Meet The Original New York City Night Mayor

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Sid Davidoff used to sleep on a pull-out couch in a windowless room in the basement of City Hall. The accommodations were less than comfortable but it was worth it for the job title.

He was an original New York City Night Mayor.

New legislation was passed on Thursday to create an official New York City Night Mayor to act as a liaison between nightlife business owners and City Hall. Bushwick City Councilman Rafael Espinal sponsored the bill and gave credit to Amsterdam for first creating the position.

But Amsterdam has got New York to thank for thinking up the title.

In the 1960s, a crew of City Hall staffers roamed New York in the late hours, chasing down chaos and putting out political fires as part of a program set up by then-mayor John Lindsay.

It was a period in New York history marked by Vietnam protests, riots, strikes, and the beginning of urban decay. Lindsay wanted a City Hall representative available to handle a crisis at all times — even in the dead of night.

Davidoff was one of about sixty staffers who reported to Irving “Oppy” Oppenheim every night at 6 p.m. and remained on call until 7 a.m. the following morning.

The men and women who served as Night Mayor spent the night in a windowless room the size of a small studio apartment with a secret exit, a pull-out sofa, a desk and a coffee maker.

“You wouldn’t wanna hold any meetings down there,” Davidoff recalled.

During tours of duty, the New York Times reported, one Night Mayor jumped into a police helicopter and flew underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Another stopped by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals hospital to watch veterinarians operate on a sick leopard. A third shut down a ConEd plant because she decided its black smoke was causing too much pollution.

Davidoff was Night Mayor the day Bellevue Hospital ran out of penicillin. He jumped into the back of an ambulance and raced up First Avenue to find out what had gone wrong.

The employee responsible for keeping medical supply records had gone on vacation and not been replaced, so no one had noticed when the stock began to run low, Davidoff remembered.

“I couldn’t do anything in an emergency situation, but it made me understand the protocol,” said Davidoff. “It gave us an idea of how the city worked — it was an important education.”

Davidoff reported back to Lindsay, who later helped create the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation — the public healthcare system that allows for cooperation between city hospitals and is still in operation today.

The Night Mayor system was eventually phased out after Lindsay created a system of “little City Halls” across the City that could handle local crises at the ground level.

“It was a lot of fun,” Davidoff said of his Night Mayor tenure. “But really, we had to go much deeper.”

The system Lindsay put in place eventually evolved into New York’s many community boards.

Lindsay’s successor, Mayor Abraham Beame, officially shut down the program in 1975 and late night emergency calls were rerouted to an Emergency Control Board switchboard, the New York Times reported at the time.

More than 40 years later, the City is about to get a new Night Mayor with the same title but with different responsibilities. The Office of Nightlife representative will help nightlife business owners navigate complex regulations and bureaucracies.

As a partner with a law firm that represents bars and restaurants, Davidoff wholeheartedly supports the creation of the Night Mayor position but will not consider applying for the job.

“They can’t afford me,” he said.

Photo courtesy of Rian Castillo/Wikimedia Commons