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Future Lions of New York
Since the legendary chaos of 1970s and ‘80s, New York has evolved to the point where the city’s “Disneyfication” is taken as a matter of public record. This is not true, or at least it’s not the whole story. The attacks of Sept. 11 and the Great Recession hit the city hard — as did a tourist-friendly Times Square. And yet New Yorkers remained and innovated. This era’s influencers, more diverse in gender and race than the lions of the past, reflect how the city’s power base has evolved. Here is a partial list of standouts — subject, as always, to change.
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By JULIE BESONEN, New York Times
Since the legendary chaos of 1970s and ‘80s, New York has evolved to the point where the city’s “Disneyfication” is taken as a matter of public record. This is not true, or at least it’s not the whole story. The attacks of Sept. 11 and the Great Recession hit the city hard — as did a tourist-friendly Times Square. And yet New Yorkers remained and innovated. This era’s influencers, more diverse in gender and race than the lions of the past, reflect how the city’s power base has evolved. Here is a partial list of standouts — subject, as always, to change.
THE ACTIVISTMichelle Alexander, a scholar and civil-rights litigator, exposed the warehousing in prisons of African-Americans in her 2010 book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” and as a professor at Union Theological Seminary.
THE POWER COUPLEBeyoncé is Houston-bred, but her songs have New York moxie. She is often courtside at New York Knicks games with her husband, Jay-Z, whogave a generation a new soundtrack to the city with “Empire State of Mind.”
THE LAWMANBefore he was fired by President Donald Trump, Preet Bharara, as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, prosecuted Wall Street fraud, targeted terrorists, cracked down on political corruption. He now hosts a weekly podcast about justice.
CABARET SAVIORA transgender and genre-defying chanteuse, Justin Vivian Bond came of age during the AIDS epidemic and found expression through the downtown alt-cabaret scene as part of the duo Kiki and Herb, playing Carnegie Hall and Broadway and going on to success as a solo performer.
THE VISIONARYOver three terms, the data-driven billionaire mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, had a potent effect on New York: development on every waterfront, pedestrian plazas everywhere, and no smoking in bars. He also established the 311 help line and transformed the city into a magnet for the 1 percenters.
DEAN OF STUDENTSGeoffrey Canada grew up poor in the South Bronx and fought to end generational poverty as president of the Harlem Children’s Zone, ultimately offering social services to 12,000 children and boosting their academic achievements and job prospects.
THE MIXERDale DeGroff started bartending at the Rainbow Room in the 1980s and led the renaissance of classic cocktails made with fresh ingredients, influencing younger barkeepers and lifting night life — and drink prices — to a higher level.
THE WITTina Fey was the youngest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. After her run at “Saturday Night Live,” she created and starred in the sitcom “30 Rock,” returned to SNL to spoof Sarah Palin, and adapted her screenplay of “Mean Girls” for a Broadway musical.
THE INOCULATORAs the New York City health commissioner and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden has confronted swine flu, Ebola and Zika viruses, and now in his role leading Resolve, a global health organization.
OFFHAND AUTEURSacramento, California, native Greta Gerwig moved east to go to Barnard, then soared through the do-it-yourself film industry as a buoyant, intrepid actress and writer; her 2017 directorial debut, “Lady Bird,” was nominated for five Academy Awards.
THE EQUALIZER
A Brooklyn attorney, Carrie Goldberg, was once vindictively harassed by an ex, leading her to wage battle against online “sextortion” and use nonconsensual-pornography laws to stop the hacking and leaking of explicit selfies.
THE HYPEBEASTJames Jebbia, a transplanted Englishman, founded the skate shop Supreme in 1994, which gained a cult following for its genderless clothing line and design collaborations with artists ranging from Raymond Pettibon to Neil Young.
THE NOVELISTBooks by Brooklynite Nicole Krauss — “The History of Love,” “Great House,” “Forest Dark” — have explored new territory as well as common themes of personal freedom, Jewish philosophy and the intrusion of the surreal on everyday life.
SHUTOUT ARTISTSwedish superhero goalie for the New York Rangers since 2005, Henrik Lundqvist holds the record for most wins by a European-born goaltender in NHL history and the most shutouts and wins in Rangers history; founded the Henrik Lundqvist Foundation to benefit underprivileged or ill children.
THE HOSTDanny Meyer opened the Union Square Cafe in 1985, when Union Square was derelict; he brought good food to museums and stadiums and founded the fine-casual Shake Shack chain and eliminating tipping to address pay inequity.
CHARTER SCHOOL FORCEEva Moskowitz founded Success Academy Charter Schools, the largest network of its kind in the city, taking a market-based approach to disciplined education for mostly poor minority children.
SOUND ADVISERJames Murphy, frontman of LCD Soundsystem and co-founder of DFA Records, helped bring dancing back to Williamsburg rock clubs. He hatched a plan to impose a musical score on the beeps in subway stations, and pursued obsessions in other fields, investing in a natural wine bar in Brooklyn.
THE PEOPLE’S PLAYWRIGHTLynn Nottage is the first female playwright to win a Pulitzer Prize twice. Her themes spotlight the use of rape as a weapon and America’s disenfranchised working class.
INFRASTRUCTURE GENIEDuring her tenure as commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, Janette Sadik-Khan set in motion 400 miles of bike lanes and the launch of Citi Bike.
STEM LEADERIn 2013, Reshma Saujani startedGirls Who Code, an educational and training organization focusing on closing the gender gap in tech.
STARGAZERNeil deGrasse Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium and an astrophysical cheerleader, enthusiastically proselytizing through TV and books on exploding stars, black holes, cosmic quandaries and dwarf galaxies.
DUMBO DEVELOPERSDumbo was a wasteland in the 1970s, but David Walentas saw its potential and snapped up 19th century factories and warehouses, transforming the Brooklyn waterfront into a stylish residential, retail, cultural and tech hub. His son, Jed, chief executive of their firm Two Trees, is now re-imagining Williamsburg’s Domino Sugar refinery as a multiuse complex.
THE PROVOCATEURThe artist Kara Walker creates subversive works on power, oppression, racial identity, sexuality and violence through charcoal drawing, collage, painting and a renowned, sphinxlike sugar sculpture, “A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby,” at the crumbling Domino sugar factory in 2014.
HIGH GLOSSEmily Weiss, a tech-savvy beauty writer, got the kiss of approval from millions of millennials clicking on her blog, “Into the Gloss,” which led to Glossier, an e-commerce, low-cost cosmetic line.
THE WRITER’S WRITERColson Whitehead won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and a Pulitzer for “The Underground Railroad,” a high-concept imagining of an actual underground route of escape for 19th century slaves.
THE AGITATORJumaane D. Williams, a Democrat and self-described “activist-elected official,” started representing the 45th Council District in Brooklyn in 2009. He is an outspoken advocate for immigration rights, police reform, affordable housing and anti-gun-violence measures.
THE PACESETTERMary Wittenberg, a lawyer-runner, was the first woman president of New York Road Runners, developing initiatives to make the city’s marathon — the world’s largest — popular as a spectator sport.
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