Nellie McKay

Who are your favorite New Yorkers?
Nellie McKay: I have to say, not mayor Bloomberg [Laughs]. Oh boy.… The beauty of New York is that it’s such a melting pot, and I’m not even sure who’s a New Yorker or not. I would say the activists, whether they’re defending Harlem from expansion, or Willets Point or the Atlantic Yards project. Or the animal-rights activists who are out there handing out leaflets outside of KFC in the dead of winter or doing vegan outreach at Penn Station. These are the people who give New York its life, along with, if I may say so, the artists.

What’s the biggest thing that’s happened to the city in the past 13 years?
Nellie McKay: Unfortunately, the city’s been sold to the rich, and development is out of control. I feel the city is losing a lot of its character and a lot of its diversity. Those are positives that are going away from the city, and so if we can work and stave off people who are in it to make a killing and instead retain a lot of the things we love the most, that’s the way to go. I would hold all new development and focus on restoration and the creation of more affordable housing. The essence of New York is its mixture of cultures and classes and races. I would also put a halt to any more chain stores opening up anywhere, because the essence of New York is its small businesses.

What’s your favorite place or thing in New York?
Nellie McKay: I really love Vegetarian’s Paradise 2; Smalls, the jazz club; the Uptown Juice Bar on 125th. I love the Staten Island Ferry.

What’s your personal favorite moment in New York? Where were you, and what was happening?
Nellie McKay: When we came here we didn’t have any money, and Mom just used to push me around in my stroller, just looking at the lights. [Laughs] That was the big adventure, but I can’t say I’ve ever been happier.

What’s the future of New York? What are your hopes, and what needs to happen?
Nellie McKay: We can always use more music and street vendors. We need more junk-food vegan restaurants. Too many of them are upscale. New York has got to remain a diverse and affordable city, not a theme park for the rich. Since we have a surplus of trendy glass towers and university sprawl and a shortage of affordable housing, all new development should address the needs of the poorest residents, who contribute so much to the culture of all five boroughs. Beyond that, the focus should be not on demolition/reconstruction but on the restoration of what’s already here. Preserving old buildings would stop real-estate profiteers from wasting centuries of sweat and sacrifice in pursuit of a hasty buck. Development is the bane of city life—choking roads, fouling the air and destroying local history, brick by bulldozed brick. New York deserves better.

Horses don’t belong in traffic. Councilman Tony Avella has introduced a bill that would ban horse-drawn carriages throughout the city. This deserves support from all who care about animals, and all who care about safety. Also introduced by Avella is a resolution calling on the state legislature to prohibit the production of foie gras—diseased liver, induced by force-feeding of ducks and geese—in New York State. New York has been one of the epicenters of the antitorture movement; nonhuman animals deserve equal mercy. To find out more, visit humanenyc.org, where you can see how your representative ranks on the League of Humane Voters NYC scorecard.

If you could have a drink with anyone else on this Top 40 list, who would it be?
Nellie McKay: Anderson Cooper, if I was gay.

What does Time Out mean to you?
Nellie McKay: Endless choice, an unsettling amount of options—hazy nights, twinkling lights, necessary fights.

Complete the sentence: New York is…
Nellie McKay: …home to some of the best dollar stores on Earth.

McKay performs at Spiegelworld Oct 12.

Next: Christopher Wheeldon >

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