City Hall Soundbites
During a commencement speech, this mayor said, "There's going to be a lot of people who will hate you. All I can say, have your haters become your waiters when you sit down at the table of success."
Who is Eric Adams?
Rather than serving as outright enemies, these two FOIL characters repeatedly challenge the other's beliefs about blood status, privilege, and personal choice throughout a seven-book series.
FICTION: Who are Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy?
A shy teenager is bitten by a genetically modified spider and uses his new spider-like abilities to fight injustice as a masked superhero. This movie's director famously hides his beloved yellow 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 as an Easter egg in nearly all his films.
What is Spider-Man?
Bonus 100: Who is Sam Raimi?
This neighborhood is home to the only house ever owned by Alexander Hamilton that still stands.
Urban planner Robert Moses proposed building a four-lane highway directly through this park, running underneath its iconic arch.
What is Washington Square Park?
When introducing an appointee with an eye patch, this mayor said, "I am resisting making pirate jokes. But if I were to make a pirate joke … I’m thinking of something with ‘plunder,’ but I’ll be back with that.”
Who is Bill de Blasio?
Rather than simply representing good and evil, this hero-villain pair serves as a classic FOIL, with one obsessed with order and justice and the other with chaos and moral absurdity.
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son. The studio almost fired this movie's director several times, leading him to proactively fire the production team members he suspected were plotting against him.
What is The Godfather?
Bonus 100: Who is Francis Ford Coppola?
This secluded Bronx neighborhood contains the country's largest cooperative housing development, with nearly 15,000 apartments.
What is Co-Op City?
This urban activist is credited with helping stop Robert Moses's plan to run a highway through Washington Square Park, preserving one of New York City's most beloved public spaces.
Who is Jane Jacobs?
This mayor tweeted, "In God we trust. Everyone else bring data."
Who is Michael Bloomberg?
In this nineteenth-century Gothic novel, these two central figures invert one another's roles in a literary FOIL: one abandons society through obsessive ambition, while other first seeks acceptance before embracing vengeance.
FICTION: Who are Dr. Frankenstein and his Creature?
On the hottest day of the year on a street in Bed-Stuy, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. This movie was directed by a BIG Knicks fan...
What is Do the Right Thing?
Bonus 100: Who is Spike Lee?
This neighborhood's unusual name is actually an acronym.
What is DUMBO?
Bonus 100: Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass
A 1930s proposal called for filling in this body of water, connecting Manhattan directly to New Jersey and creating about 10 square miles of new land.
What is the Hudson River?
This mayor famously stated, "There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets."
Who is Fiorello H. La Guardia?
A newspaper prevailed in this landmark FOIL case after arguing that agencies must disclose electronically stored information when it can be retrieved through reasonable database queries.
FOIL: What is the New York Times v. City of New York (2005)?
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action. This movie's director of this movie has recently come under fire for his backing of Black Forest Labs, an image and video AI-generation start-up.
What is Taxi Driver?
Bonus 100 pts: Who is Martin Scorsese?
Its Dutch name roughly translates to "spouting devil," one of the most unusual place names in the city.
What is Spuyten Duyvil?
Long before Uber Air, this 1945 proposal by William Zeckendorf imagined passengers taking elevators to board planes on runways 200 feet above the streets of Manhattan.
What is a floating airport?
In an interview with the New Yorker, this mayor admitted, "I am afraid it will be on my gravestone: '_____: He lied for Trump.'"
Who is Rudy Giuliani?
This 2010 FOIA(L) case became one of the best-known modern challenges to the government's use of the Glomar doctrine, seeking records on the CIA's alleged role in targeted drone strikes.
FOIL: What is ACLU v. the CIA (2010)?
This chaotic crime thriller takes place during the spring of 2012, with the story heavily revolving around Howard Ratner's jewelry shop and a 2012 NBA playoff series in Manhattan's Diamond District. The directors are also BIG Knicks fans...
What is Uncut Gems?
Bonus 100: Who are the Safdie Brothers?
This neighborhood was home to jazz legend Louis Armstrong, whose house is now a museum.
What is Corona?
Engineer Buckminster Fuller proposed enclosing Midtown beneath one of these giant climate-controlled structures to reduce pollution and eliminate snow removal costs.
What is a geodesic dome?