New Proposal Would Create 24-Hour Nightlife Zones in New York City

Chalk this up under the categories of “You Learn Something New Every Day” and “Wait, what?”

New York City government actually has an Office of Nightlife, including a woman named Ariel Palitz who serves as the city’s Executive Director of said office.

You learn something new every day, right?

Now Palitz has a proposal. In a report submitted to the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment, Palitz is recommending New York City create “24-hour entertainment districts,” where apparently you can party like a rock star around the clock.

Wait, what?

Isn’t ‘the city that never sleeps’ already a 24-hour town?

Apparently not.

“Everything is on the table right now,” Palitz told the New York Post. “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.”

The report she submitted to the Mayor’s Office said that the current “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 adding 24-hour entertainment districts can only make matters worse says 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.”