The City

The Man Glitterbombing New York Politics Corey Johnson wants to empower the City Council. With panache.

- David Freedlander

WE MET ONLY a few hours ago, and already New York City’s second-most-powerful politician has told me about the moment he learned he was HIV-positive, his former cocaine habit, his mother’s love life, his desire for a husband and kids, and how he barely gets laid. He has also invited me over to his tiny studio apartment so I can see precisely how small it is and presented me with a proposed theme for a potential 2021 mayoral run: “Stop Fucking With Us.”

The slogan is not exactly bumper-sticker-ready yet, but to even the casual observer, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson has glitter bombed the city’s staid political scene since assuming the post in January. Flip through social media, and it’s hard to miss videos of Johnson, 35, belting out Lady Gaga from the back seat of his government-supplied SUV, dancing along to “Country Bear Jamboree” at Disney World on a recent Florida vacation, or doing the morning weather on a local broadcast (“It may not be raining men, but there was a little precipitation this morning”).

And it’s true, Johnson’s apartment is so small that it can barely contain the Speaker himself. He wanted me to see it because when he first ran for City Council, in 2013, Johnson, who did community relations for a developer, was attacked as a tool of big real-estate interests. But at debates, he would answer the attacks by saying, “I live in a 319-square-foot apartment! If I am a real-estate developer, I am the least successful, poorest real-estate developer in New York. I would invite you all up, but I can only fit four of you at a time!”