marathon Wore Out Welcome at Seaport

Runners crowd Fulton Street after finishing the half marathon last month. Photo courtesy of New York Road Runners.

Some Downtown residents were up in arms over an early morning concert last month following the the New York Road Runners' popular half-marathon. 

After crossing the finish line at Water and Wall Streets, 15,000 runners in the March 17 race were invited to an outdoor concert in front of 77 Fulton St., a 27-story Southbridge Towers residence.

“The community was very angry—my phone rang off the hook,” said John Fratta, chair of Community Board 1’s Seaport-Civic Center Committee.

Workers began setting up the bandstand at 2 a.m. and an Irish rock band, Shilelagh Law, started performing around 9 a.m., said Fratta, a resident of Southbridge.

Committee member Mariama James, who also lives at Southbrige, around the corner at 90 Gold St., called the bandstand’s placement on a weekend morning “ridiculous.” 

“Why put it in front of somebody’s building? I don’t get it,” she said.

“It was hell on wheels,” said Fratta, noting that New York Road Runners representatives who came before the committee in February didn’t say there would be a live, amplified band.

“We were promised from Road Runners that it wasn’t going to be that much of a quality of life problem for the community,” he said. “Had they given the details and told us they were putting a stage there, there’s no way we would have approved it.”

Community Board 1 passed a resolution calling on the Mayor’s Street Activity Permit Office to deny New York Road Runners a permit to bring the half-marathon back to the Seaport next year.

“The crowd was generally noisy and poorly behaved and did not bring businesses to local merchants, as was promised,” according to the resolution.

In an e-mail to the Trib, New York Roadrunners said they had “worked closely with the city and the mayor’s office on logistics, planning and getting the required permits for our post-race activities,” adding that they looked “forward to having the opportunity to speak with CB1.”

They also said they had made good on their promise to bring business to local merchants, maintaining that the event had “generated activity for many businesses in the Downtown area.”

Indeed, some area merchants agreed that the race was a revenue generator.

Jacqueline Goewey, the owner of Made Fresh Daily, a bakery on Front Street that offered runners free cupcakes, said business was up by 25 percent the day of the half-marathon.

“We were super busy,” she said. “I think lots of people came in for the mini-cupcakes and just ended up getting breakfast or lunch.”

Battery Gardens, on State Street, saw at least a 50 percent increase in profits, according to owner Paul Nicaj. (The restaurant gave runners, friends and family 20 percent off their bills that day.)

“It was really, really great for us—we had an hour-long wait for brunch,” reported Carina Whitcomb, the maitre d’ of 121 Fulton St., a restaurant where runners formed a big line at the door to get $8 Bloody Marys and Mimosas. “We really hope it comes back next year.”