Bushwick City Councilman Introduces 'Night Mayor' Legislation To Protect DIY Businesses

BUSHWICK, NEW YORK — The city might actually get its own night mayor.

Brooklyn City Councilman Rafael Espinal proposed legislation on Thursday to create a “night mayor” whose office would help nightclub, concert hall and bar owners navigate a web of bureaucracy and the fees they face when they fail to meet city codes.

The bill proposes the creation of the Office of Nightlife that would monitor late-night businesses, help those business cope with licenses, permits and code violations, and propose new policies to help protect small DIY spaces from closing.

“For so long the nightlife industry has not had anyone advocating on its behalf,” said Espinal said in a statement.

“This is an issue I have been working on for a long time as a way to preserve and foster what makes NYC so great: its iconic nightlife.”

The bill is one of two Espinal is pushing to protect small venue owners in his district — he’s also drafting legislation to ban the “Footloose” law which outlaws dancing in unlicensed spaces.

The night mayor and “Footloose” bills are slated to be debated in a Consumer Affairs Oversight hearing on the city’s nightlife industry on June 19.

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