Desus Nice's New York: Subway Rules, Borough Loyalties and Street Furniture
In the latest installment of Curbed's NYQ series, Desus Pieces host Desus Nice answers the question every local eventually faces: how New York, exactly, is he?
By his own count, Nice has spent about 42 of his years in the city, and his answers lean heavily on borough loyalty. He still calls Manhattan "the city," sends visitors to Mott Haven in the Bronx for Cuban food, and considers the Bronx Zoo something every New Yorker should experience at least once. He also owns up to habits most locals pretend they have outgrown—jaywalking whenever he can "to impress the tourists" and spinning the cube at Astor Place whenever he passes it.
The interview also touches the unglamorous side of city life. Nice says he once moved an entire apartment on foot, paying his friends in Baileys and pizza, and tested a curbside dresser by biting it to tell real wood from pressed board. He has visited Staten Island exactly once, says the 24-hour subway still makes no sense to him, and pays full admission at the Met because, as he put it, he has "a little money now" and wants to give back to the arts.
What the NYQ Quiz Says About City Credibility
This reading is interpretation; the only reporting available is what Nice says about himself.
What the answers are really selling
Nice's responses consistently circle back to the same identity markers: Bronx roots, hard-won subway knowledge and practical frugality. He is less interested in trading on celebrity access—although he once used his fame to get a quick table at Balthazar—than in sounding like someone who has actually stood on a platform waiting for a train. That consistency makes the quiz feel less like a tour of a famous person's life and more like a neighbor complaining about the commute.
City media and the credential game
Formats such as NYQ treat "New Yorkness" as a scorecard. The questions reward specific, locally legible details: how many boroughs you have visited, whether you know to spin the cube at Astor Place, whether you can fall asleep on the train and wake up at the right stop. The humor keeps it light, but the underlying logic is cultural credentialing. For readers, it answers a quick question—is this person actually one of us?—and for the subject, it offers a compact, repeatable version of their public identity.
Where the interview leaves Desus Nice
By the end, the portrait is consistent: a self-described Bronx baby who still finds parts of the city inexplicable, sends visiting family to Times Square and the Vessel, and insists New York rats will charge at you. Whether or not every detail checks out, the answers give fans a clear and memorable image of who he is as a New Yorker.
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