Who Runs New York? 'New York' Mag is the New 'New York Observer'

The “Who Runs New York?” edition of New York magazine is surprisingly free-floating and pleasantly daft, stepping as it does right into the intellectual space ceded by the New York Observer. (Don’t believe me? The inclusion of the phrase “moguls and machers, pooh-bahs and potentates” in New York’s introduction is a dead giveaway.) And so who does run New York? The Brooklyn pullout goes for Cobble Hill heroes Jonathan Ames, writer and troublemaker, and Rebecca Collerton, proprietor of New York City’s best sandwich shop, Saltie. The photo of City Hall’s open plan office is fantastic. The mini-profile of Gawker Media blog honcho Nick Denton is fine if not so revelatory, though the sentence “London, 1966: the apex of Mod, the year of Twiggy and Blow-Up” seems a bit hilarious. (1966: The year Ronnie Kray murdered George Cornell and Guyana became independent. 1966: “Star Trek” premieres and the National Organization for Women is founded!) The only thing that seems truly wrong for the moment is the tale of agent Andrew Wylie. That’s all made up for by the hilarious flowchart of backscratching and odd priorities, which is what happens when you ask 13 people who the most important New Yorker is. (Unemployed former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham salutes Charlie Rose! Oh dear!)