First NYC Night Mayor Will Be Former Bar Owner Ariel Palitz

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — New York City’s next night mayor will be Ariel Palitz, a denizen of the Lower East Side nightlife scene, Bushwick’s city councilman announced Wednesday.

Palitz, 47, was named the first ever Senior Executive Director of the Office of Nightlife on March 7, less than one year after City Councilman Rafael Espinal first proposed the legislation in June 2017.

"It is exciting to learn that NYC's first Nightlife Mayor is a female with a strong background in nightlife and community advocacy," said Espinal.

“I look forward to working with Ariel as I continue advocating for the independent venues and DIY community that desperately needs the city's support to come out of the bureaucratic shadows.”

Palitz — known for owning and running Sutra and The Flat, where Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher used to meet — told the New York Times her first step will be to organize listening tours, where bar owners and neighbors can air grievances and hopefully, resolve arguments about rowdy customers and thumping music.

“Both sides feel unheard,” Palitz told the Times. “Both sides feel that things are unfair. I think the grievances are almost the same but there haven’t been any practical real-world solutions to address them.”

As the founder of Venue Advisors, a hospitality counseling company, Palitz brings years of late night management experience to the Office of Nightlife, first proposed by Espinal and signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio at Bushwick’s House of Yes in September.

Espinal — who represents Bushwick, Brownsville, Cypress Hills, and East New York — told Patch he drafted the legislation to protect DIY venues like Shea Stadium, the Bushwick club that lost its lease last year.

"Lou Reed and the Ramones come from that culture," Espinal told Patch in May. "I don't want the city to get to the place where those artists are without a space to perform."

The concept was inspired by Amsterdam’s nachtburgemeester program, an idea that has caught on in Zurich, Paris, London, and now, New York.

But, technically, Palitz will not be New York City’s first Night Mayor.

A man named Sid Davidoff was one of about sixty Night Mayors who reported to former New York City Mayor Irving "Oppy" Oppenheim back in the 1960s.

The job had nothing to do with regulating nightlife businesses. Instead, the late-shift officials managed the city — riding police helicopters under the Brooklyn Bridge and witnessing leopard operations — as the real mayor slept.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images