WHAT WERE WE THINKING? “YOU SHOULD HATE NEW YORK BECAUSE…”
Let's face it: In forty years of publishing from fashion, art and society's front lines, there've been a few stories that, looking back upon them now, seem a bit. . . well, let's say "foolhardy."...
Let’s face it: In forty years of publishing from fashion, art and society’s front lines, there’ve been a few stories that, looking back upon them now, seem a bit. . . well, let’s say “foolhardy.” Our September 1986 story “YOU SHOULD HATE NEW YORK BECAUSE…” might be one of these. (The very fact that it was billed under the tagline of “Devil’s Advocate W,” in fact, makes us inclined to think that our editorial predecessors were hedging their bets even in real time.) The piece is little more than a collection of 71 one-liners pointing out the specific faults of New York City under Mayor Ed Koch (who made the list as “the dorkiest mayor in the world”), and while it a number of its “reasons” to hate the city are fairly inarguable even today. . .
New York is gridlock galore
New Yorkers are neurotic
New York has high rents
Rudeness is the accepted behavior in New York
. . . a good number of these “reasons” would seem to either defy reason itself:
New York has too many different kinds of dentists
New York policemen are out of shape and so are their battered squad cars
New York food inspectors are so untrained that, at one French restaurant, they wanted to test the freshness of a duck by taking its temperature
New York suffers from Woody Allen-ism
However insane much of it might be, the litany of complaints is closed out with a summary piece of wisdom that we do have to admit seems unquestionable:
But that’s why New Yorkers love New York, they are addicted to it and would be bored living in any other place in the world. They are sick.
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
