David Mitchell, beloved North Star of conscientious fogies everywhere, wrote earlier this year about a majority-attitude within Gen Z to find democracy undesirable, with a large portion of respondents also wanting military rule. That poll was in the UK, but who among us can honestly say that democracy in the US isn't in dire straits too, if not worse ones?

Sigh. For a while now I've been off socials and avoiding the news as much as I can, but the only thing keeping me online lately has been the polls for Mayor of NYC. I voted last week, and I feel relief lately not to have had to hold my breath for this one, unlike the last several elections I've participated in.

Now I don't have much to add to the big boring pile of web writing on exciting leftist figures, and I have zero interest in playing the most-informed-dweeb-in-the-room game like most "commentary" (fingers making airquotes) does, but I can't help but feel excited for once in a long while, after years living in this perpetual lunch-money shakedown called New York. MTA prices are going up again, and those "affordable housing lotteries" somehow seem only elegible to those making over $100k.

And so, I welcome Zohran and his campaign targeted at the cost of living, with open arms. As an urban cyclist, I've been especially glad to him call out convenience-culture apps for exploiting deliveristas, while status quo candidates point fingers at them, the hardworking people who deliver their food. How much discussion in the news has been given to this whole industry, sprung up from lockdown-era quarantines and which has lasted because rich kids still don't want to go to the store or cook for themselves? The guys on these bikes are out there year round, braving the cold and the abhorrent NYC traffic system to fulfill orders sent from a smartphone, from some apartment somewhere, from someone with money to spend.

That's tangential. I'm stoked for Zohran, and the bike stuff hits a personal chord. Yet secondly, selfishly, I'm as eager to put this guy under scrutiny as any nonbeliever is. The Progressives are going big or going home here, and I can't wait for the data to say read em & weep when better transit, rent, and childcare each do make life easier for you and me.