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Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced the New York City Marathon would go ahead this weekend. But with some parts of the city still in desperate need of attention, the decision to go ahead with the race is increasingly coming under fire.

This morning we showed you seven reasons why New Yorkers are against running the marathon. Chief among them was that the race would draw emergency personel away from storm affected areas to monitor the safety of the race, and that they would be using three generators to house the runners that could be used for more essential purposes. Marathon organizers tried to calm the criticism by donating $1 million to Sandy relief efforts, but it didn't take.

The focus of the criticism is quickly becoming the race's starting point in Staten Island. The area has emerged as one of the hardest hit areas of the City, and relief efforts have been slow to make their way over. One Staten Island hotel owner is receiving some (deserved) praise for choosing to let stranded Sandy victims continue to stay at his hotel instead of honoring reservations he made with marathon participants. There's also a petition being passed around imploring the mayor to delay the race that currently has over 3,000 signatures (and they're coming fast).