WEBVTT - How marathons changed the cities we live in 0:00:00.070 --> 0:00:02.850 Good morning, thingers. Noah here. Before we get to the episode, 0:00:02.910 --> 0:00:04.880 we need your help with a couple of upcoming topics. 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:08.580 Number one, are you or any of your friends bad texters? 0:00:08.860 --> 0:00:11.780 Does poor texting etiquette make you really upset? Do you 0:00:11.820 --> 0:00:14.160 have any texting-related horror stories to share? We want to 0:00:14.180 --> 0:00:17.620 hear from you. And number two, gentle parenting. Does it work? 0:00:17.700 --> 0:00:18.320 Does it not work? 0:00:18.410 --> 0:00:19.250 Is it good? Is it bad? 0:00:19.390 --> 0:00:21.700 Let us know what you think. For either of these topics, 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.500 leave us a voicemail at 860-325-0286 or shoot us an 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.850 email at mannynoahdevin at gmail.com. Just scroll down to the 0:00:29.870 --> 0:00:31.930 show notes if you need those again. All right, now 0:00:32.150 --> 0:00:32.589 on with the show. 0:00:44.970 --> 0:00:46.780 I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin. 0:00:47.050 --> 0:00:48.610 And this is No Such Thing, the show where we 0:00:48.630 --> 0:00:51.510 settle our dumb arguments and yours by actually doing the research. 0:00:52.330 --> 0:00:57.670 This week, yuppies, climate change, and $ 150 t-shirts. It's the 0:00:57.690 --> 0:00:58.550 New York City Marathon. 0:01:01.330 --> 0:01:02.630 There's no such thing. 0:01:02.670 --> 0:01:04.350 No such thing. 0:01:04.370 --> 0:01:07.350 No such thing. 0:01:07.370 --> 0:01:10.350 No such thing. 0:01:11.650 --> 0:01:22.039 No such thing. All right, fellas. We are all 34. 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.660 We're college educated. We live in a major metropolitan area. 0:01:26.390 --> 0:01:30.030 What are some things that guys like us get into? 0:01:32.130 --> 0:01:32.990 Get into. 0:01:33.209 --> 0:01:34.090 Some cold ones. 0:01:34.530 --> 0:01:36.490 Sure, yeah. 0:01:36.610 --> 0:01:42.140 That's one. Drinking. Some drinking. What else? Thinking about what 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:46.400 they're eating. Mm-hmm. Being a little bit more mindful. Okay, nice. 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:47.319 I like where you're going here. 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.280 You know, that's definitely a thing that, you know, people 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.420 are being like, oh, I need to, not necessarily, I 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:54.580 wouldn't say diet culture. 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:55.120 Yeah. 0:01:55.180 --> 0:01:55.520 Yeah. 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.810 Wellness? Wellness. That's a good way. Like the, you know, 0:02:00.910 --> 0:02:03.570 the wearables. I got a wearable. I got a wearable 0:02:03.590 --> 0:02:05.170 right now. I'm a wearable boy now. 0:02:05.210 --> 0:02:05.770 Are you an aura? 0:02:06.190 --> 0:02:09.270 No, this is a Garmin. But like, yeah, the O-rings 0:02:09.370 --> 0:02:09.930 are a thing. 0:02:09.950 --> 0:02:12.230 I've seen those around. I think I would say generally 0:02:12.410 --> 0:02:14.370 working out, like going to the gym. 0:02:14.750 --> 0:02:15.410 Exercising. 0:02:15.530 --> 0:02:20.690 Yeah. Exercising more generally. Lifting weights. Oh, yeah. Lifting weights. 0:02:20.730 --> 0:02:26.150 Big time. Is a thing now. Strength training. Strength. And? 0:02:26.530 --> 0:02:30.169 One thing we've noticed for sure is getting into running. 0:02:30.330 --> 0:02:31.070 Yeah. Running. 0:02:31.110 --> 0:02:33.690 Run clubs. Wow. Everyone loves a run club. 0:02:33.710 --> 0:02:35.150 Do you guys run? 0:02:36.050 --> 0:02:40.090 I do run, but it's a pretty recent occurrence in 0:02:40.110 --> 0:02:40.470 my life. 0:02:40.870 --> 0:02:41.950 What got you to start? 0:02:42.530 --> 0:02:44.670 Well, I thought, you know, as we know, I just 0:02:44.710 --> 0:02:45.830 had a child. 0:02:46.030 --> 0:02:51.350 Congratulations. Thank you. Nine months later, congrats on your baby, Manny. 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.680 And I think that running, you know, as busy as 0:02:55.780 --> 0:02:58.080 I am now, running is probably the easiest way to 0:02:58.139 --> 0:02:59.220 try and stay in shape. 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:00.240 Devin, you're a runner? 0:03:01.139 --> 0:03:04.480 I would not say I'm a– I run. I don't 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.010 call myself a runner. I run a few miles a week. 0:03:07.430 --> 0:03:10.690 Okay. But in addition to my strength training. 0:03:10.740 --> 0:03:12.220 That's just part of your repertoire. 0:03:12.350 --> 0:03:13.190 What's a few miles? 0:03:14.380 --> 0:03:16.800 I usually run for time. So I'll run like 30 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.380 to 45 minutes. So that's like three and a half 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.580 to like five to six miles. 0:03:22.780 --> 0:03:23.960 And outside, not treadmill? 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.560 I really don't like running inside. 0:03:27.500 --> 0:03:28.460 Inside is horrific. 0:03:29.100 --> 0:03:31.360 I think I've run on a treadmill this year like 0:03:31.860 --> 0:03:34.860 two or three times. I primarily run outside. 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.080 Yeah, the Prospect Park loop has a good kind of 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.620 challenge to it. It's three and a half miles, but 0:03:40.980 --> 0:03:44.390 if you're doing it the way traffic goes, the kind 0:03:44.450 --> 0:03:47.230 of stretch to get up to Grand Army Plaza is 0:03:47.330 --> 0:03:50.610 an incline. That absolutely kicks your ass. Well, it kicks 0:03:50.650 --> 0:03:52.610 my ass. But yeah, it's a great workout. Once you 0:03:52.650 --> 0:03:54.130 get to the end of it, you feel great. 0:03:55.070 --> 0:03:56.970 Any interest in marathons from either of you? 0:03:57.250 --> 0:04:01.140 No, absolutely not. I'm losing interest in the three and 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:01.760 a half miles. 0:04:01.860 --> 0:04:04.730 Yeah. I've evolved on this. 0:04:04.910 --> 0:04:07.730 I don't have any interest in running a marathon, but 0:04:07.810 --> 0:04:09.570 now I think I could run a marathon if I 0:04:09.610 --> 0:04:10.050 wanted to. 0:04:10.490 --> 0:04:11.750 Like you could train and. 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:12.520 Yes. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:13.520 Yeah, yeah. 0:04:13.540 --> 0:04:14.400 You're not saying right now. 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:16.360 No, no. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.620 Could I finish right now? It wouldn't look pretty. 0:04:19.660 --> 0:04:21.200 I mean, gun to head, you could get it done. 0:04:21.380 --> 0:04:21.839 Yeah. 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:22.380 It might take 10 hours. 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:23.279 I would do some walking. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.210 So I've been more strategic about running now in a 0:04:28.310 --> 0:04:31.490 way that I feel like, oh, if I wanted to 0:04:31.550 --> 0:04:32.289 run a marathon. 0:04:33.020 --> 0:04:35.060 I feel smarter about how I would go about it. 0:04:35.330 --> 0:04:37.370 And it makes sense now that I would be able 0:04:37.410 --> 0:04:40.010 to do it because I'm not just full out running 0:04:40.050 --> 0:04:40.839 every time I go for a run. 0:04:40.850 --> 0:04:44.190 You have a sense of the pathway towards marathon running. 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:44.570 Yes. 0:04:44.630 --> 0:04:49.859 But that being said, running a marathon doesn't speak to me. 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:50.180 Yeah. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.880 How about going to the marathon to cheer on some friends? 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:53.500 You guys do that? 0:04:53.540 --> 0:04:54.080 Yeah, I've done that. 0:04:54.100 --> 0:04:55.360 How do you feel about doing that? 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:00.120 That's when I get in my corny bag. It's kind 0:05:00.140 --> 0:05:03.540 of emotional watching people run. And it's like, who cares? 0:05:03.820 --> 0:05:06.880 It's just like, all right, congrats. You're running a lot 0:05:06.900 --> 0:05:11.130 of miles. But there is something to being surrounded by people. 0:05:11.790 --> 0:05:14.190 The positive energy of just like, we're all here to 0:05:14.210 --> 0:05:14.989 root on our friends. 0:05:15.010 --> 0:05:16.289 Beautiful fall day, usually. 0:05:16.710 --> 0:05:18.289 Clapping for strangers. 0:05:18.980 --> 0:05:22.460 Like there is something to it that is like, yeah, 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.020 it just feels good. Even when you see people struggling 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:26.520 and you see people helping each other out. 0:05:26.620 --> 0:05:28.620 And there's nothing to really be mad about. Yeah. 0:05:28.740 --> 0:05:31.700 I'll go if a friend is running. I'm probably not 0:05:31.740 --> 0:05:34.340 going over there if there's not someone I know, to 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.780 be honest. But when I do go when a friend 0:05:38.820 --> 0:05:39.740 is running, it is very nice. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.500 You ever accidentally run into a race that was nice? 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:44.789 Yeah, I've done that a couple times. 0:05:44.810 --> 0:05:47.920 Yeah. Yeah, I'm not posting up for hours, but yeah, 0:05:47.940 --> 0:05:48.630 I'll check it out. 0:05:48.810 --> 0:05:49.800 Oh, people are coming by. 0:05:50.710 --> 0:05:52.220 And it should be said, you know, it is an 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.500 insane athletic feat to complete an marathon. 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:56.020 Oh, absolutely. 0:05:56.420 --> 0:05:59.080 And so, yeah, there is that, as you were saying, 0:05:59.140 --> 0:06:01.280 kind of cheesy aspect of it. It's like, oh, look, 0:06:01.540 --> 0:06:05.159 these people are completing something that is very difficult. And 0:06:05.180 --> 0:06:08.500 that's something I'll probably never attempt. Yeah, it's hard to 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.440 be a real grouch about seeing a marathon. 0:06:11.500 --> 0:06:15.480 And it's beautiful because it's like, it's the one thing... 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.500 in terms of like a you know you can call 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:19.300 it a competition or a race or whatever but it's 0:06:19.339 --> 0:06:22.400 like you see so many different types of people doing 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.979 it right and obviously they're at different levels or whatever 0:06:25.020 --> 0:06:27.640 you got people who are you know going for world 0:06:27.660 --> 0:06:30.440 records among like people who just like this is the 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.339 first race they've ever run ever but like to see 0:06:33.500 --> 0:06:36.320 all these people doing the same thing to me is 0:06:36.380 --> 0:06:38.490 pretty incredible like that you know you're not going to 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.470 go to like a football game and see, like, a 0:06:41.550 --> 0:06:46.450 grandmother playing and, like, some guy in his, like, 20s 0:06:46.550 --> 0:06:49.150 doing the same activity. So that's, I think, a cool 0:06:49.290 --> 0:06:51.470 aspect of it, too, is that, like, it allows for 0:06:51.550 --> 0:06:53.369 such a wide range of, like, skills. 0:06:54.830 --> 0:06:57.670 So this week, we're covering all things marathon, how they 0:06:57.710 --> 0:07:01.930 got so popular, new updates in running tech, and why 0:07:01.970 --> 0:07:18.860 we run. All that after the break. Out to the 0:07:18.900 --> 0:07:21.380 line we go for the gun and the music and 0:07:21.420 --> 0:07:21.740 the racing. 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.200 This year, about 60,000 runners are going to take on 0:07:24.230 --> 0:07:24.600 the New York. 0:07:26.570 --> 0:07:26.950 City Marathon. 0:07:26.970 --> 0:07:31.150 But in 1970, there were just 127 participants and only. 0:07:31.010 --> 0:07:33.370 55 made it over the finish line. 0:07:45.950 --> 0:07:48.510 The marathon starts as a sort of small, shambolic event 0:07:48.750 --> 0:07:52.470 just in Central Park in 1970. And the first winner 0:07:52.890 --> 0:07:55.960 runs it in hush puppies. Like, it gives you a 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.440 sense of just how casually everybody takes it. The traffic 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:00.980 is not even entirely excluded from the parks. They have 0:08:01.020 --> 0:08:03.520 to dodge other recreators as they do loops. 0:08:04.100 --> 0:08:07.160 That's historian Dylan Gottlieb. And in his telling, the marathon's 0:08:07.220 --> 0:08:10.230 rise came about as an act of desperation, really, from 0:08:10.260 --> 0:08:11.710 a city that was in a pretty bad place. 0:08:12.690 --> 0:08:16.620 New York's the world's largest financial center. a city with 0:08:16.660 --> 0:08:21.070 a budget bigger than many countries. Yet incredibly, despite all 0:08:21.130 --> 0:08:24.450 its wealth, New York, within a matter of weeks, may 0:08:24.470 --> 0:08:25.030 be bankrupt. 0:08:25.590 --> 0:08:27.750 Famously, New York is in a fiscal crisis all through 0:08:27.770 --> 0:08:31.000 the mid and late 70s, cutting public services with an 0:08:31.060 --> 0:08:34.540 increasing amount of social welfare responsibilities on its rolls, and 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.760 it can't meet those obligations. That is the state that 0:08:36.780 --> 0:08:37.300 New York is in. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:38.360 It's struggling. 0:08:38.580 --> 0:08:41.559 It's looking for anywhere, any green shoots in order to 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:46.199 plot its revival. By the mid-70s, city leaders are looking 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.400 for strategies of renewal and rebranding the city as an 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.260 attractive destination for middle-class tourists and yuppies. 0:08:55.190 --> 0:08:58.310 To start, this term yuppie, would you guys be able 0:08:58.330 --> 0:09:01.170 to define that? Or what is it spurred in your head? 0:09:01.190 --> 0:09:03.210 I'm not sure if I can immediately articulate it, but 0:09:03.250 --> 0:09:04.120 it's an insult, right? 0:09:04.130 --> 0:09:07.320 I feel like it is like you're almost talking down 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:09.439 at someone if you use that term. 0:09:09.460 --> 0:09:11.200 Mm-hmm. It feels derogatory. 0:09:11.220 --> 0:09:13.339 It does feel derogatory, although I don't know what it means. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:15.500 Like it seems like a novice or. 0:09:15.500 --> 0:09:17.559 If someone called me a yuppie, I'd be like, say 0:09:17.580 --> 0:09:18.120 that shit again. 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:22.720 Like overconfident, maybe, in a way that they shouldn't be. 0:09:22.740 --> 0:09:24.900 All right, let's hear what Professor Gottlieb had to say. 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.520 So the word yuppies, which hopefully has penetrated to the 0:09:29.780 --> 0:09:33.120 age of your listeners generationally, was a media stereotype that 0:09:33.140 --> 0:09:36.260 was coined in the 1980s by journalists who'd noticed that 0:09:36.620 --> 0:09:39.050 a new phenomenon of new sorts of people around them 0:09:39.150 --> 0:09:41.950 in the cities where they lived, where they worked, at 0:09:41.990 --> 0:09:44.450 the clubs they went to, likely, in places like New York. 0:09:44.490 --> 0:09:47.630 And the yuppie was stereotypically someone who was a young 0:09:48.110 --> 0:09:51.690 urban professional. That's where the term comes from. Yuppies were 0:09:51.809 --> 0:09:54.750 a real phenomenon, a real cohort of people who were 0:09:54.850 --> 0:09:58.510 called into being by what scholars call the financialization of 0:09:58.570 --> 0:10:01.000 our economy, where Wall Street moves to the center of 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.920 American life as a source of profits. It needed a 0:10:04.420 --> 0:10:08.360 whole fleet of workers to do the daily work of finance, 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.179 of corporate law, and related professions. 0:10:11.420 --> 0:10:13.850 So in short, the American economy by the 70s had 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.650 left manufacturing behind, and finance and law were there to 0:10:16.710 --> 0:10:21.310 replace it. Enter the yuppie. the young urban professional, largely white, 0:10:21.690 --> 0:10:24.229 upwardly mobile, and eager to earn and spend a lot 0:10:24.250 --> 0:10:26.790 of money. Exactly the type of people New York City 0:10:26.830 --> 0:10:30.440 leadership hoped could revive the city's economy and reputation. And 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:34.000 it turns out, running was like catnip for them. Jogging 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.559 is one activity that leads to physical fitness. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.330 It takes little equipment, just jogging shoes and a place 0:10:41.370 --> 0:10:41.670 to jog. 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.319 Yuppies are really good at making anything into work, into competition. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.559 And so they're really good about taking what's supposed to 0:10:49.580 --> 0:10:53.720 be a sort of lackadaisical fitness and leisure time and 0:10:53.780 --> 0:10:58.209 turn it into something quantifiable and competitive. So for context, 0:10:58.410 --> 0:11:02.350 running just 10, 15 years before when it first broke 0:11:02.570 --> 0:11:05.429 more broadly in the American scene was something that, you know, 0:11:05.570 --> 0:11:07.830 middle class guys did it to stave off heart disease. 0:11:08.490 --> 0:11:11.490 But in the late 60s, it's really a countercultural practice. 0:11:11.510 --> 0:11:13.609 There are all these wonderful books I looked at called 0:11:13.630 --> 0:11:16.850 The Zen of Running, or it's about getting loose in nature. 0:11:16.910 --> 0:11:20.930 Run barefoot, touch the grass or sand or whatever surface 0:11:20.970 --> 0:11:23.330 you could, because as they would call it, jogging is 0:11:23.370 --> 0:11:26.170 about communing with nature. But when yuppies come on the scene, 0:11:26.290 --> 0:11:29.839 they're less concerned about zen. They're not, they don't have 0:11:29.890 --> 0:11:32.440 a guru they thank at the front of their running book. No, 0:11:32.460 --> 0:11:36.400 they're excited about training for road races. And jogging, the 0:11:36.420 --> 0:11:41.370 term of the 70s, becomes running. And the new age 0:11:41.730 --> 0:11:44.809 pretensions drop away to be replaced by something that is 0:11:44.850 --> 0:11:47.670 a practice to steal yourself for the white collar workplace, 0:11:48.130 --> 0:11:50.270 to prove just how fit you are through your finishing 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.220 times of your race. And, you know, I talked to, 0:11:53.260 --> 0:11:56.240 I interviewed dozens of people who ran at the time 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:00.800 and they could still remember their finishing times for various races. Like, 0:12:00.820 --> 0:12:01.640 oh yeah, 1981 marathon. 0:12:01.660 --> 0:12:04.710 Yeah. They could rattle it off. Just this crazy litany. 0:12:04.730 --> 0:12:04.930 Yeah. 0:12:05.510 --> 0:12:08.410 And that's the type of personality that's attracted to the 0:12:08.460 --> 0:12:13.280 rigorous training program as well as this thinking about running 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.780 as something competitive to prove your superiority and your rightful 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.870 position at the top of the social pyramid in your 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.410 leisure time as well as at work. 0:12:30.809 --> 0:12:32.810 So that's something that I think not only do we 0:12:32.850 --> 0:12:34.969 see echoes of but has only gotten more More and 0:12:35.010 --> 0:12:37.929 more confirmed as far as people turning something that could 0:12:37.970 --> 0:12:40.910 just be for health or fun into strict data and 0:12:40.950 --> 0:12:44.570 competition and like something bigger than it needs to be. 0:12:44.790 --> 0:12:46.750 Yeah, it's almost like a status symbol. 0:12:47.150 --> 0:12:47.429 Yeah. 0:12:47.630 --> 0:12:50.280 And then just like the kind of obsession people have. 0:12:50.420 --> 0:12:53.080 And I definitely know friends who. 0:12:54.230 --> 0:12:56.630 Get into running and marathons and then they become kind of, 0:12:56.830 --> 0:12:58.470 that's all people talk to them about. 0:12:58.950 --> 0:12:59.190 Yeah. 0:12:59.250 --> 0:13:01.630 Maybe to their, their own, you know, maybe they don't 0:13:01.650 --> 0:13:02.130 even like that. 0:13:02.410 --> 0:13:02.689 Yeah. 0:13:03.010 --> 0:13:04.770 Or it's like, becomes their personality in a way. 0:13:06.190 --> 0:13:09.890 I was going to say the Strava vacation of running, but, uh, 0:13:10.150 --> 0:13:13.550 according to our boy here, it's been going on for, 0:13:14.110 --> 0:13:17.370 you know, quite, quite some time before Strava even was, even, 0:13:17.390 --> 0:13:20.150 I guess the difference now is that instead of talking 0:13:20.170 --> 0:13:24.380 about it in person, you're sharing it on social media of, Oh, 0:13:24.429 --> 0:13:27.260 here's how long I ran. Here's the times I hit. 0:13:27.700 --> 0:13:31.020 And it's even beyond just the marathons itself. It's even 0:13:31.059 --> 0:13:34.199 the training people are sharing, the benchmarks that they're hitting. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.760 So in 1976, a coalition of city bigwigs, including real 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.280 estate moguls, commercial bank heads, and the New York Roadrunners Organization, 0:13:42.420 --> 0:13:45.700 come together to put on the first five-borough citywide marathon 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.640 to show off the city and its rising new workforce. 0:13:48.660 --> 0:13:51.860 So 1976, we're at or near the peak of New 0:13:51.900 --> 0:13:56.280 York's flirting with bankruptcy. And in this moment, Mayor Koch 0:13:56.330 --> 0:13:59.830 says $ 400, 000 is going to be devoted to police overtime 0:13:59.890 --> 0:14:02.630 to run the marathon. The logic here is one that's 0:14:02.670 --> 0:14:06.069 familiar from the decades since then in terms of economic development. 0:14:06.090 --> 0:14:08.370 What does Koch say? Well, you know, it'll be worth 0:14:08.429 --> 0:14:10.770 every dollar. It'll be multiplied in what the tourists will 0:14:10.790 --> 0:14:13.490 spend in the hotel rooms and the restaurants. This is 0:14:13.690 --> 0:14:16.990 sort of priming the pump of private redevelopment and investment. 0:14:17.700 --> 0:14:20.619 But it's ironic, or maybe not ironic, intentional, that at 0:14:20.660 --> 0:14:23.150 the same time the city is pulling back on other 0:14:23.210 --> 0:14:26.630 public investments. They're closing firehouses throughout the city in the 0:14:26.670 --> 0:14:29.690 midst of an arson crisis. CUNY tuition is going to 0:14:29.710 --> 0:14:31.810 start to be charged for the first time since it 0:14:31.850 --> 0:14:35.290 was founded. City anti-poverty and daycares will go away, right? 0:14:35.330 --> 0:14:38.780 There's a shifting of priorities towards this idea about economic 0:14:38.820 --> 0:14:41.980 development and promotion and branding as the way for the 0:14:42.060 --> 0:14:46.060 city to fix its urban crisis through fixing its image crisis. 0:14:46.780 --> 0:14:49.320 And that's a rebalancing of where the city puts its efforts. 0:14:49.460 --> 0:14:51.810 Even if it's a small amount of money initially, it 0:14:51.890 --> 0:14:54.670 shows us the direction that many cities will take in 0:14:54.690 --> 0:14:55.490 the intervening years. 0:14:56.090 --> 0:14:59.600 So we love the marathon. We enjoy seeing it every year. Manny, 0:14:59.630 --> 0:15:02.140 as a father of one, do you think you would 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.040 rather see the marathon or have free daycare? Oh! 0:15:07.050 --> 0:15:09.020 Yeah, we're definitely going with three-day care. 0:15:09.620 --> 0:15:10.000 It's funny. 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.380 It's interesting, though, too, because this kind of dynamic between 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:18.040 the city wanting to fund the marathon so that yuppies 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.030 are getting more involved is also kind of the same 0:15:22.470 --> 0:15:26.910 critique and concerns people have with the gentrification issue, which 0:15:27.130 --> 0:15:29.910 is yuppies moving into those neighborhoods and kind of eating 0:15:29.950 --> 0:15:36.410 up the resources for less fortunate people who've lived there longer. So, yeah, 0:15:36.430 --> 0:15:38.590 the marathon and the funding of the marathon ends up 0:15:38.610 --> 0:15:40.890 being kind of a microcosm of that issue. 0:15:41.130 --> 0:15:44.170 So for them, the marathon is a way to demonstrate 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.400 that New York isn't dead, as they say. This is 0:15:46.460 --> 0:15:47.680 a place where people are coming. 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:48.360 It's exciting. 0:15:48.420 --> 0:15:52.100 It's a center of attention globally, once it's televised globally. 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.140 And it's a way to reframe the city, not as 0:15:55.180 --> 0:15:57.480 a place of danger and disorder, but as a beautiful 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.780 tapestry that runners are going to jog through all five 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.760 boroughs and spectators will line the route. 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:09.180 1976, the United States Bicentennial year. The running boom across 0:16:09.220 --> 0:16:13.060 the country was underway, and the timing of a high-visibility 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:14.640 marathon could not. 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:15.080 Have been better. 0:16:15.140 --> 0:16:17.180 And you know what? It's actually surprising. 0:16:17.620 --> 0:16:21.250 It does work, unlike most revival efforts of that era. 0:16:21.270 --> 0:16:23.650 You know, it's not a festival marketplace that nobody goes to. 0:16:24.210 --> 0:16:27.310 This actually does bring out millions in the crowd. It's 0:16:27.350 --> 0:16:29.550 one of the world's largest spectator events in the 80s. 0:16:29.870 --> 0:16:32.950 It brings the television cameras. 50 million people are watching this. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.040 And it really serves to reimagine New York for a 0:16:37.140 --> 0:16:39.830 local and global audience, which comes to see it as 0:16:39.850 --> 0:16:44.350 a place of leisure, consumption, beautiful young people jogging, or 0:16:44.490 --> 0:16:48.090 they would say running, through these neighborhoods. And for a 0:16:48.130 --> 0:16:50.490 place like Brooklyn, you know, they hadn't had national sports 0:16:50.550 --> 0:16:53.850 TV cameras there since 1957, since the Dodgers left. This 0:16:53.890 --> 0:16:57.630 is a real return to the focus of national media attention. 0:16:57.930 --> 0:17:02.180 That's interesting, because I would have guessed... that the kind 0:17:02.220 --> 0:17:06.659 of prominence of the New York City Marathon would have 0:17:06.740 --> 0:17:10.100 happened organically, like just over the years, more and more 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.980 people see this event happening and it grows bigger and bigger. 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.449 But what I'm hearing is that this is kind of a, 0:17:16.850 --> 0:17:19.310 I mean, this was a really deliberate scheme to grow 0:17:19.410 --> 0:17:19.909 this thing. 0:17:20.850 --> 0:17:24.610 So New York remains in this period the dominant capital 0:17:24.650 --> 0:17:27.909 of media and image making, besides, of course, Hollywood, in 0:17:27.930 --> 0:17:31.980 a way that now it even has receded as Mainstream 0:17:32.060 --> 0:17:35.850 gatekeepers and media have, let's just say, slightly less importance 0:17:36.010 --> 0:17:38.590 in the cultural sphere. But in this moment, the New 0:17:38.609 --> 0:17:42.710 York City Marathon is broadcast nationwide on ABC. I remember 0:17:42.750 --> 0:17:44.510 watching it growing up. I don't know why I was 0:17:44.550 --> 0:17:46.790 watching it, but it just felt like something you did. 0:17:46.830 --> 0:17:49.250 It was this sort of yearly occasion to celebrate the 0:17:49.290 --> 0:17:53.629 city as the weather got crisp. But New York is influential, 0:17:53.710 --> 0:17:56.190 as you say, not just through its media, but through 0:17:56.230 --> 0:18:00.670 the intellectuals, the policy entrepreneurs who create something like the marathon. 0:18:00.810 --> 0:18:02.639 And other cities are looking to New York as a 0:18:02.690 --> 0:18:05.260 model for revival. And they think, huh, maybe we can 0:18:05.300 --> 0:18:07.300 get some of those folks who, say, plan the marathon 0:18:07.340 --> 0:18:10.940 to our city to attract the same sort of population 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.780 that New York seems to be attracting. So one of 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:15.730 the organizers of the New York City Marathon is invited 0:18:15.770 --> 0:18:16.310 to Pittsburgh. 0:18:16.350 --> 0:18:17.359 It's like, tell us how you did it. 0:18:17.750 --> 0:18:18.790 How should we. 0:18:18.690 --> 0:18:23.659 Spend in order to get those same results from the 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.940 yuppies we hope to attract to our transforming city. Miami 0:18:26.980 --> 0:18:29.899 starts a marathon shortly thereafter. They bring in the New 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.639 York Roadrunners for a conversation about how to plan it. 0:18:32.830 --> 0:18:36.310 Chicago starts a mass marathon in the late 1970s, again, 0:18:36.369 --> 0:18:40.250 as it reorients its economy around what it hopes are 0:18:40.310 --> 0:18:44.189 the white-collar professionals who can remake that deindustrializing city. So 0:18:44.230 --> 0:18:46.389 you can see these ideas sort of radiating out as 0:18:46.430 --> 0:18:51.179 New York's success is trumpeted in the or on the 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.060 cover of Newsweek when they declare it the year of 0:18:53.100 --> 0:18:56.060 the upbeat, the story of New York becomes a model 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.760 for all these other post-industrial cities facing their own wrenching 0:18:59.820 --> 0:19:03.590 transformations and their own budgetary constraints. The marathon's a cheap 0:19:03.670 --> 0:19:06.850 way to promote your city and attract the right people, 0:19:07.070 --> 0:19:07.530 they would say. 0:19:08.470 --> 0:19:10.990 So our friends who are gallivanting around the country or 0:19:11.010 --> 0:19:13.930 the world in different marathons, it all might be because 0:19:13.990 --> 0:19:17.560 of this investment back in the 70s by New York City. 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:18.480 We did it first. 0:19:18.740 --> 0:19:21.440 Yeah. You're welcome, I guess. 0:19:22.300 --> 0:19:24.400 The only city in the world does it again. 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.770 So according to a report that's commissioned every five years 0:19:27.869 --> 0:19:31.130 by the New York Roadrunners, they're the group that put 0:19:31.230 --> 0:19:34.649 on the marathon and other races around the city. The 0:19:34.650 --> 0:19:38.290 2024 New York Marathon brought in $ 692 million to the city. 0:19:38.390 --> 0:19:39.389