The top Top Tweets of 2023

Every weeknight, City & State sends the First Read Tonight newsletter with a Top Tweet at the very end. Even though Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X this year, the legacy of the bird app endures. Replacing the segment with “Top X” or “Top Post” doesn’t have the same impact, so until a better term for a post on X enters the lexicon, here’s a look back through some of the most notable tweets of the year.

Right here, right now

when do they award the pulitzer for snarky tweets

— Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellNY) May 8, 2023

Top Tweeters

In 2021, she shared the Top Tweet title with NY1’s Gloria Pazmino. Last year, she finished second to a dominant performance by WNYC’s Jon Campbell. This year, the queen gets her crown. The City reporter Katie Honan, who co-hosts the “FAQ NYC” podcast and has been a guest on “Inside City Hall,” wins this year’s excellence in tweeting award. Maybe for her next great project, leading an insider’s political tour of New York City? Here are the reporters who were featured the most in Top Tweet.

1. Katie Honan, reporter, The City – 11

2. Dave Colon, senior reporter, Streetsblog New York City – 8

3. Chris Sommerfeldt, City Hall reporter, Daily News – 7

4. Dana Rubinstein, Metro desk reporter, The New York Times – 6

T5. Jeff Coltin, reporter, Politico New York – 5

T5. Jon Campbell, reporter, Gothamist and WNYC – 5

OMG a hit tweet 

City & State’s most liked tweet of the year was this gem about New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ proclivity for saying bizarre things on a regular basis. It was viewed more than 650,000 times and liked by more than 5,600 people.

Eric Adams’ daily schedule pic.twitter.com/BIFpiS2c08

— City & State NY (@CityAndStateNY) August 17, 2023

Taking flight

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl, became a New York legend after his escape from the Central Park Zoo in February, and we’ve all watched him grow into his new life in Central Park. He has become a frequently photographed star, learned how to catch rodents and horked up a pile of bones. However, this tweet broke our fragile little bird hearts.

We think that Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl left Central Park in search of a mate. It's the time of year when these owls look to pair up if unattached. Flaco's hoots have gone unanswered for a long time now. He is unaware that no mates are anywhere in the region.

— Manhattan Bird Alert (@BirdCentralPark) November 7, 2023

History lesson

Best NYC fact I learned recently: the bridge connecting New Jersey to Staten Island is called the Outerbridge Crossing, but not because it’s the outermost bridge or whatever… it’s called that because it’s named after a 19th century industrialist named Eugenius Outerbridge

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) August 3, 2023

Celeb sighting

No appearance this year perhaps caused more fervor than when actor Emma Stone went to the state Capitol to back a bill sponsored by state Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal to make recording children in public without parents’ consent a misdemeanor.

There is no FOMO like Emma Stone in Albany FOMO

— Emma Hernando (@emvhernando) April 25, 2023

Heart hands

At City & State, we’ve covered the mayor’s heart hands phenomenon this year too extensively. But he normally does this friendly gesture with people who have arms, and hands, and are living human beings. But he broke the mold when tried to lock hands with K5, a robot whose sole purpose is to be a roving camera in the Times Square subway station.

.@NYCMayor with the robocop, which cannot make the heart with the mayor because it has no arms pic.twitter.com/vuvkmslYwz

— katie honan (@katie_honan) September 22, 2023