"Right, right, we are the outdated institutions who need to catch up with the times," says a person in the attorney general’s office, who doesn't want to be named for fear of seeming �against tech.� �This has happened with a number of Silicon Valley companies. They come in thinking they don't have to follow local laws because they're from the internet.� In Silicon Valley, where The Future is revered above everything, it isn't considered breathtakingly rude to call someone old and out of touch to their face, or to brush off their real-world concerns, or otherwise deem their lives irrelevant.

Tom Cayler, born 1950, scoffs. �Just because something is the new thing doesn’t make it be �This is what we should do.’ You know who else was called the new wave? Hitler was called the new wave.�

Wait, what were we talking about again? Oh, right, a website founded by a couple of art students that makes it easy to book short-term stays in people’s homes.

After Labor Day, Airbnb agreed to turn over the listings of its top users to the attorney general. A fresh set of posters went up in the subway, and for a little while, it seemed like cooler heads might prevail. �We like cities,� Chesky tells me. �We want to help cities. We don’t want to be the marshmallow man.� But once you conjure the monster, it’s not so easy to put it back. Following the news of Airbnb’s announcement, a group of Airbnb hosts filed suit to stop the company from giving their information to the attorney general. �They’re traitors,� their lawyer bellowed in the Post. The group, made up of the people, you recall, who allegedly made an average of $500,000 a year on Airbnb, called themselves New Yorkers Making Ends Meet in the Sharing Economy.

Then, in early September, a group of protesters gathered on the steps of City Hall. �I have to call you back,� said the spokesman for Airbnb when I called him to ask a question. �We’re at a protest of people who really hate us!� He sounded giddy.

The group was called ShareBetter, and it had all of the usual suspects: Tom Cayler, Liz Krueger, Jaron Benjamin, Dick Gottfried. The Airbnbers stood off to the side, demarcated by their button-downs and pricey sneakers. Afterward, ShareBetter would release a parody video of an Airbnb ad, the high quality and the content of which made it seem like the group might be well funded by � �the hotel industry,� as Airbnb wrote triumphantly in a blog post.

The fight was back on, even though it was clearly a fight that no one would ever win. No one, not the rich, not the poor, not the millennials or the old people, ever gets to live in their perfect version of New York. But as I looked at all of them, hustling and sniping and backbiting and hair-pulling and garment-rending and agitating, it was clear: The Spirit of New York was very much alive.

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Jessica Pressler
• Table of Contents: Sep 22, 2014 issue of New York | Subscribe!