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Comments: Week of May 24, 2021

1.

“Andrew Yang’s Insider Campaign,” May 10–23

Photo: New York Magazine

For New York’s latest cover story, Clare Malone spent time with the front-runner in the mayoral race. The New York Times’ Nicholas Confessore zeroed in on “Yang as a quasi-Bloomberg restoration” and wrote, “In certain circles ‘Bloomberg restoration’ is an insult. But he did win three terms.” Ross Barkan, a former State Senate candidate who was quoted in the piece, tweeted, “This story is very good because it gets at the operator that Yang is, and also how deeply [the strategist Bradley] Tusk and co. have invested in his success and the possible access he’d grant in City Hall.” Jack Mirkinson added, “There are so many quotes like this from big-time Yang supporters — he’s a blank slate! i’m getting on the bandwagon because i’m sure i’ll have influence! — and it will be interesting, to say the least, to see how thoroughly he betrays most of them.” Many readers responded to Yang’s continued admiration for fellow candidate Kathryn Garcia — someone he has said he’d like to hire if elected. Jacob Rubashkin tweeted, “Seems like a pretty compelling argument in Kathryn Garcia’s favor that Andrew Yang is calling her once a week to ask her to run the city once he gets elected.” And David Lokshin asked, “Maybe just vote for the actual woman behind the scenes then, rather than elect an opportunist to his desired bully pulpit?”

2.

“Tech vs. Journalism,” May 10–23

Benjamin Wallace documented the rising tensions between Silicon Valley titans and the reporters who cover them. Wired’s Mark Robinson wrote, “The sweep and yet the specificity of this … is something to behold. Well done.” @noumenized agreed: “This is the most balanced and thorough chronology of the animus between tech and its reporting I’ve ever read … I’d be curious to know the extent to which this has informed the apparent tech exodus to Miami from San Francisco.” Some were skeptical of the motivations of both parties, like Aaron M. Renn: “The most important subtext of this is the battle over cultural supremacy, and to some extent financial success.”

Photo: New York Magazine

3.

“The Destroy-It-to-Save-It Plan for East River Park,” May 10–23

Keith Gessen spent five months reporting New York City’s first climate-adaptation battle. Smithsonian’s Jeff MacGregor called the story a “fine, clarifying work on the great environmental tangle of everyone’s good intentions.” Lindsay Crouse wrote, “I run in East River Park frequently and over years have been watching the puddles on the path turn into ponds. It is so horrifying to watch this unfold, we are losing our city with our heads turned.” @SupremeRichards tweeted, “I live next to the park & use it daily. This is so complicated, and good people — on the same side! We all love the park! — have very strong, very different opinions about the way forward.” Daniel Aldana Cohen commented, “It’s fascinating to see how much NYC is struggling around a climate adaptation intervention that would be less than 1% as disruptive as the projects and upheavals sparked by climate breakdown in most parts of the world. This century will be insane. I don’t say this to minimize the stakes of this story. Rather to dramatize just how massive and epochal things are on the cusp of being — worldwide.” Chris Rowan agreed: “I suspect that over the coming decades versions of this story will be repeating themselves everywhere, over and over and over again.”

4.

“The Still-Wild, Semi-Habitable McKibbin Lofts,” May 10–23

For the latest installment of “Biography of a Building,” Matthew Sedacca compiled an oral history of East Williamsburg’s McKibbin Lofts. Many former residents and others who cycled through the buildings added their own stories. Maxwell Strachan responded, “When I lived here, the walls were so thin that countless mice were able to chew through the entire apt. fighting back was futile. eventually we would just continue watching TV while they crawled around the stove top. but the bedbugs ruined my life.” Astrid Taran shared, “Such a quintessential New York story. My friends and I used to crash McKibbin parties when we were 17 because we didn’t have fake IDs. Turned me off of Four Loko forever.” Mike Barthel wrote, “My band played its first gig here. When my lips touched the ungrounded mic, I got such a shock that I flew backwards six feet. (We still finished the set.)” Jacky Tran said, “I lived there in the early 2000s. My parents came to visit and distressfully said, ‘We didn’t raise you to live this way.’ ” And Kara Illig wrote, “The smell of McKibbin never leaves you.”

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Comments: Week of May 24, 2021