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New York Nico Celebrates the City’s Colorful Side

“More Than Likes” is a series about social media celebrities trying to do positive things for their communities.


Before becoming New York Nico (handle name: @new york nico), Nicholas Heller, a popular social media documentary author of New York personalities and characters, was “Mayor of 16th Street” at the age of three.

On the way home from kindergarten, Heller kept in touch with all the friendly neighbors. A security guard at a tile store who turned his hat upside down and made a funny face. Antique clothing salespeople stood and turned mirrors so they could see his reflection.

In a way, it set the template for what would happen decades later.

“Everybody’s going to say ‘Hi, Nick.’ How are you doing, Nick?” Heller recalled.

Heller’s mother, graphic designer and author Louise Fili, nicknamed her son “Mayor” after his ability to connect with ordinary people on the streets. “It’s like what he’s doing now,” Firi said.

For the past decade, Heller, a self-described “New York City unofficial talent scout,” has been roaming the streets in search of “quintessential New York” moments. His New York Nico account — which now has over 1.3 million followers on TikTok and over 1.1 million followers on Instagram — is dedicated to the colorful side of the city—people, local essentials, and just those who walk regularly. We are inviting people to celebrate understandably quirky and random moments. that’s right.

One way Heller, 34, differs from most social media personalities in his approach is that he’s happy to remain in the background.

“The older I get, the less attention I want,” Heller said. “It’s my lens. I think people care less about me than they see through my eyes.”

Fili said that it wasn’t until she left New York that she realized how good the city was. After graduating from Emerson College, Mr. Heller moved to Los Angeles to pursue a successful hip-hop music video producer. “It didn’t work,” he said. Six months later, he was back in New York, living at his parents’ house, unsure of which direction to take his life.

One day, he was sitting in Union Square Park when he saw his longtime idol, a street performer, holding up a sign that read, “A 6-foot-7 Jew Freestyles Rapping For You.” I was. Always shy to talk, Heller worked up the courage to approach the man and ask if he would make a short documentary about him. The man agreed, and Heller adapted the project for his YouTube series “No Your City” about local street characters.

Heller’s approach, whether through a terrorist attack or stating that he was 12 years old on September 11, 2001, and still has nightmares of escaping from buildings, life quickly turned for the worse. He said it was based on the knowledge that it could change to Pandemic.

Heller created an Instagram account in 2013 and took it more seriously in 2015, when “No Your City” traffic was declining. He switched to filming on his cell phone, and instead of presenting a full story, he focused on small moments of life, snippets that captured strange and fascinating corners of the city.

“For me, it’s important to preserve what makes New York New York in all its qualities, in all its glory,” Heller said.

In early May, Mr. Heller left the company. village reproduction recordthe record store he made famous on social media, existed anonymously on the sidewalks of crowded Greenwich Village.

But a passerby turned his attention to a man by his side. This is Bobby, who roams New York City on ridiculously high stilts and was first mentioned on social media by Heller exactly a year ago.

“Hello Bobby!” said the fan.

Bobby is one of the recurring characters in Heller’s videos, including “The Green Lady”, “Big Time Tommy” and “Kyujin”. A man called “Tiger Hood” organizes “street golf”, teaching pedestrians how to hit milk cartons stuffed with newspaper.

“Like I always tell him, they’re the kind of people I either run off in the streets or ignore and blindfold in New York City,” Heller’s father, writer and former senior art director Stephen said. New York Times. “A lot of Instagram is voyeuristic. And I don’t think Nick is a voyeur. I think he’s involved with these people.”

During the pandemic, Heller spotlighted local small businesses struggling with: Hairstylist at Astor Place and Village Revival, a record store owned by Jamal Al-Nasr. “There have been amazing changes in my business,” Al-Nasr said. Equally important was the personal connection with Mr. Heller. “We became real friends.”

In December 2022, the movie Out of Order, directed by Heller and featuring nearly 20 people who he regularly features on his social media accounts, was released. He said it was important to help the people in his videos “have their own careers.”

After saying goodbye to Bobby, Heller walked to Union Square Park, where he surrounded people attending a cannabis rally and took pictures and videos you might see on his Instagram stories later that night. took. His lens was drawn to a figure dressed in a cannabis leaf costume from head to toe.

Mr. Heller is adept at observing people without being noticed. Another of his genres in his environment is candid life shots. A man in a blond wig, high heels, and Santa Claus skirt strides his square at The Times. A woman walks across the finish line of the New York City Marathon. Two Hasidic Jewish men conversing on the sidewalk, gesturing as salaries blow in the wind. (He collects them in what he calls the “Sunday Dump.”)

After the cannabis festival, Heller returned to 16th Street and played golf with longtime photographer Tiger Hood, whom Heller introduced. in the 2019 documentary. .

As Mr. Heller stepped into a makeshift tee (milk cartons laid out on floor mats resembling $100 bills) and lined up at the club, a small crowd began recording. Perhaps they recognized Mr. Heller. Or maybe it’s not, and you simply pulled out your phone to capture the moment on the streets of New York.

Mr. Heller made contact, milk cartons flew through the air, and for a moment all eyes and cameras were on New York Nico.

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