New York Today: Tony Ruiz, a New Yorker of the Year
Good morning on this bone-chilling Thursday.
This month, we asked readers to nominate candidates for New York Today’s New Yorkers of the Year series, our annual celebration of citizens who have made a difference in the city over the last 12 months. We received more than 100 submissions, and this week we are highlighting a few of our exemplary neighbors.
Tony Ruiz ran away from violence. Literally.
“Running essentially saved me from the streets of Brooklyn,” said Mr. Ruiz, who grew up in the projects of East New York and Brighton Beach.
“I was raised in neighborhoods that were pretty tough at the time — there were a lot of gangs — and one of the big things growing up for me was, if you don’t join these gangs or you’re not involved in certain things, people don’t like you,” Mr. Ruiz said. “You have to be in with certain groups.”
Running allowed Mr. Ruiz to stay out of trouble through his teenage years. And some four decades later, Mr. Ruiz, now the head road coach for the Central Park Track Club, is using it to help others.
During his coaching career, Mr. Ruiz, 56, has trained elementary school students and septuagenarians, first-time joggers and professionals, friends and strangers.
And when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico this fall, Mr. Ruiz — who used to live in the city of Mayagüez and still has family there — laced up to help.
He launched “TR for PR,” a campaign to raise relief money for Puerto Rico by running a 15-kilometer race. After a race this month in the rolling hills of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, Mr. Ruiz has raised more than $10,000 to purchase simple supplies — food, clean water, battery fans and generators — to ship to Puerto Rico.
His passion for the sport, which has empowered him to help so many others, dates to eighth grade, when Mr. Ruiz joined the team at Mark Twain Intermediate School 239 on Coney Island.
“Running not only gave me something to do and kept me busy, but the community also got behind me,” he said. “It gave me the ability to still fit in with my community and not feel like an outcast.”
His forte: the 800-meter race, for which he won his first city title. His victories continued through his running career at Westinghouse high school in Brooklyn, the University of Puerto Rico in Bayamón and Iona College in Westchester, but leading a team was never part of his plan. (He was, at the time, working in the mail room at Rockefeller Center.)
“I never volunteered for coaching; people would always ask me to do these things,” said Mr. Ruiz, who was given his first solo coaching gig at 26. It was for the Zephyrs, a girls’ team in his old neighborhood in Brooklyn. “I did it to help the community, maybe give back a little bit, maybe set some people on the right path. I just thought it was a good thing to do, a noble thing to do.”
These days, his studio in Queens resembles the coach’s corner of a varsity locker room: The hat hooks are draped with medals; the shelves are spilling over with world championship trophies; the walls are decorated with framed photographs of finish lines and awards ceremonies.
In the weeks after Hurricane Maria, Mr. Ruiz spent time away from his usual running paths, packaging boxes of canned food and water at a local firehouse.
“It was devastating to know that so many in my family were being affected and continue to be affected,” Mr. Ruiz said. “I’ve had three cousins that actually relocated, and these are people that have never left the island; they don’t know what an airplane is. I have a cousin who literally started building his house with his own two hands — I go on Facebook every day, and you can see it coming together.”
His sister, whose house was swallowed by the storm, has since moved in with their mother, Mr. Ruiz added.
“My mileage spiked up dramatically over these past two or three months because when I go out and run, pushing past the limit makes me feel like I’m suffering a little bit with them,” Mr. Ruiz said. “And because of that, I came up with the idea that I’d do this race.”
With the help of his siblings in New York and Florida, Mr. Ruiz hopes to reach $15,000 through his campaign and deliver the last supplies to Puerto Rico before Three Kings Day celebrations on Jan. 6.
“I guess if you do enough nice things in this world,” Mr. Ruiz said, wiggling his sneakers on before a morning run through Jamaica Estates, “people will take notice.”
Here’s what else is happening:
Weather
TOMORROW: 
24° 16°
24° 16°
The bitter cold is here to stay into 2018.
Don’t let the sunny skies fool you — today’s high of 20 degrees will feel more like minus 5 with the wind chill.
Things will stay chilly (15 to 20 degrees below normal) through next week, with snow a possibility on Friday and Saturday.
Commence hibernation mode.
In the News
• The numbers of murders and violent crimes in the city are at their lowest points since the 1950s, though there has been an uptick in reports of rapes since the recent wave of sexual allegations swept the nation. [New York Times]
• The New York City subway system, the largest transportation network in the United States, still disproportionately underserves many residential areas of the city. [New York Times]
• Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo pardoned 18 immigrants from threat of deportation, in part as a jab at President Trump’s promises to crack down on illegal immigration. [New York Times]
• Thirty-six families are still struggling to replace documents and find affordable apartments since a fire left them homeless over a month ago. [New York Times]
• The rebuilding of a Greek Orthodox Church that was destroyed on Sept. 11 has stopped because of unpaid bills, despite $37 million in donations for it. [New York Times]
• Senator Bernie Sanders will administer the inaugural oath to Mayor Bill de Blasio for his second term on Monday. [New York Times]
• Gurbir Grewal is poised to become New Jersey’s next attorney general, the first Sikh-American to hold such a post in the nation. [New York Times]
• A Sudanese family that fled its war-torn home country now owns a catering business specializing in the native cuisine. [New York Times]
• From the bar top to the wallpaper, this Brooklyn establishment has made it a priority to showcase local artists. [New York Times]
• A family in Long Island was arrested on charges of importing $25 million worth of counterfeit products such as handbags and watches from China. [New York Post]
• A longtime WCBS reporter in Connecticut, Fran Schneidau, died at 79. [CBS New York]
• Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “It Happened at Birdland”
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing.
Coming Up Today
• Children can see “The Three Bears Holiday Bash,” a variety show with puppetry and music, at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park. 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. [$12 adults; $8 children]
• It’s the final day to add your 2018 wishes to the confetti that will fall with the New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square. You can write in online or in person, on Broadway between 42nd and 43rd Streets. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. [Free]
• … It’s also Good Riddance Day, a chance to destroy your worst memories of 2017 using a giant shredder in Times Square, on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets. Noon. [Free, register here]
• A Kwanzaa celebration continues with family-friendly activities — including arts and crafts, story time and more — at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Crown Heights. Times vary. [$11]
• Christmas may be behind us, but ugly sweaters are not. Adults can join an Ugly Sweater Party as part of the Dirty Thursday series at House of Yes in Bushwick, Brooklyn. 10 p.m. [Free]
• Knicks at Spurs, 8:30 p.m. (MSG).
• Alternate-side parking remains in effect until New Year’s Day.
• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.
New York Today is a morning roundup that is published weekdays at 6 a.m. If you don’t get it in your inbox already, you can sign up to receive it by email here.
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