What Does AI Think of Mr NYC?

Last year I asked Chat GPT to describe this blog. You can read it here.

And now I've asked Grok and Google AI to describe this blog and got the following:

Google AI:

The blog mrnyc.blogspot.com is a "fun, upbeat, and thoughtful blog about this great city". It aims to capture the "soul of the world's greatest city" and is described as "part of the NYC underground". The blog appears to cover various aspects of New York City life and culture. The author, sometimes identified as [REDACTED], maintains an active presence on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) under the handle @MrNYCBlog and Facebook. The blog has been running for almost two decades and has reached a considerable milestone, having been clicked on over a million times.

Grok:

The website https://mrnyc.blogspot.com/ is a blog titled "Mr NYC," dedicated to capturing the spirit and culture of New York City. It describes itself as "Blogging the soul of the world's greatest city. Part of the NYC underground. Feel free to comment!" The blog covers a wide range of topics related to NYC, including its history, culture, media, politics, and notable figures, often with a personal and opinionated perspective.

Key points about the blog based on its content: 

• Focus: It explores various aspects of NYC life, from apartment living and late-night television to local politics and cultural events. Posts often reflect on the city's unique character, its underground scene, and its historical significance.
  
  
• Content Style: The blog combines personal anecdotes, cultural commentary, and critiques of current events. For example, it discusses the significance of NYC in late-night TV history, the impact of apartment living, and political developments like the NYC mayoral race.
  
  
• Recent Posts: As of July 31, 2025, recent posts include discussions about Awkwafina and Marc Maron talking about Queens, the history of NYC apartment living, the decline of late-night TV in NYC, and political commentary on the NYC mayoral election.
  
  
• Social Media Presence: The blog has associated social media accounts, as mentioned in a post encouraging readers to explore its "multi-tentacled" digital presence.
  
  
• Tone and Perspective: The author often takes a critical stance, particularly towards political and economic issues, as seen in posts criticizing corporate influence in politics and media, and expressing frustration with figures like Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor Cuomo.

The blog is hosted on Blogspot and has been active for years, with posts referencing earlier writings (e.g., a 2018 post about a Stephen Colbert show taping). It positions itself as an independent voice in the NYC cultural landscape, often highlighting lesser-known or nostalgic aspects of the city.

Awkwafina & Marc Maron Talk Queens

You should listen to this episode of WTF with Marc Maron where he talks with the actress/comedienne Awkwafina.

Starting around 19:45 minutes into the show, they talk about living in Queens and NYC, and what makes it fascinating. 

And here's the video that made this Chinese-Korean Queens girl famous:

Water, Power, Waste, and Other Schist

@The New York Hall of Science:

You might also find this related post from 2009 interesting.

Architecture & the City

The apartment is the heart and soul of NYC living.

Yes, many of us live in houses but the vast majority of NYC's 8.5 million residents live in apartments, from rich to poor, young to old, of every religion, race, color, creed, gender, nationality, in every borough. 

This city would not be what it is without apartments.

So what are the most common kind of NYC apartments -- and how did most New Yorkers end of living in them? Was it inevitable? 

These two fascinating videos give some insight and history into how apartment living became de rigueur for New Yorkers, what so many of us call home.

NYC Makes & Late Night Takes

I remember it well: in early 1993, shortly after Bill Clinton took office as President, David Letterman dramatically announced his departure from NBC and his 12:30 AM show Late Night to go host the 11:30 PM Late Show on CBS.

America waited with baited breath: would the quintessential NYC late night host pull up stakes and move his new show in a better time slot on another network to LA?

In the end, Dave stayed put, moving into the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway and making NYC a late night powerhouse for the first time since the 1960s -- and for the next 32 years. 

Part of the reason he stayed is that then-NYC Mayor David Dinkins moved heaven and earth to keep the Letterman show here. And when Letterman retired in 2015, CBS was bribed to keep his replacement Stephen Colbert in NYC with generous tax breaks. The same thing had happened in 2014 to move the Tonight Show back to NYC. 

We, the taxpayers of NYC, basically financed late night TV. 

And now ... the show has been cancelled, late night TV is in freefall -- and got stuck with the bill! All of that revenue that might have come into NYC without these tax breaks are gone -- and can never be recovered.

So when we hear scary stuff about "socialism" just remember -- we already have socialism but it's for the rich and big corporations ... and not for the rest of us.

"A Chorus Line" @ 50 Flash Mob

Late Night in Winter

Late night television was born in NYC.

When the Tonight Show with Steve Allen premiered in 1954, it created a whole new world, not only for television, but for the entire culture. Late night TV was a America's bedtime story. During his 30-year reign as host of the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson was the nation's comforter-in-chief. In the years and decades since, so many other late night shows and hosts have come and gone that it's hard to keep track. And, of course, late night TV extended for beyond NYC, into "beautiful downtown Burbank" and the West Coast.

But late night TV has always been, at heart, a New York City thing. Like the city itself, it's always been a little edgy, a little nasty, a little smartass, a little offbeat, and yet always had a big welcoming heart.

Think Letterman. Think Jon Stewart. 

So it's a sad occasion that the Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been cancelled. In May 2026 it will end completely. Its network, CBS, is getting out of the late night business altogether. The reasons for this cancellation are, according to CBS, purely financial. But it's entirely possible that it was done to help grease the wheels of a huge merger that is taking place between CBS and Skydance. Skydance is owned by ultra-Republican billionaire Larry Ellison and Colbert used his show daily to bash Trump. Ending the show not only saves CBS money but also appeases the FTC to approve the merger, as well as Larry Ellison's ego (it's rumored that he'll turn CBS into another Fox News).

The financial and the political are, let's face it, one and the same. One hand washes the other. Power speaks to power. 

Also, the economics of late night TV awful: the Tonight Show is down to four nights a week, Late Night lost its band, other late night shows have been cancelled and not replaced, it's a shrinking, dying breed. People would rather watch streaming or YouTube or watch their phones. Who needs late night TV?

But it's a sad moment for late television, for the culture, and for NYC. Something has been lost, never to be replaced. We'll remember late night TV the same way some people remember cigarette ads on TV or other cultural ephemera. Gone, but not forgotten.

P.S. the Colbert show is the only late night show that I went to a taping of, and I wrote about it briefly in 2018. 

Why NYC is Sexy

Mr NYC Links

Just a reminder that Mr NYC isn’t merely the blog you’re reading right now – it’s a multi-tentacled beast with handles on social media. Simply look at the top right of the blog and you’ll see them, then click on each link and travel further into the Mr NYC digital world.

Classic Mr NYC

I recently blogged about the 1985 NYC crime classic movie Year of the Dragon by the mysterious New York director Michael Cimino. I blogged a few times about Cimino over the years, and you read all those posts here.

But you might not have known that, during the 1960s, when he was a young aspiring filmmaker in NYC, he made some brilliant TV commercials, including this one for United Airlines. This was the height of the Mad Men era, when advertising was become a respected artform all its own, and this is the kind of ad that Don Draper might have dreamed up. 

Anyway, this short commercial is worth watching, the start of the career for a director who would achieve greatness -- and infamy. 

Egos Run Amok!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Now that Zohran has won the NYC Democratic mayoral primary, former Governor Cuomo and current Mayor Adams (as well as Republican gadfly Curtis Sliwa) are still running in the general election. Cuomo is running as an independent because he's a sore loser, Adams is running as an independent because he has no reason not to, and Sliwa is running because he's a publicity hound.

It's egos run amok! And that's what makes it funny.

But what makes it sad is that the vast majority of New Yorkers do not a want any of these guys as mayor and yet they're still running because a bunch of billionaires and cryto-bros are spending a fortune, several fortunes actually, trying to stop Zohran. It's a perfect example of how the will of the people, majority of the rule, is being thwarted by the oligiarchy. 

New Yorkers want an honest, smart, hardworking guy who cares about their issues and doesn't putting his or her ego first. That's what Zohran is and that's what his campaign is about. But because a bunch of super-rich pricks don't want him the rest of us must suffer the tomfoolery of hacks, losers, and crooks.

More and more, everyday, I understand why communism happened.

Review: "Year of the Dragon" (1985)

The subject of immigration has been a political hot topic for years, decades, now. It's a paradox: America is a country built by immigrants, almost all of us are the children of immigrants, and yet most of this country hates immigrants. 

America is a contradictory country if there ever was one.

But a lot of the war of American immigration comes between those whose families have been here for years, decades, or centuries and more recent arrivals. For a lot of people, the old immigrants (i.e. them or their families, usually white) were great but the new ones (usually not white) ... not so much.

One of my favorite movies about the clash between the Old World and the New, between the nativist Whites and non-White arrivals, is the 1985 crime flick Year of the Dragon that came out in the summer of 1985, forty friggin' years ago. 

It's a tight, fast-paced crime thriller about an out-of-control NYC cop named Stanley White (played amazingly by Mickey Rourke at the height of his 1980's movie career) who is determined to take down the Chinatown gangs, the Triads. The Triads are at war with the Italian mob, the Thai mobs, as well as each other. The main crime boss Stanley is trying to bust is a young, handsome, very smart guy named Joy Tai (played really well by John Lone). 

The problem is that Stanley is being thwarted by his bosses in the police department who are willing to look the other way as long as they get their bribes. Into the mix comes a young, gorgeous, Asian-American TV reporter (played by an ex-model named Arianne) who wants to help Stanley bust the gangs, free the slave labor that the crime bosses exploit, and make Chinatown a crime-free, honest place. (In their first meeting he tells her, "You're a helluva lot sexier than those other broads on the other channels." Sweet man.)

See, Stanley is a tough, politically-incorrect, totally honest, incorruptible cop who doesn't care how the Chinese did things in the old country, or how they ignore law enforcement -- no, he's gonna make them follow the law like everyone else, "even the Polacks." What evolves is a cool story about how personalities, violence, greed, and an overwhelming passion for culture and justice make NYC (and America) a wild place. I won't give it away but the ending chase scene is classic. Quentin Tarantino himself said it's one of his favorite scenes in all of cinema, and that Year of the Dragon is one of his personal favorites. 

Mickey Rourke is great in this movie, a really fun, blazing talent. It's a shame that his movie career became so hit or miss (mostly miss) after this but his perfomance is a reminder of what a talent he is. John Lone was also great in this movie, and shortly after that he starred in the 1987 Best Picture Oscar-winner The Last Emperor because of his performance in this movie. The only sore point is Arianne - she really can't act and she didn't have much a movie career after this. Even the director said afterwards about her performance "I tried ..." But all of the other actors are good, and 

Year of the Dragon was the first movie that director Michael Cimino made after the historic debacle of Heaven's Gate in 1980. Cimino's first movie, the 1974 Clint Eastwood crime caper Thunderbolt & Lightfoot had made Cimino a notable director but then his 1978 operatic Vietnam masterpiece The Deer Hunter made him an Oscar-winning, big-time director. But his attempt to make another epic masterpiece with the Western Heaven's Gate was such an overlong, ponderous and financial failure that he didn't make another movie until this one in 1985 -- and it was a return to form, in a way, back to the taught crime movie that started his career. And interestingly, even though this movie really captures Manhattan's Chinatown well, you really feel and small the streets when you watch it, it was actually all shot on a soundstage in North Carolina!

Cimino was an intriguing figure -- a director of both great talent and great sloppiness. I've blogged about his bizarre life and career many times over the years but when he hit -- like with Thunderbolt, Deer Hunter and Year of the Dragon, he hit the bullseye. 

Even though this movie came out forty years ago, I think it's more relevant than ever. Watch the whole thing below and let me know what you think!

Barely Dressed, Wildly Free: NYC's Weirdest Party

 

Congestion Pricing: It's a Hit!

In April 2007, literally just over a month after I started this blog, I first blogged about then-Mayor Bloomberg's proposal for congestion pricing.

That was 18 friggin' years ago! At the time, the politics for it were awful  and legislation for it kept dying ... and dying ... and dying. Finally, it passed, although there were lawsuits, the governor delayed its implementation, and there was even intervention from the criminals in the Trump administration to stop it.

Well, it all eventually failed. 

Three mayors, four governors, four presidents, and more than 3000+ blog posts later, congestion pricing finally took effect at the beginning of this year. And now the results are in and it's clear as day: congestion pricing is a smashing success!

It has generated $500 million in revenue in six months, and will generate a billion by the end of the year that will go to MTA improvements. Traffic delays are down, cars are getting through the tunnels faster, traffic deaths are down, and more people are using public transportation which is good for the environment and good for MTA revenues.

This is what good, people-focused public policy looks like, and BRAVO to all the politicians and activists who made it happen and SHAME to all those who tried to stop it!

Mets vs. Yankees -- July 5th, 2025

Excellent subway series game. Both teams played well but the Mets played REALLY well, and the final score was a stunning 12-6 (Mets win).

Not to sound too arrogant but I think this game might go down in history, like the 1951 Shot Heard 'Round the World. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but it was an amazingly tense, high pressure game -- the kind of game you want to see when you shell out dough and sit in a blazing hot stadium for three hours. And don't usually see both teams scoring like that in one game.

And damn -- Pete Alonso is one helluva power hitter, the dude made two homers in the game, and he's closing in on Daryl Strawberry's record. Wow!

I did the best I could getting pictures and videos but our seats weren't great and people kept getting up and down in front of us so here's my personal pics/vids:

And here's the game:

Two Classy Brits Talk Zohran Mamdani

There's nother weirder than listening to two upper class British dudes talk about NYC politics. Last year they talked about the legal predicament of Mayor Adams (that was interesting/weird) but this conversation, starting at 9:24, is really interesting -- they're impressed by Zohran and his superior political skills.

I hope they interview him sometime -- truly evidence that NYC is the Global City. 

Zohran Wins ... BY A LOT!

Three weeks ago I asked the question Can Zohran Win?

Seemed reasonable at the time, the polls were close and Andrew Cuomo looked like the favorite in the Mayoral Democratic primary.

Well, now it's official -- Zohran won by 12%!

That's, yeah, A LOT -- and basically unheard of in a multi-candidate, competitive primary. 

Now its onto November where Zohran will be running against the insane Curtis Sliva (the GOP candidate) and the corrupt failed Mayor Adams who's running as an independent. It's gonna be a rough, nasty, ugly campaign but, fingers crossed, hopefully Zohran triumphs and Eric can go back to New Jersey and Curtis can go home to his cats. 

Excelsior! 

Mr NYC Described by AI