It was a wake for a traumatized commercial metropolis on pause, bruised and boarded up and unsure of when it would get going again or what would be left of it when it did. We wrote tributes for 500 businesses that had shut down forever during the pandemic: go-to diners, late-night party spots, boxing gyms, Bushwick art galleries, and one luxury department store that had recently arrived from Texas. The places where we lived our city lives.
Two years later, this city, a little banged up and wild-eyed, is possibly more brazenly itself than it has been in decades. Does anybody under 20 not jump the subway turnstile these days? People are smoking indoors and having sex in the bathroom at the bar while you bang on the door. There is a defiant, down-for-whatever disorderliness that can feel threatening, liberating, or both at once.
But it's not all Joker-like retro-punk dysfunction: A tuned-up David Geffen Hall faces off across Lincoln Center with David Koch Theater. The city is suddenly awash in new restaurants, many spangled in Michelin stars, and the streeteries spilleth over. Even Rockefeller Center, which before the pandemic had begun to feel like a Vegas simulacrum of itself, has restaurants that you-as a New Yorker, not a tourist-wouldn't mind eating at again and that reward your sense of why you live here. And for all the talk about the death of midtown, when Saks closed Fifth Avenue this holiday season so Elton John could sing "Your Song" as its windows were lit up-"I hope you don't mind/I hope you don't mind”-it had to be done quick, because people, well, honk, honk, honk, lots of people minded.
This story is from the December 05-18, 2022 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 05-18, 2022 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Unmasking Diddy
The rap mogul shook off decades of rumored bad behavior with wholesome PR revamps. Now the allegations against him are his legacy.
Staging Sufjan
How playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury turned a classic indie-rock album into a Justin Peck-choreographed dance piece that's now Broadway bound.
Justin Kuritzkes Serves an Ace
With his first movie script for the erotic tennis drama Challengers, he has gone from struggling playwright to in-demand screenwriter.
To Brooklyn, by Way of Paris and Rome
A whirlwind week with Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri as she stages the brand's first New York runway show in a decade.
A Burlesque Family at Home
Showbiz couple Angie Pontani and Brian Newman’s high-spirited Marine Park house.
A Bistro With Shish Barak
Huda impressively balances its many influences.
THE 'DEBATE ME BRO
Mehdi Hasan's aggressive interviewing style landed him a Sunday show on MSNBC. Until he started talking about Palestine.
THE MAN WHO GOSSIPED TOO MUCH
For almost two decades, JOHN NELSON anonymously published blind items skewering the Hollywood elite on the blog CRAZY DAYS AND NIGHTS. Then his identity was revealed in the midst of a messy affair.
TODD BLANCHE IS A SURPRISINGLY COMPETENT LAWYER. AND HE'S ON TRACK TO KEEP HIS CLIENT OUT OF JAIL UNTIL THE ELECTION. IN DEFENSE OF TRUMP
TODD BLANCHE WAS looking for his man. Or it could be a woman, but probably not.
Self: Emma Alpern
In Outer Space Why do so many women believe their bodies are controlled by the moon?