The City That Never Sleeps could soon live up to its nickname.
New York’s nightlife czar is pushing to create 24-hour “entertainment districts,” where it would be OK for booze to flow, bass to thump and bodies to sway around the clock.
Despite the city already partying like it’s 1999.
“Everything is on the table right now,” said Ariel Palitz, who runs the city’s Office of Nightlife.
“We do know that 24-hour usage is very successful in other parts of the world. People say it might be terrible for quality of life, but in fact we found the opposite.”
Her recommendation is buried on page 136 of a 160-page report issued this month by Palitz’s taxpayer-funded agency, a division of the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.
The report claims that “uniform closing hours” for bars and clubs “can lead to increased tensions when groups of people simultaneously exit venues into public streets and sidewalks.
“Allowing 24-hour use in specified districts, if implemented properly, can help people to move at their own pace and reduce conflicts.”
But the proposal comes as crime in New York is surging, quality-of-life violations have escalated and city leaders have failed to stem raging after-hours parties — with hot spots that include Washington Square Park and Hell Square in the Lower East Side.
Adding 24-hour entertainment can only make matters worse, cautioned Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a think tank focused on urban policy.
“We need to retain New York City’s fragile residential population right now more than we need a few thousand more drunk people in the streets,” she told The Post.
“The city is already having trouble policing disorder. Now think about the unique challenges of trying to police a place where people go to behave in a way they wouldn’t behave at home. You have to wonder if New York City is up to the challenge.”
The nightlife study, drafted by Palitz’s in-house team, “recommends identifying potential areas with low residential density where a limited 24-hour program might be tested, allowing late-night activity to operate free from nuisance complaints or other conflicts.”
She pointed to Times Square as having the obvious potential for all-night carousing.
“Watching Times Square come to a standstill during the pandemic was heartbreaking,” Palitz told The Post.
Under current New York City regulations, drink-serving establishments can open as early as 8 a.m. but must close by 4 a.m. “last call.” Few venues stay open all 20 hours.
Broadway producer Holly Anne-Devlin of Kaleidoscope Entertainment said round-the-clock partying in Times Square is long overdue.
“We have to compete with Vegas and we have to compete with Miami and right now we’re not. Those cities are just more fun,” said Devlin, who launched “Speakeasy,” a booze-soaked burlesque performance, at Bond 45 in Times Square Friday. “We’d love to be able to perform all the time.”
Kori Yoran, general manager of the lavish new Margaritaville Resort Times Square, slated to open Thursday, also welcomes the potential of entertaining guests 24 hours a day.
“This would be a great initiative to help rebuild and bring much needed business to the neighborhood,” he said. “Times Square is the entertainment hub of our city and the world quite frankly, so we think it makes perfect sense.”
Proponents envision the Big Apple becoming, well, a new Amsterdam.
The Netherlands city, long celebrated by global revelers for its embrace of pot and prostitution, launched a targeted and successful 24-hour nightlife program in 2012.
Applicants for all-hours licenses there were chosen upon “strict criteria … that included cultural significance, accessibility to public transportation, and locations without ‘inconvenience to local residents,’” the report states. Applicants were also asked to offer additional daytime and mid-week programming “with community benefits.”
About a dozen venues in Amsterdam were granted all-hours licenses.
Palitz envisions a similar program in New York City: a limited number of licenses in select neighborhoods that come with strings attached to benefit the wider community.
Other international party towns like Berlin, Las Vegas, London, New Orleans and Tokyo offer 24-hour nightlife options — but not the Big Apple.
Palitz says New York must find innovative ways to boost what the report calls the city’s “creative economy” — a $150 billion per year business responsible for almost 1 out of 10 local jobs. That industry was savaged during the pandemic-fueled shutdowns.
The city lost 45 percent of its jobs in arts & entertainment and 40 percent of its eating & drinking establishments over the past year, according to data provided by the state.
NYCGo, the city’s tourism agency, hopes to attract 36.1 million visitors this year — still far below the record 66.6 million who visited New York City in 2019, before the shutdowns.
In addition to 24-hour entertainment, the report suggests changing zoning regulations to boost the city’s music and dancing scenes.
Much of the city’s nightlife was regulated until recently by a 1926 Prohibition Era “Cabaret Law” that restricted the ability of venues to allow dancing.
“Back in the day there were so many more dance clubs in the city,” said Palitz. “There’s a real desire and need now for more dancing in New York, especially in Manhattan.”
As for 24-hour licensing, the report makes no neighborhood recommendations, stating only that the Office of Nightlife will work with the Department of City Planning “and other agency partners to explore potential areas for implementation.”
The process would also seek input from local leaders, community boards and neighbors. The state would need to get involved to implement 24-hour liquor licenses. And there is no timeframe.
“No matter what, this recommendation will fall in the lap of the next administration,” said one city official.
https://nypost.com/2021/07/03/new-proposal-would-bring-24-hour-nightlife-to-new-york-city/
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