A Community For All Seasons…Including A Marathon?

Hosting the LI Marathon right through our Community for all Seasons, what a great event! But, where were all of our villagers? As far as I can tell, Westbury is the only community through which the runners pass.
I stood on Post Avenue from 7:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. on Sunday, May 4 and saw about 30 bystanders to cheer on the runners.
I saw the first marathoner, a man in a wheelchair, followed by a wonderful cross-section of folks of all ages, even The Hulk and a few Superman-participants! Many runners thanked me for my support. I got a few “high 5’s” from runners, and a young boy standing in front of The Space at Westbury got more “high-5’s” than I did.
One fellow on-looker down near Rite-Aid mentioned to me that her son runs in many marathons, but his worst time is the LI Marathon, which he attributes to the fact that there are so few people coming to see the runners.
Would you expect to see on-lookers on Wantagh Parkway? On Merrick Avenue? On Old Country Road? Probably not. More likely you would find some on Jericho Tpke. or Brush Hollow Road. I would imagine that they are few and far between, as (in past years) I have biked and walked down Cambridge to Jericho and saw maybe four people watching. More cars were present, drivers upset because they couldn’t get onto Jericho Tpke.
What a shame for Westbury, when we are trying to promote our downtown improvement efforts and trying to attract commerce.
There was a fantastic rock band playing on the corner of The Piazza. I could hear them all the way up to my home on Newton St.
As the morning progressed, some shoppers were walking along Post, and seemed nonplussed by the marathon.
As a long-time village resident and someone interested in the welfare of our village, I would like to know why more people won’t come down to cheer on the runners. Westbury is the half-way point of the half marathon. It’s not easy for some to run even as far as our Post Ave. They really appreciate hearing words of encouragement and cheers for their efforts.
In the Village’s Newsletter for Spring 2014, Mayor Cavallaro urged, “Join your neighbors to cheer on the (6,000) runners.”
So next year can we get up early on a morning in May, maybe before attending services, and stand along Post Avenue and show how wonderful our Village residents can be?
Come-on, Westbury, and show how we can be a Community for All Seasons.
Anne Albano