New York Press makes it's annual attempt at relevancy this week with it's list of the 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers. Sigh.
We always really want to like this list, but it just never quite lives up to our hopes. They get some good bits in there ("Sometimes it’s funny when a Jewish-American named Larry gets into wacky adventures due to being stubborn and shortsighted. Unfortunately, Larry Silverstein is no Larry David.") but they get just as many clunkers in too. Most of the usual suspects are listed and if not they're probably in the "2005 Loathsome Alumni" list. Those mentioned include: Bruce Ratner, Larry Silverstein, Cardinal Egan, Roger Toussaint, James Frey, Jonathan Safren Foer, Judy Miller, John Sexton, Hily Kristal, Pataki, Schumer, Gawker, the Meatpacking district, and so on.
Reading it we found ourselves having the same reaction we did last year:
Gothamist certainly finds many of the people on the list objectionable, but most of them are so regularly dissed in the media anyway that seeing them dressed down by the Press doesn't afford much schadenfreud-ic pleasure. As well, if the alt-weekly feels compelled to go negative like this once a year, shouldn't it at least do a compendium "Least Loathsome" list? Surely, there are 50 New Yorkers who are smart and elegant and good-hearted enough doing their jobs and making the city better to counterbalance the perceived vulgarity, meanness and greed of the people on the list.
But as the Press didn't take our advice (it's ok, we won't hold it against them), we ask you, dear readers, who are the least loathsome New Yorkers?
