Bringing the City Back to Life – NYC Marathon 2021
Running the NYC Marathon one month after the fifty-mile Midstate Massive Ultra Trail, I didn’t have any expectations. I just wanted to finish and soak in the race, seeing the city come to life after the pandemic would be the real treat. I thought, if I felt good I’d try for a sub-five-hour pace, but I hadn’t been training for speed. Also, after 6 years, I’ll be moving out of the city to Massachusetts, so the marathon felt like a nice send-off for a new chapter.
About three miles in my feet felt numb, ever since running the ultramarathon, every time I ran more than ten miles, I felt pain in my feet. Through my internet research before the race, it looked like something that is caused by overuse – no surprise here – and that resting and stretching will fix over time. I took it slow, I didn’t want to cause a long-term injury. I was still able to finish the marathon in under six hours, just had to go a bit slower than the sub-five-hour time I was hoping for. Looking forward to fixing up my bike and keeping off my feet for a bit while I recover.
Starting at noon and running into the sunset to finish in the dark was a new experience. In past NYC Marathons, I was used to rushing to the Staten Island ferry before sunrise and starting in the crisp morning air. This year felt almost leisurely, as I left the house around seven and then relaxed in the sun at the starting line, watching the elite runners on the big screen as I waited for my start time. The staggard start was more spread out this year and there were around thirty thousand runners instead of the over fifty thousand in a normal year. Although it was a smaller group of runners spread out over a longer period of time, the crowds were out in full force to cheer, which honestly is the best part of running the NYC Marathon.
At the start the excitement kicked in getting ready to run across the Verrazano Bridge, I had already watched a few waves run over the bridge since we got to the start and was ready to get going. Once we started the first mile flew by, as we settled into a 10:30/11 minute pace. An NYPD helicopter kept flying by the bridge – and seemed to cheer us on as we went. Getting into Brooklyn, I realized that my Bay Ridge half marathon shirt would attract more attention than my name that I pinned to my shirt. Throughout the whole race, I would have people yelling “Go Bay Ridge!”. I wore the shirt because it was my first race in NYC and thought it was fitting to wear it for my last race in the city, but inadvertently ended up representing Bay Ridge throughout the course. I don’t live in Bay Ridge, but I’m pretty close, so I guess it works.
Around mile eight I realized I wouldn’t be able to hit the sub-five hour time and I told my boyfriend Mike to run ahead so he’d still have a shot at it. From that point on I walked the water stations, hills and whenever the pain in my feet felt bad I stopped to stretch my feet and calves. I broke down the race into smaller sections, first I just had to make it to Queens, then to the roaring crowds in Manhattan, a quick run through the Bronx, back down through Manhattan, a quick jog through Central Park and around the corner to finish strong. At each milestone, I mentally checked off the different sections as I made it closer and closer to the finish. Running in the dark through central park, was by far the biggest struggle, and had some of my slowest miles with a lot of walking. As I exited the park and turned on 59th street, I got a burst of energy knowing that the finish line was just around the corner. Once we turned back into the park to run to the finish, I sprinted – as best as I could – to the finish. My legs felt good, they actually felt like they could have carried me farther, but as soon as I stopped I felt the pain in my feet again.
Shuffling to the exit with my medal and race poncho, it felt like a perfect race. I had done what I set out to do, take in the city along the way, and finish.
Moving Ethical Fashion Forward – Reflections on the 2018 Fashion for Freedom Event
I’ve been spending the last few weeks digging a bit deeper and taking a look at what ethical fashion really means, interviewing fair trade artisan brands, and talking to ethical apparel manufacturers abroad. Producing ethical fashion requires patience and thoughtfulness to navigate complex apparel supply chains and slow industry progress, there is no quick fix answer. There’s a reason why ethical fashionistas turn up their noses at brands like H&M who produce sustainable clothing at impossibly low prices. These low prices are a sign that something isn’t right. They might be using organic cotton or tencel fabric, but they are still producing in conditions where the (mostly) women making their clothing do not make a living wage. Consumer culture is conditioning consumers to expect low-cost clothing and companies are applying this framework to create greenwashed clothing, the fabrics might be sourced a little more consciously, but they’re still producing extreme excess and exploiting workers.
Last Saturday I attended Free the Slaves’ Fashion for Freedom Event in NYC to learn from their speakers on ways we can move forward and drive change as a community. Keynote speaker, Safia Minney, kicked off the event explaining the trajectory of her fair trade work in the fashion industry and how it’s led her to develop successful brands like People Tree and Po-Zu as well as write some foundational books in the industry like Naked Fashion, Slow Fashion, and most recently, Slave to Fashion. The keynote address was followed by a panel with Safia; Rebecca Ballard from Maven Women, a sustainable fashion brand based in DC with a radical approach to design and fit; Aaron Halegua a Research Fellow at the NYU Law School, he is an expert on labor rights, human trafficking and access to justice in the U.S. and internationally; and moderated by Executive Director of Free the Slaves, Maurice Middleberg. The night concluded with the 2018 Fashion for Freedom Award Winner, Flor Molina, telling her story of survival from being trafficked from Mexico to LA to work in garment production. After Flor’s escape from enslavement, her determination and perseverance have led her to play an instrumental role in passing the California Transparency Act and being appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the first-ever U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking.
Even though researchers estimate that 40 million people are enslaved worldwide, and 50% of slavery victims are in labor slavery, many people in the U.S. are ignorant of this. The harsh reality is that many of the goods in our homes have been touched by slave labor, yet your average consumer is completely unaware. The Fashion Industry has a responsibility to take action, as one of the least transparent and complex supply chains. The question is how to move the needle forward? Even ethical fashion veterans like Safia say that we’ve only just got the ball rolling, there is still so much to be done.
The Fashion for Freedom Event was a snapshot of what ethical fashion can be at its greatest and reminders of how we need to keep pushing for change. There were three main points that were driven home during the panel:
- Governments around the world, especially in countries with booming garment industries, need to create policies to eliminate modern slavery and find ways to enforce them.
- Consumers, particularly women, need to speak up, demand a better product, and hold brands accountable.
- Garment workers need the freedom to associate and collective bargaining power to stand up to their employers and ask for better working conditions.
These are three complex and tedious steps to eliminate modern slavery from the fashion supply chain, but policies like the California Transparency Act and the Modern Slavery Act (UK), as well as organizations like Fashion Revolution and the Clean Clothes Campaign, are helping to inch the industry forward.
Although big-name fashion brands are slow to take on social issues in their supply chains, disruptive social enterprises have stepped in with innovative solutions for decreasing poverty and helping women through economic development. Before and after the speakers, we got to shop a marketplace of fair trade brands like zero-waste fashion brand made in Cambodia, Tonlé; High-quality basics made by free women in India, Causegear, a brand sourcing locally in Haiti and empowering women, Deux Mains; a jewelry line designed in Maine and made impeccably by artisans in Nepal, Mulxiply, Scarves made by women who escaped trafficking or were at risk in Kenya, RefuShe and more.
Even though there was a sense that this is only the beginning and that enormous efforts still need to be made, there was excitement in the air. The room was full of a supportive community ready to take action and find ways to drive policy, consumer behavior, and industry change to protect people at every level of the supply chain.
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Learn more about the Fashion for Freedom campaign on their website, http://www.ftsfashionforfreedom.com/.
Policymaking: A way forward from advocacy
Since I’m currently pursuing a Masters in Public Administration, policy-making seemed like a good place to start this Fashion Revolution series on ways in which we can drive change in the fashion industry. I started the MPA program at NYU Wagner in the fall of 2017 and have been pleasantly surprised by the school’s attention on human rights issues along the supply chain. From learning about the start of the labor rights movement and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 to reading case studies about the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, even though they are 100 years apart, the root causes and issues seem to be the same. Exploitative and forced labor of garment workers in lower Manhattan has merely moved into communities further and further away, where laws and regulations do not protect them.
Advocacy and disruption go hand in hand with radical shifts and policy change. This was true with the beginning of the labor movement during the era of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and it is still true now with the rise of the widespread and quickly growing #MeToo movement. How can we take lessons learned from these cases and apply it to improving labor standards along the global supply chain? Admittedly, the process of international policy change has different layers and intricacies from a local state legislature, but the methods of building a movement, laying the groundwork and telling your story remain the same.
Last week, the NYU Wagner Women’s Caucus held a policy formation workshop that centered around the partnership between Assemblywoman Nily Rozic and Founding Director of the Model Alliance, Sara Ziff and their efforts to pass a bill protecting models against sexual harassment. Due to the way in which models are hired as independent contractors, they have few legal protections and no human resources department to turn to when they are harassed on the job. The workshop served as a tool for students to understand how advocacy and policy-making work together to build new laws to shift industries.
In a quote from a New York Times article on their partnership, Ms. Ziff explains that “There has been a sense that simply speaking out is enough” and goes on to assert that “It’s an important first step, but it does not solve the problem. If there aren’t basic legal protections in place, then real change does not occur.” This sentiment was echoed in the NYU event and underscored the importance of taking action and partnering with organizations and people who can drive change through altering the legal structure and governance. As the #MeToo movement has gained traction, many have wondered what about the next steps and how the movement could result in an actual change in behavior. For Ms. Rozic and Ms. Ziff, the answer is through policy-making and establishing laws to protect workers from a harmful and toxic workplace.
The case of the Model Alliance’s partnership with Ms. Rozic is a great framework for looking at how to move the fashion industry forward towards a more sustainable future. Now that the Fashion Revolution movement has raised awareness, and educated consumers on the reality of the garment industry, it is time to find opportunities to impact change from a policy standpoint.
During the workshop last week, Ms. Rozic recommended four steps towards introducing new legislation.
1) Find your allies – who will be the sponsor to shepherd the bill through the process?
2) Build a coalition – who will back you up and lobby legislatures?
3) Get committee members to sign on – who will join in to support you once you have the bill together?
4) Push it on the agenda so you can vote for it.
In addition to these steps, the role of media and communications is crucial to galvanizing support and getting the bill on the agenda. The timely breaking of the Weinstein scandal allowed for their work addressing sexual harassment in the modeling industry to come to the forefront. Just like how the Rana Plaza disaster brought labor rights issues in the garment industry to the forefront. In order to take advantage of these unexpected situations, I think it’s important to have a two-tiered approach. Firstly, have an arsenal of policies backed by research and key influencers ready to mobilize when these situations arise. Second, building relationships with media partners and those who will champion your story when the timing is right is crucial.
This workshop challenged me to think about solving fashion’s sustainable and ethical problems through policy-making, especially in countries and regions where the government is receptive to protecting workers rights and where there is a coalition of supporters to engage governments, factories, and brands in supporting their cause. We saw an outcry from the apparel industry after the Rana Plaza disaster that resulted in the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the Accord on Fire and Safety in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi government’s National Initiative. Five years later there are some improvements, but a lot of work is left to be done. These initiatives brought the industry in the right direction but we need to continue to fight for better laws and regulations to protect garment workers. Hopefully, it will not be another factory collapse to shake the industry into acting again, but an advocacy and awareness campaign ready to take action that can continue to move these efforts forward.