New York, I Love You
On LCD Soundsystem, borrowed nostalgia, and the election of Zohran Mamdani
In the days leading up to the New York City mayoral election, I was taking personal inventory of past mayors, from Bloomberg to de Blasio to Adams. I squinted into my memory, wondering if the general quality of life had been so different under each regime I’ve experienced. What I do know is that it wasn’t always so expensive or stultifying to exist in the city. This is something I talk about often with friends, but to hear Zohran Mamdani plainly say the rent’s too damn high, the buses should be free, and corporations and the mega-rich should be taxed more? And then win on that platform? As New York’s first millennial, Muslim, and Democratic Socialist mayor? Even my jaded ass couldn’t help but feel inspired.
For as long as I’ve lived here, New Yorkers have seemed to dislike the mayor. I always think of LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down,” off 2007’s Sound of Silver: an ode to bygone eras of citywide grime, and a mayoral diss track if there ever was one. “New York, you’re safer and you’re wasting my time,” crooned James Murphy, with a mix of dejection and sarcasm. He had lived in the city for nearly two decades by then, spanning the tail-end of Ed Koch’s mayorship, Dinkins’ brief reign, Giuliani’s clean-up campaign in the ’90s, and Michael Bloomberg’s post-9/11 technocracy. Bloomberg’s probably best known for his stop-and-frisk policies, an indoor smoking ban, and the redevelopment of “undesirable” neighborhoods along the water. “Your mild billionaire mayor’s now convinced he’s a king,” Murphy sang. “So the boring collect, I mean all disrespect.” (LCD often closes with this song live, and Murphy tweaks his criticisms to fit the current regime.)
This was roughly the New York I arrived to, in 2009. I was 20 and thought I’d just missed NYC’s big indie-rock boom, but decided to show up at the party anyway. I didn’t have any better ideas for my future, so I found myself a Craigslist sublet and a Billboard internship, got dropped off by my parents, and began my new life in Williamsburg. I tried to get a Blockbuster card on my second day in the city, after an intern shift spent sorting CDs. I carried a Not for Tourists Guide to New York with me at all times and memorized the routes of every subway line that intersected with the L train. Also memorized around that time: the people and places mentioned in LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge,” a cheeky Not for Tourists Guide to hipster music. Or at least that’s how I looked at the song then—as my portal to the Slits, Modern Lovers, Paradise Garage, Suicide, GIL! SCOTT! HERON! At this point, I relate more to Murphy’s anxieties about being replaced in the scene by cooler, prettier, younger people.
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