Editor’s note: The view from the top of ‘The Dink’

I’ve been eyeing that cupola for years. And I finally got to visit.

Anytime I’d talk to a comptroller or Manhattan borough president over the past decade, I’d inevitably ask if they’d been up to the tower on top of their office, the David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building. (I affectionately dubbed it “The Dink” the day it was christened and have been trying to make the nickname stick ever since.)

The classical skyscraper looms at the end of Chambers Street, like a funhouse mirror version of City Hall below, its proportions squeezed and stretched to absurd and beautiful heights. I’d long dreamed of sneaking to the top of The Dink, high above where WNYC used to broadcast across the five boroughs, and peering down on the government buildings below.

So when the Mamdani administration opened it for visits this month, I lined up online with the other municipal geeks and snagged one of the rapidly disappearing timeslots. And from 500 feet up on a gorgeous day, I felt that rush of love for this city that I get from a bird’s-eye view. 

I’ve done One World Trade Center, 30 Rockefeller Plaza and The Edge, but this was special. It’s a good thing for New York City to have a free, municipal observation deck. City workers and visitors who derided the shabby interiors can now be delighted by the view. It’s the kind of thing that can help build trust in government in a time that’s hard to come by. 

State Health Department Commissioner James McDonald knows that problem, as public health and the government’s role in it has become more politicized than ever this decade. And as Kate Lisa writes in her cover profile, it’s a lot harder than cleaning up a cupola.