is New York City dead?

NYC seems genuinely out of fashion for the first time in my life, and maybe its history? Williamsburg is a punchline, Manhattan both above and below 14th St is just rich fuxors, seems like everything that used to happen in only NYC or LA now happens in LA or some other ascendant metropolis. I am not particularly worldly or sophisticated or mobile these days so I can't offer much more evidence, this is just my lay observation. What u think?

New York isn't dead.
There are still lots of great things about this city.
The things I value might not be the same things others value, of course.

https://saysomethingvague.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/lcd-soundsystem-t-shirt-losing-my-edge.jpg

no you're dead

okay

I mean, IDK, I was out in bushwick recently on a saturday night and it still seemed happening and teeming with young artsy cutting edge types brimming with energy. However it's been rough for a good amount of time now as far as being a city that young people without a bankroll or a professional job can live in, and that definitely cuts into the creative energy of the city some. I mean I don't even think the bronx offers the kinds of rents today that could be had 20 years ago in brooklyn.

like if you mean "dead" as in "no longer can birth a 'scene' the way it could in the 60s/70s/80s/90s, that might be true just because rents are so high.

I think that is what I mean. Although "scene" sounds a little tinny/reductive, scenes kind of matter. A city births a scene which creates stuff that matters.

Is Paris dead? How about London? Those cities are pretty expensive too, and have been for some time. New York is still a place that attracts ambitious young people, including artists, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

well yeah, I mean a scene as in the beats or the greenwich village folk scene or disco or no wave or whatever. Like the combination of cheap living and high density and educational and arts institutions and economic activity that allows for a scene that actually produces something of worth. Like I just don't think there are many corners of the city left where a bunch of musicians could live close to one another and work more or less full time on their music and pay rent waiting tables part time or whatever. And to the extent such pockets exist, they're scattered at the edges of the city instead of centralized.

All cities are dead because culture travels faster through the Internet than it ever could geographically.

Rising rents making it hard for young people to live there unless they're being bankrolled is basically true for all major international cities now. Even Berlin's getting expensive these days.

But hey, there are always aspiring artists with trust funds, so the city will never die

i don't know the deal w/rents in NYC but i find it funny when people come out to L.A. from there and rhapsodize about how comparatively inexpensive the rent is here.

I don't go out much anymore, so maybe there's some lively cheap shit I'm missing out on.

It's also really hard for some people in late middle age (w/out a LUCRATIVE CAREER) to live here.

I'm also old and have a family and work a lot, and I just don't really know what's happening anymore. When we went out in Bushwick, we saw some local DJs/electronic artists in a little club and it was absurdly packed and seemed pretty alive.

I guess another thing I've noticed is that galleries tend to show artists from all over the US and world, and I'm guessing that's more true than it used to be. But that's also an internet-erasing-borders thing.

All cities are dead because culture travels faster through the Internet than it ever could geographically.

― treeship 2, Tuesday, February 6, 2018 3:28 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is pretty otm

it's all about the rust belt, my friend

we eat the cheeses here too

they are artisanal

our cities are the envy of all, their livability is primo

Here's how I think about New York, after my last visit there last summer:

New York is good and the only actual large city in America on the metric of everything existing there. Big cities are the ones where there is everything; you can tell Seattle is a small city because there are things that are not here.

New York is bad in that it smells of garbage. In the summer, hot garbage.

If more American cities grow to populations in the millions, New York will be more dead by comparison due declining uniqueness. Is this going to happen? Who knows.

i kinda want to leave, but i have a job i like okay and an unusually fortuitous living situation. there's no real reason for me to be here; i don't partake of the cultural opportunities available

it'll probably be the subway that finally drives me away

NYC: where if you can make it there as a successful artist, you can also have a successful time crowdfunding your medical bills.

Telecommuting will finish it off.

Less of a joke, not as dead as San Francisco?

Feels like people have been waiting for a rust belt/flyover city to take over since our traditional metropolises are more 'playground for the rich' than ever but I still don't hear kids looking to move to Columbus or Pittsburgh.

Have the media decided where the New Portland is?

There was a Tooze tweet recently, where he showed stats on how professional actors in the USA, vastly outnumber coal miners. I forgot by much, but it was significantly much.

I do hear murmurings about ppl aspiring to move to Pittsburgh, Detroit, Denver, a few others

According to @BLS_gov and @TheEconomist there are 51,200 people employed as coal miners in the US v. 785k in 1920. In 2017 there are more florists, actors and personal fitness instructors than miners. pic.twitter.com/m913tHokI2

— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) January 2, 2018

Less of a joke, not as dead as San Francisco?

Feels like people have been waiting for a rust belt/flyover city to take over since our traditional metropolises are more 'playground for the rich' than ever but I still don't hear kids looking to move to Columbus or Pittsburgh.

― louise ck (milo z), Tuesday, February 6, 2018 6:27 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hear rumblings about Pittsburgh now and then. Also tons of my friends moved to Philly over the years and it did seem to be producing bands at a good clip for a while.

And no one talks about how many administrative assistant, secretarial and receptionist jobs were lost in NYC due to automation, because... women, a lot of woc. Breadwinners for their families. Fuck coal miners and their sooty tears.

I’m moving back to new york soon bc of my job but it’s not a nice place to live.

I still have my apartment in Astoria. But I really don't want to go back. I dread having to deal with the subway.

The subway is inexcusably unpleasant

i get more anxious/aggro in nyc in my old age. i don't know what it is. impatient. people bug me more. i think its just a case of the olds. i will always love the city though. in general. i've loved hanging out there my whole life.

it really is me being set in my ways. we stayed in brooklyn one summer with the kids and i seriously didn't want to leave the hotel room. get on a subway to go to a museum in manhattan? kill me now.

Everything here is comically more stressful than any other place.

I car commute to the suburbs now and it's glorious to not be taking the subway anymore

Why is the ceiling always dripping down there?

Second and third tier cities could attract people by just showing how messed up the MTA is in their promo material.

I haven't lived in nyc full time for almost two years now. I miss it, but I really don't miss it. Just the thought of having to take the subway to work gives me anxiety.

Part of me really regrets accepting another job here. As a teen my dream was living here but it’s not that fun.

NYC misses Yerac and Znarf

Fix the subway and get rid of GOP madness and I am there!

fuck the subway, i drive most places now. and when i do take the subway it's in the middle of the day.
sorry can't do anything about the GOP.

Do you have to go in and out of manhattan a lot or no?

I remember taking the subway maybe 1-2 times a month when I worked in Williamsburg. It was the best. My tweety truck got sold like 3 years ago.

i've honestly not experienced the subway horrors that many have, but i will say that the subway is nearly unusable on nights and weekends

just not enough trains

I want to get myself to love it again.

Not the subway—the city

The last job I had there, I almost had a breakdown every time I took the subway. I would sometimes using the plodding R so I wouldn't have to deal with the insaneness of the 4,5,6 during rush hour. That train really has the worst people to be stuck with in the tunnel.

I do drive into the city regularly. Many mornings I drive in and drop my wife off at work and then drive home. It helps that we live near the Manhattan Bridge and her office is in chinatown. We also might drive in and park for any number of special events.

cuomo and adams will split the moderate vote, right?

xp I don’t think he can lose in the first round because no one will be at 50%

Not an independent but the latest in the king proud line of the Fight and Deliver party.

*long* proud etc

http://bsky.app/profile/daveweigel.bsky.social/post/3lsfktg2nak27

Cuomo congratulates Mamdani: "Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won."

Hasn't fully conceded, will wait for RCV count and weigh an independent run, but beginning to admit that Mamdani will be the nominee.

xp I don’t think he can lose in the first round because no one will be at 50%

― brony james (k3vin k.), Tuesday, June 24, 2025 10:23 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lose as in not come in first place sorry.

cuomo doesn't sound like he's going to run in the general.

so cuomo is all but conceding

omg fucking finally some good news

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò on Bluesky: "crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their consultants"

tonight, we are all walking here

Lander just said on live TV, "Andrew Cuomo is in the past. He is not the present or future of New York City. Good fucking riddance."

ha get him

brad lander otm

Cuomo's got to go away and the establishment weasels who backed him need to wise the fuck up. Between the sexual harassment allegations and the blatant corruption, especially what came out about the way he really handled the pandemic, it's disgusting and embarrassing how quickly they tried to bring him back into politics.

i haven’t been this happy about anything in fucking forever.

haha

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dcpvyzm4ou74j6zcz67il5fk/bafkreidtwr7o4uurjtx2qnc4uia3y6jjiy4lugcyufdhvsklmbxwmxyjym@jpeg

i'm at a loss

just assuming that this will be fucked up in some fashion

their money is your money! xp

come on along and listen to
the lullaby of broadway
the hip hooray and ballyhoo
the fucking off of cuomo

brad lander has a future. he'll campaign for mamdani in the general (e.g. As he wrapped up his speech, Brad Lander again congratulated Mamdani, whom he cross-endorsed. And Lander, who is Jewish, declared, “We are not going to let anyone divide Muslim New Yorkers and Jewish New Yorkers.”), then he'll explain how the council works to mamdani, and then if we're really lucky he'll primary Schumer.

and don't forget lindsey boylan (and all Cuomo's other victims). she's been in the public eye and campaigning for months. legend.

tonight, we are all walking here

I love this

Well done NYC!

Wish I went to the Paris Theatre tonight - wonder if they stayed until Cuomo conceded?

this reminds me so much of the two trump victories in that people were convinced it was a coin flip as late as election day and then 1 hour after the polls closed it became clear that actually it was never close

lander to primary my congressman tbh

brad lander has a future.

hope to see more of him on my ballot

people i know kept asking me if i was getting into big arguments with cuomo supporters while canvassing and i said that actually no i wasn’t seeing any passion or enthusiasm for cuomo as a candidate even tho i was canvassing in places like parts of crown heights and chelsea that that still swung for cuomo. like most people i had the nagging voice in my head saying that my read was still a reflection of my own little social media bubble but no cuomo was just a DOA candidate with no coalition of actual voters

Congrats New York! It annoyed tf out of me that this election dominated my bluesky feed for months on end, but I'm glad it ended well.

yea I've come to realize Bluesky has a disproportionate amount of New Yorkers

I'm sure it's been talked about a lot, but his campaign is the first I've seen to use contemporary graphics that feel almost derived from Adult Swim, the kind of thing we often see with brand launches but never with politicians.

https://www.gq.com/story/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayoral-campaign-merch

The design stands out in a sea of familiar campaign signage. Many progressive candidates have adopted a look for their logos and signage that has become known as the “AOC slant”; Mamdani’s team intentionally avoided this look in favor of a bolder and more summery design.

“It’s not the classic Dem blue, Republican red. We wanted [the logo to feel like] a yellow taxi cab, something that really represents New York City,” said Katie Riley, Mamdani’s deputy campaign manager. The wordmark was hand-drawn by graphic designer Aneesh Bhoopathy, a former member of the Queens DSA who is now based in Philadelphia. According to Riley, the design also took inspiration from city street signs and old Bollywood movie posters. “It’s bright and colorful and joyful,” she said.

When my brother, who is a union leader in Brooklyn, visited back in March, he was very hyped up about Zohran, showing me videos of him and whatnot. It seemed very pie-in-the-sky at the time, nice to see it become real.

Thanks, jaymc!

I wonder whose idea it was to get Bill Clinton to endorse Cuomo a few days after the viral clip of him being called out for being a sex creep in the debate.

Really impressive work by the Mamdani campaign to see the institutional Democratic Party calling in every favor it could to block his rise, and basically just taking in stride, not complaining about unfairness, and continuing to talk about the good stuff he wants to do. Getting Clyburn to endorse Cuomo was really incredible; I guess they're both Democrats who worked to undermine Democratic power for their own benefit, so maybe Clyburn really likes the guy, but Christ, what an insulting way to treat a voter base.

The ZOHRAN font reminds me of Shrine Circus lettering.

Well played, NYC! It’s nice to wake up to good news from America for a change.

Congrats, NYC!

good news!

At least for today: not dead!

Congrats New York! It annoyed tf out of me that this election dominated my bluesky feed for months on end, but I'm glad it ended well.

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Tuesday, June 24, 2025 11:47 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

wasnt just new yorkers saw europeans talking about this race it was just perfectly illustrative of the shithead centrist old guard dems vs where rank and file voters are actually at now that made it compelling for a lot of people

UK leftists were very pleased!

I think that GQ story is funny because they basically went something of a Knicks/Mets color scheme - like no duh that would probably play well there!

so beautiful how cuomo hates new york city never really wanted to be mayor was just using it as a stepping stone on his way back to the big time and got his ass handed to him by a real local hahaha new york greatest fuckin city on earth baby

xp a little more mango/indigo than either sports logo.

thing they really got about the logo is new york loves that olde timey shit

We wanted [the logo to feel like] a yellow taxi cab, something that really represents New York City,” said Katie Riley, Mamdani’s deputy campaign manager. The wordmark was hand-drawn by graphic designer Aneesh Bhoopathy,

Extremely gratifying results last night, great to see the exit poll numbers matching the wave of enthusiasm over the last month. I think this is the first RCV election in NYC where candidate solidarity / coalition-building played a major role, which was relieving to see after the last mayoral election (and how this one was shaping up a few months ago). And after the national exposure Mamdani received over the last month, he doesn't have to sweat being the unknown candidate (not to mention I think his enormous ground-game continues and strengthens support for the next four months, and hopefully they'll hit the some huge areas, BX exp, where people simply didn't know who he was and knew/know who Cuomo and Adams are).

A little shocked the it may have been enough of a trouncing to keep Cuomo out as 3rd party candidate in the general, which would be ~such~ a huge gift. Of course, even if he ends up not running for mayor, Cuomo is not dead and will pop back up. Not sure people realize how many times he has been humiliated out of NYC politics only to pop right back up and weasel his way back in. This has been happening since the 1990s! Even in this primary, he still managed to siphon 40% of the vote w/o even really campaigning.

Brighter side, though, is that enough New Yorkers find the idea of Cuomo leadership as so toxic that they'd turn out in these numbers for a DSA candidate for mayor, god bless.

cuomo should run for westchester county executive, following in the footsteps of jeanne pirro

nvm she was the d.a., but the point remains

he should primary schumer

POLITCO already chumming the water:

Seen as a referendum on how Democrats should counter the White House, New Yorkers lined up in droves during nine days of early voting, many of them matching the profile of a prototypical Mamdani supporter: Young, white and in gentrifying areas of the city.

Then two paragraphs later:

South Asian voters in Queens who supported the moderate Adams in 2021 voted for Mamdani this time around, likely motivated by the possibility of electing the city’s first mayor of Asian descent. Mamdani, who is Muslim, was born in Uganda to parents of Indian lineage.

He also won Latino neighborhoods in Queens.

how dare these cold brew sippers do this to us