New York
New York Election Live Results 2024
Thomas SchiavoniT. SchiavoniSchiavoni Democrat 56%
Stephen KielyS. KielyKiely Republican 44%
Jodi GiglioJ. GiglioGiglio*incumbent Republican 65%
Tricia ChiaramonteT. ChiaramonteChiaramonte Democrat 35%
Joseph De StefanoJ. De StefanoDe Stefano*incumbent Republican 61%
Trina MilesT. MilesMiles Democrat 39%
Rebecca KassayR. KassayKassay Democrat 50.4%
Edward FloodE. FloodFlood*incumbent Republican 49.6%
Douglas SmithD. SmithSmith*incumbent Republican 65%
Michael ReynoldsM. ReynoldsReynolds Democrat 35%
Philip RamosP. RamosRamos*incumbent Democrat 65%
Daniel MitolaD. MitolaMitola Republican 35%
Jarett GandolfoJ. GandolfoGandolfo*incumbent Republican 63%
Garrett PetersenG. PetersenPetersen Democrat 37%
Michael FitzpatrickM. FitzpatrickFitzpatrick*incumbent Republican 66%
Steven BasileoS. BasileoBasileo Democrat 34%
Michael DursoM. DursoDurso*incumbent Republican 66%
Steven DellaVecchiaS. DellaVecchiaDellaVecchia Democrat 34%
Steve SternS. SternStern*incumbent Democrat 56%
Aamir SultanA. SultanSultan Republican 44%
Kwani O’PharrowK. O’PharrowO’Pharrow Democrat 50.2%
Joseph CardinaleJ. CardinaleCardinale Republican 49.8%
Keith BrownK. BrownBrown*incumbent Republican 57%
Thomas CoxT. CoxCox Democrat 43%
Charles LavineC. LavineLavine*incumbent Democrat 57%
Ruka AnzaiR. AnzaiAnzai Republican 43%
David McDonoughD. McDonoughMcDonough*incumbent Republican 60%
Ellen Lederer DeFrancescoE. Lederer DeFrancescoLederer DeFrancesco Democrat 40%
Jake BlumencranzJ. BlumencranzBlumencranz*incumbent Republican 55%
William MurphyW. MurphyMurphy Democrat 45%
Gina SillittiG. SillittiSillitti*incumbent Democrat 51%
Daniel NorberD. NorberNorber Republican 49%
John MikulinJ. MikulinMikulin*incumbent Republican 62%
Harpreet ToorH. ToorToor Democrat 38%
Noah BurroughsN. BurroughsBurroughs Democrat 85%
Danielle SmikleD. SmikleSmikle Republican 15%
Edward RaE. RaRa*incumbent Republican 64%
Sanjeev JindalS. JindalJindal Democrat 36%
Eric BrownE. BrownBrown*incumbent Republican 63%
Tina PosterliT. PosterliPosterli Democrat 37%
Judy GriffinJ. GriffinGriffin Democrat 55%
Brian CurranB. CurranCurran*incumbent Republican 45%
Michaelle SolagesM. SolagesSolages*incumbent Democrat 64%
Ian BergstromI. BergstromBergstrom Republican 36%
Stacey Pheffer AmatoS. Pheffer AmatoPheffer Amato*incumbent Democrat 51%
Thomas SullivanT. SullivanSullivan Republican 49%
David WeprinD. WeprinWeprin*incumbent Democrat 61%
Ruben CruzR. CruzCruz Republican 36%
Nily RozicN. RozicRozic*incumbent Democrat 53%
Kenneth PaekK. PaekPaek Republican 47%
Edward BraunsteinE. BraunsteinBraunstein*incumbent Democrat 68%
Robert SperanzaR. SperanzaSperanza Conservative 32%
Sam BergerS. BergerBerger*incumbent Democrat 57%
Angelo KingA. KingKing Republican 43%
Andrew HevesiA. HevesiHevesi*incumbent Democrat 58%
Jonathan RinaldiJ. RinaldiRinaldi Republican 42%
Alicia HyndmanA. HyndmanHyndman*incumbent Democrat 86%
Dwayne MooreD. MooreMoore Republican 14%
Steven RagaS. RagaRaga*incumbent Democrat 60%
Brandon CastroB. CastroCastro Republican 40%
Khaleel AndersonK. AndersonAnderson*incumbent Democrat
Vivian CookV. CookCook*incumbent Democrat
Clyde VanelC. VanelVanel*incumbent Democrat
Jessica Gonzalez-RojasJ. Gonzalez-RojasGonzalez-Rojas*incumbent Democrat
Larinda HooksL. HooksHooks Democrat
Zohran MamdaniZ. MamdaniMamdani*incumbent Democrat
Claire ValdezC. ValdezValdez Democrat
Jenifer RajkumarJ. RajkumarRajkumar*incumbent Democrat
Catalina CruzC. CruzCruz*incumbent Democrat
Ron KimR. KimKim*incumbent Democrat 55%
Philip WangP. WangWang Republican 45%
Kalman YegerK. YegerYeger Democrat
Rodneyse BichotteR. BichotteBichotte*incumbent Democrat
Brian CunninghamB. CunninghamCunningham*incumbent Democrat
Robert CarrollR. CarrollCarroll*incumbent Democrat 85%
John BennettJ. BennettBennett Republican 15%
Michael NovakhovM. NovakhovNovakhov*incumbent Republican 50.5%
Joey Cohen-SabanJ. Cohen-SabanCohen-Saban Democrat 49.5%
Alec Brook-KrasnyA. Brook-KrasnyBrook-Krasny*incumbent Republican 53%
Chris McCreightC. McCreightMcCreight Democrat 47%
William ColtonW. ColtonColton*incumbent Democrat 61%
David SepiashviliD. SepiashviliSepiashvili Republican 39%
Simcha EichensteinS. EichensteinEichenstein*incumbent Democrat
Lester ChangL. ChangChang*incumbent Republican
Emily GallagherE. GallagherGallagher*incumbent Democrat
Marcela MitaynesM. MitaynesMitaynes*incumbent Democrat 77%
Erik FrankelE. FrankelFrankel Republican 23%
Jo Anne SimonJ. SimonSimon*incumbent Democrat 94%
Brett WynkoopB. WynkoopWynkoop Conservative 6%
Maritza DavilaM. DavilaDavila*incumbent Democrat
Erik DilanE. DilanDilan*incumbent Democrat
Latrice WalkerL. WalkerWalker*incumbent Democrat 92%
Berneda JacksonB. JacksonJackson Republican 8%
Stefani ZinermanS. ZinermanZinerman*incumbent Democrat
Phara ForrestP. ForrestForrest*incumbent Democrat
Monique Chandler-WatermanM. Chandler-WatermanChandler-Waterman*incumbent Democrat
Jaime WilliamsJ. WilliamsWilliams*incumbent Democrat
Nikki LucasN. LucasLucas*incumbent Democrat
Charles FallC. FallFall*incumbent Democrat
Michael ReillyM. ReillyReilly*incumbent Republican
Sam PirozzoloS. PirozzoloPirozzolo*incumbent Republican 58%
Matthew MobiliaM. MobiliaMobilia Democrat 42%
Michael TannousisM. TannousisTannousis*incumbent Republican
Grace LeeG. LeeLee*incumbent Democrat
Deborah GlickD. GlickGlick*incumbent Democrat
Linda RosenthalL. RosenthalRosenthal*incumbent Democrat
Edward GibbsE. GibbsGibbs*incumbent Democrat
Micah LasherM. LasherLasher Democrat
Jordan WrightJ. WrightWright Democrat 91%
Seson AdamsS. AdamsAdams Republican 9%
Al TaylorA. TaylorTaylor*incumbent Democrat 87%
Joziel AndujarJ. AndujarAndujar Republican 13%
Manny De Los SantosM. De Los SantosDe Los Santos*incumbent Democrat
Alex BoresA. BoresBores*incumbent Democrat 74%
Awadhesh GuptaA. GuptaGupta Republican 26%
Harvey EpsteinH. EpsteinEpstein*incumbent Democrat
Tony SimoneT. SimoneSimone*incumbent Democrat
Rebecca SeawrightR. SeawrightSeawright*incumbent Democrat
Landon DaisL. DaisDais*incumbent Democrat 75%
Norman Sobe McGillN. McGillMcGill Republican 21%
George AlvarezG. AlvarezAlvarez*incumbent Democrat 74%
John SantiagoJ. SantiagoSantiago Republican 26%
Chantel JacksonC. JacksonJackson*incumbent Democrat 80%
Sharon DarbyS. DarbyDarby Republican 16%
John ZaccaroJ. ZaccaroZaccaro*incumbent Democrat 68%
Nicholas MarriccoN. MarriccoMarricco Republican 27%
Jeffrey DinowitzJ. DinowitzDinowitz*incumbent Democrat 77%
Kevin PazminoK. PazminoPazmino Republican 23%
Michael BenedettoM. BenedettoBenedetto*incumbent Democrat 69%
Juan De la CruzJ. De la CruzDe la Cruz Republican 31%
Carl HeastieC. HeastieHeastie*incumbent Democrat 89%
Stephanie LiggioS. LiggioLiggio Republican 11%
Amanda SeptimoA. SeptimoSeptimo*incumbent Democrat 77%
Rosaline NievesR. NievesNieves Republican 20%
Emerita TorresE. TorresTorres Democrat 79%
Kelly AtkinsonK. AtkinsonAtkinson Republican 18%
Yudelka TapiaY. TapiaTapia*incumbent Democrat 75%
Woodrow Hines, Jr.W. Hines, Jr.Hines, Jr. Republican 23%
Karines ReyesK. ReyesReyes*incumbent Democrat
Amy PaulinA. PaulinPaulin*incumbent Democrat 61%
Thomas FixT. FixFix Republican 39%
Gary PretlowG. PretlowPretlow*incumbent Democrat
Nader SayeghN. SayeghSayegh*incumbent Democrat 55%
John IsaacJ. IsaacIsaac Republican 45%
Steven OtisS. OtisOtis*incumbent Democrat 62%
Katie MangerK. MangerManger Republican 38%
MaryJane ShimskyM. ShimskyShimsky*incumbent Democrat 59%
Alessandro CroccoA. CroccoCrocco Republican 41%
Chris BurdickC. BurdickBurdick*incumbent Democrat
Matthew SlaterM. SlaterSlater*incumbent Republican 64%
Zachary CouzensZ. CouzensCouzens Democrat 36%
Dana LevenbergD. LevenbergLevenberg*incumbent Democrat 60%
Michael CapalboM. CapalboCapalbo Republican 40%
Patrick CarrollP. CarrollCarroll Democrat 58%
Ronald DizR. DizDiz Republican 42%
John McGowanJ. McGowanMcGowan*incumbent Republican 50%
Aron WiederA. WiederWieder Democrat 46%
Karl BrabenecK. BrabenecBrabenec*incumbent Republican
Christopher EachusC. EachusEachus*incumbent Democrat 51%
Tom LapollaT. LapollaLapolla Republican 49%
Paula KayP. KayKay Democrat 52%
Louis IngrassiaL. IngrassiaIngrassia Republican 48%
Brian MaherB. MaherMaher*incumbent Republican
Christopher TagueC. TagueTague*incumbent Republican 64%
Janet Tweed TweedJ. TweedTweed Democrat 36%
Sarahana ShresthaS. ShresthaShrestha*incumbent Democrat 64%
Jack HayesJ. HayesHayes Republican 36%
Jonathan JacobsonJ. JacobsonJacobson*incumbent Democrat
Anil BeephanA. BeephanBeephan*incumbent Republican
Didi BarrettD. BarrettBarrett*incumbent Democrat 58%
Stephan KrakowerS. KrakowerKrakower Republican 42%
Chloe PierceC. PiercePierce Democrat 55%
Scott BendettS. BendettBendett*incumbent Republican 45%
John McDonaldJ. McDonaldMcDonald*incumbent Democrat
Gabriella RomeroG. RomeroRomero Democrat 72%
Alicia PurdyA. PurdyPurdy Republican 28%
Phillip SteckP. SteckSteck*incumbent Democrat 58%
Jeff MaddenJ. MaddenMadden Republican 42%
Angelo SantabarbaraA. SantabarbaraSantabarbara*incumbent Democrat 62%
Joseph MastroianniJ. MastroianniMastroianni Republican 38%
Mary Beth WalshM. WalshWalsh*incumbent Republican 61%
Joe SeemanJ. SeemanSeeman Democrat 39%
Carrie WoernerC. WoernerWoerner*incumbent Democrat 56%
Jeremy MessinaJ. MessinaMessina Republican 44%
Matthew SimpsonM. SimpsonSimpson*incumbent Republican
Billy JonesB. JonesJones*incumbent Democrat
Scott GrayS. GrayGray*incumbent Republican
Kenneth BlankenbushK. BlankenbushBlankenbush*incumbent Republican
Robert SmullenR. SmullenSmullen*incumbent Republican
Marianne ButtenschonM. ButtenschonButtenschon*incumbent Democrat 50.5%
Christine EspositoC. EspositoEsposito Republican 49.5%
William BarclayW. BarclayBarclay*incumbent Republican
Joe AngelinoJ. AngelinoAngelino*incumbent Republican 66%
Vicki DavisV. DavisDavis Democrat 34%
Brian MillerB. MillerMiller*incumbent Republican 63%
Adrienne MartiniA. MartiniMartini Democrat 37%
Donna LupardoD. LupardoLupardo*incumbent Democrat 59%
Lisa OKeefeL. OKeefeOKeefe Republican 41%
Christopher FriendC. FriendFriend*incumbent Republican
Anna KellesA. KellesKelles*incumbent Democrat
John LemondesJ. LemondesLemondes*incumbent Republican 54%
Ian PhillipsI. PhillipsPhillips Democrat 46%
Albert StirpeA. StirpeStirpe*incumbent Democrat 58%
Timothy KellyT. KellyKelly Republican 42%
Pamela HunterP. HunterHunter*incumbent Democrat 62%
Daniel CiciarelliD. CiciarelliCiciarelli Republican 38%
William MagnarelliW. MagnarelliMagnarelli*incumbent Democrat
Brian ManktelowB. ManktelowManktelow*incumbent Republican 54%
James SchulerJ. SchulerSchuler Democrat 46%
Jeff GallahanJ. GallahanGallahan*incumbent Republican
Philip PalmesanoP. PalmesanoPalmesano*incumbent Republican
Andrea BaileyA. BaileyBailey Republican 65%
Colleen Walsh-WilliamsC. Walsh-WilliamsWalsh-Williams Democrat 35%
Josh JensenJ. JensenJensen*incumbent Republican
Jen LunsfordJ. LunsfordLunsford*incumbent Democrat 60%
Kimberly DeRosaK. DeRosaDeRosa Republican 40%
Sarah ClarkS. ClarkClark*incumbent Democrat 69%
Orlando RiveraO. RiveraRivera Republican 31%
Demond MeeksD. MeeksMeeks*incumbent Democrat 72%
Marcus WilliamsM. WilliamsWilliams Republican 28%
Harry BronsonH. BronsonBronson*incumbent Democrat 62%
Tracy DiFlorioT. DiFlorioDiFlorio Republican 38%
Stephen HawleyS. HawleyHawley*incumbent Republican
William ConradW. ConradConrad*incumbent Democrat
Crystal PeoplesC. PeoplesPeoples*incumbent Democrat
Patrick BurkeP. BurkeBurke*incumbent Democrat 50.7%
Marc PrioreM. PriorePriore Republican 49.3%
Patrick ChludzinskiP. ChludzinskiChludzinski Republican 52%
Monica Piga WallaceM. Piga WallacePiga Wallace*incumbent Democrat 48%
Paul BolognaP. BolognaBologna Republican 62%
Michelle RomanM. RomanRoman Democrat 38%
Angelo MorinelloA. MorinelloMorinello*incumbent Republican 61%
Jeff ElderJ. ElderElder Democrat 39%
Karen McMahonK. McMahonMcMahon*incumbent Democrat 60%
Deborah KilbournD. KilbournKilbourn Republican 40%
David DiPietroD. DiPietroDiPietro*incumbent Republican 68%
Darci CramerD. CramerCramer Democrat 32%
Joseph SempolinskiJ. SempolinskiSempolinski Republican 64%
Daniel BrownD. BrownBrown Democrat 36%
Jonathan RiveraJ. RiveraRivera*incumbent Democrat
Andrew MolitorA. MolitorMolitor Republican 63%
Mike BobseineM. BobseineBobseine Democrat 37%
New York
Essential New York City Movies Picked by Ira Sachs and Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein
Film
‘Make Way for Tomorrow’ (1937), directed by Leo McCarey
The log line: After the bank forecloses on their home, an elderly couple must separate, each living with a different one of their adult children.
The pitch: “It’s a film that Orson Welles famously said ‘would make a stone cry,’” says Sachs, 60, about McCarey’s movie, singling out a long sequence at the end that depicts “a date through certain lobbies and bars of New York City that offers a snapshot of Midtown in the ’30s.”
‘The World of Henry Orient’ (1964), directed by George Roy Hill
The log line: A wily 14-year-old girl and her best friend follow a ridiculous concert pianist, on whom they have a crush, around the city.
The pitch: Hill’s 1960s romp inspired Sachs’s film “Little Men” (2016), which is about boys around the same age as these protagonists. “It’s an extraordinarily sweet film that also seems, to me, very honest,” he says.
‘Coming Apart’ (1969), directed by Milton Moses Ginsberg
The log line: Rip Torn plays an obsessive psychiatrist who secretly films all the women passing through his home office, inadvertently capturing his own mental breakdown.
The pitch: Shot in one room with a fixed camera, Ginsberg’s film “really feels of a time,” says Sachs. It’s also “very sexual and very free,” reminding him of what’s possible when it comes to making movies.
‘Deadly Hero’ (1975), directed by Ivan Nagy
The log line: A disturbed, racist cop saves a cellist from a crook, only to become her tormentor.
The pitch: Harry, 80, and Stein, 76, were extras in Nagy’s film, which stars Don Murray, Diahn Williams and James Earl Jones as the cop, the cellist and the crook, respectively. The pair call the movie “[expletive] weird,” but also say that their day rate — $300 — “was the most money we’d ever made on anything” up to that point.
‘News From Home’ (1976), directed by Chantal Akerman
The log line: An experimental documentary by Akerman, a Belgian filmmaker who moved to New York in her early 20s, the film features long takes of the city and voice-over in which the director reads letters from her mother.
The pitch: “I’m intrigued by how beauty contains sadness in the city,” says Sachs. Not only is her film a “beautiful record of the city” but it captures “what it is to be alone here, to have left some sort of community and, in particular for Chantal, separated from her mother.”
‘Wolfen’ (1981), directed by Michael Wadleigh
The log line: Albert Finney stars as a former N.Y.P.D. detective who returns to the job to solve a violent and bizarre string of murders.
The pitch: Wadleigh’s film is not only a vehicle for Finney, says Stein, it also “has a lot of footage from the South Bronx when it was still completely destroyed” by widespread arson in the 1970s.
‘Losing Ground’ (1982), directed by Kathleen Collins
The log line: Collins’s film — the first feature-length drama for a major studio directed by an African American woman — observes a rocky relationship between a college professor and her painter husband.
The pitch: Sachs calls “Losing Ground” “a revelation.” The characters are “so human and fascinating and extremely modern,” he says, adding that he loves a movie that “exists in some very complete version of the local.”
‘After Hours’ (1985), directed by Martin Scorsese
The log line: In Scorsese’s black comedy, an office worker (Griffin Dunne) has a surreal and bizarre evening of misadventure while trying to get back uptown from a woman’s apartment in SoHo.
The pitch: Harry and Stein recommend this zany tale and borderline “nightmare” for the way it captures a bygone era of New York. “It’s this great image of [Lower Manhattan] when it was still raw, you know, Wild West territory,” Stein says.
‘Downtown 81’ (shot in 1980-81, released in 2000), directed by Edo Bertoglio
The log line: Bertoglio’s film is a striking portrait of a young artist who needs to raise money so he can return to the apartment from which he’s been evicted.
The pitch: Jean-Michel Basquiat stars as the artist in this snapshot of life in New York during the ’80s. Despite all the drama surrounding it — postproduction wasn’t completed until 20 years after filming, and for many years the movie was considered lost — the film is notable, says Stein, because “it’s got all the characters and all our buddies in it.”
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
More in Film
See the rest of the issue
Theater
Quincy Tyler Bernstine
A master of active stillness, the 52-year-old Bernstine (imposing in the 2024 revival of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” above) has that great actorly gift of making thought visible. A natural leader onstage, she compels audiences to follow her.
Victoria Clark
One of the theater’s best singing actors, with Tonys for Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s “The Light in the Piazza” (2005) and David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori’s “Kimberly Akimbo” (above, 2022), Clark, 66, performs not on top of the notes but through them, delivering complicated characterization and gorgeous sound in each breath.
Susannah Flood
Flood, 43, is a true expert at confusion, a good thing because she often plays characters like the twisted-in-knots Lizzie in Bess Wohl’s “Liberation” (above, 2025). What makes that confusion thrilling is how she grounds it not in a lack of information or purpose but, just like real life, in an excess of both.
Jonathan Groff
The rare musical theater man with the unstoppable drive of a diva, Groff, 41, sweats charisma, as audience members in ringside seats at Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver’s Broadway musical “Just in Time” (above, 2025) recently discovered. Giving you everything, he makes you want more.
William Jackson Harper
Unmoored characters are often unsympathetic. But whether playing a confused doctor in the 2024 revival of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” or a delusional bookstore clerk in Eboni Booth’s “Primary Trust” (above, 2023), Harper, 46, makes vulnerability look easy, and hurt hard.
Joshua Henry
There are singers who blow the roof off theaters, but the 41-year-old Henry’s voice is so huge and deeply connected to universal feelings that he seems to be singing inside you. Currently starring in the Broadway revival of “Ragtime” (above, by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Terrence McNally), he blows the roof off your head.
Mia Katigbak
Superb and acidic in almost any role — in distress (Annie Baker’s 2023 “Infinite Life,” above) or in command (2024’s “Uncle Vanya”) — Katigbak, 71, finds the sweet spot in even the sourest truths of the human condition.
Judy Kuhn
With detailed intelligence and specific intention informing everything she sings, Kuhn, 67, is (among other things) a Stephen Sondheim specialist — her take on Fosca in “Passion” (above, 2012) was almost literally wrenching. It requires intellectual stamina to keep up with the master word for word.
Laurie Metcalf
The fierce, sharp persona you may know from her years on “Roseanne” (1988-97) is about a tenth of the blistering commitment Metcalf, 70, offers onstage in works like Samuel D. Hunter’s “Little Bear Ridge Road” (above, 2025). She goes there, no matter the destination.
Deirdre O’Connell
For 40 years an Off Broadway treasure, O’Connell, 72, handles the most daring, out-there material — including, recently, a 12-minute monologue of cataclysmic gibberish in Caryl Churchill’s “Kill” (above, 2025) — as if it were as ordinary as barroom gossip.
Conrad Ricamora
Revealing the Buddy Holly in Benigno Aquino Jr. (in the 2023 Broadway production of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s “Here Lies Love”) or the queer wolf in Abraham Lincoln (in Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!,” above, last year), Ricamora, 47, is uniquely capable of great dignity and great silliness — and, wonderfully, both together.
Andrew Scott
It’s a tough competition, but Scott, 49, may have the thinnest skin of any actor. Whether he’s onstage (playing all the characters in Simon Stephens’s Off Broadway “Vanya,” above, in 2025) or on film, every emotion — especially rue — reads right through his translucence.
Michael Patrick Thornton
Some actors are hedgehogs, projecting one idea blazingly. Thornton, 47, is a fox, carefully hoarding ideas and motivations. Keeping you guessing as Jessica Chastain’s benefactor in the 2023 revival of Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” or as a pathetic lackey in last year’s production of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” (above, center), he holds you in his thrall.
More in Theater
See the rest of the issue
How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.
We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?
Here’s one way to make New York more affordable: triple your income. After moving from Baton Rouge, La., in 2016 to attend graduate school, Daniel Babin lived mostly on red beans and rice or homemade “slop pots,” renting rooms in what he called a “cult house” and a building on a block his girlfriend was afraid to visit.
Then, in January, he got a job as a geologist with a mineral exploration company, with a salary of $200,000, plus a $15,000 signing bonus. A new city suddenly opened up to him. “I can take a woman out on a $300 dinner date and not look at the check and not feel bad about it,” he said. He also now has health insurance.
Mr. Babin, 32, a marine geologist who also leads an acoustic string band, now navigates two economic worlds, one shaped to his postdoctoral income of $70,000 a year — when his idea of a date was a walk in Central Park — and the other reflecting his new income. In this world, he is shopping for a vintage Martin Dreadnought guitar, for which he will gladly drop $4,000.
Finding a New Base Line
On a recent morning at Mr. Babin’s home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where he shares a 6,800-square-foot cohousing space with 17 roommates, he was still figuring out how to manage this split.
“I’m feeling less inclined to just let it rip than I was a few months ago,” he said of his spending habits. He socks away $1,500 from each paycheck, and has not moved to replace his 2003 Toyota Corolla, an “absolute dump” given to him by his father. “Hopefully, I’m returning a little bit to some kind of base-line lifestyle that I’ve established for myself over the last five years,” he continued. “Because the fear is lifestyle inflation. You don’t want to just make more money to spend more money. That’s not the point, right?”
Lightning Lofts, the cohousing space where Mr. Babin has lived since January 2024, bills itself as part of a “social wellness movement” and seeks to continue the ethos of Burning Man, the annual communal art and cultural festival in the Nevada desert.
For a room with an elevated loft bed and use of common areas, Mr. Babin pays $1,400 a month in rent, plus another $250 for utilities and weekly housecleaning.
He was first drawn to the organization through its events, including open mic “salons” where he played music or read from his science fiction writings. These were free or very cheap nights out, unpredictable and fascinating.
“You would see dance and tonal singing, and some dude wrote an algorithm that can auto-generate A.I. video based on what you’re saying — beautiful storytelling,” he said.
“So I just showed up every month, basically, until they let me live here.”
The room was a good deal. He had looked at a nearby building where the rent was $1,900 for a room in a basement apartment that flooded once a month. “Ridiculous,” he said.
But beyond its financial appeal, Mr. Babin liked the loft’s social life. “I used to be chronically lonely, and I just don’t feel lonely anymore,” he said. “Which is fantastic in a crazy place like New York. It’s so alive and it’s so isolating at the same time.”
Splurging on Ski Trips
Before Mr. Babin got his new job, he used to go to restaurants with friends and not eat, trying to save up $35 for a “burner” party — in the spirit of Burning Man — or Ecstatic Dance, a recurring substance-free dance party. He loved to ski but could not afford a hotel, so he would carry his old skis and beat-up boots to southern Vermont and back on the same day.
“Going on a hike is a pretty cheap hobby,” he said, recalling his money-saving measures. “Living without health insurance is a good one.”
He still appreciates a good hike, he said. But on a recent ski trip, he splurged on new $700 boots and another $300 worth of gear. “I’m like, this is something I’ve wanted for 10 years, so I deserve it,” he said.
He bought a $600 drone to take pictures for his social media accounts, and then promptly crashed it into the Caribbean (he’s now replacing the rotors in hopes of returning it to health).
He cut out the red beans and rice, he said, but his usual meal is still a modest $13 sandwich from the nearby bodega or $10 for pizza. “If I’m getting takeout and it’s less than $17, I don’t feel too bad about it,” he said.
A Future After Cohousing
A big change is that dating is much more comfortable now, and he feels more attractive as a marriage prospect. “It turns out that a lot more people pay attention to you if you offer them dinner instead of a walk in the park,” he said.
He is now thinking of leaving the cohousing space — not just because he can afford to, but because his work has kept him from joining house events, like the regular potluck dinners. “I sometimes feel like a bad roommate, because part of being here is participating,” he said. “I feel like there might be someone who would enjoy the community aspect more than I’m capable of contributing right now.”
He sounds almost wistful in discussing his former economizing. If it weren’t for the dating issue, he said, he would not need the higher income or lifestyle upgrades. “I never really felt like I was compromising on what I wanted to do,” he said.
He paused. “It’s just that what I was comfortable with has changed a little bit.”
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.
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