Community Love Over Capitalism

A REFLECTION ON THE RECOVERY OF NYC’S NIGHTLIFE ECONOMY

by Mariah Chinchilla

Summer 2022: A time and space where the history of house music, Beyoncé, and the state of our urban cities can coexist. In the two years since I completed my thesis, titled “Barriers, challenges... in NYC,” the idea of land use as a tool that systematically displaces nightlife culture is no longer a fringe issue; it has become a movement spurring policy changes to ensure its survival and a nucleus for emerging solutions to solve intersectional urban planning issues.

Cities across the United States are reckoning with the radical disparities that they have perpetuated (see: 'A Lesson in Discrimination': A Toxic Sea Level Rise Crisis Threatens West Oakland by Ezra David Romero for KQED KQED1) through policy, land use regulation, and resource or funding allocation. The cracks in the systems that run our cities gave in when hit simultaneously with the COVID-19 global pandemic, the persisting climate crisis, and the scramble to achieve racial equity all at once.

In my research, I wanted to explore how mainstream culture, fashion, and music begins in spaces like after-hour art venues, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, and how the existence of these places provide a sense of belonging for many people, but especially for Black, Indigenous, and persons of color (BIPOC). In NYC, nightlife is a sacred environment where one makes connections and finds community. By exploring the historic nexus between cultural movements and participation in nightlife, the study found night spaces play a critical role in nurturing social movements and civic participation including but not limited to civil rights, Gay Liberation, reproductive rights, education, and Black Lives Matter. However, what it also found (and what I innately knew), was while BIPOC and other marginalized populations are often the creators, originators, and pioneers of emerging trends, they are also more likely to be vulnerable to illegal harassment2 and over-policing that leads to the displacement and suppression of culture.

According to the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), which represents almost 2,000 music and performance venues across the U.S., an estimated 90 percent of venues were faced with the possibility of permanent closure due to the pandemic. In New York City during the fifteen years before 2020, over 20 percent of nightlife businesses closed their doors due to rising real estate prices, zoning pressures, increasing operating costs, noise complaints, and gentrification.3 These barriers were and still are too much for small businesses to bear, especially when compounding these issues with today’s inflation and rising costs.

For cities, this places yet another strain to provide affordable housing, avoid gentrification, and support the economic development and the infrastructure needed to nurture thriving local artist communities. Our challenge now as planners is to do the critical work to redress the harm and ensure that history does not repeat itself. Nightlife activism can find a home in planning following the lead of folks who are activelyadvocating for solutions in economic policy like commercial rent stabilization, tactical urban design, and dedicated investments to create democratic and cooperativelyowned urban spaces that can thrive both day and night.

In March 2020, quarantine and social distancing were decreed in Havana, important in these times when COVID-19 threatens the health and life of all. From that moment, those who were lucky, were able to work from home. Homes turned into offices, schools, play spaces and beyond. Before Covid, the concept of the “home office” created enthusiasm and was desirable. We used to imagine that working from home would be productive because of the calm felt in one’s own home-the overwhelming silence and the feeling of autonomy provided by being able to decide what is worth your time, the lack of pressure from comparison to coworkers.

Protecting clubs, bars, and venues— particularly those owned by native residents and local communities of color—means preserving and stabilizing New York City’s cultural fabric. These efforts can also encourage public art and activism, creating a pathway towards civic engagement and deployed as an anti-gentrification strategy.

Since 2020, the improvement and progress has been undeniable. NYC’s nightlife has made a recovery, mostly due to grassroots activism, as well as real policy change from the Office of Nightlife (ONL) at the Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment (MOME) leading to direct services, including direct services including mental health support for service workers and publishing quarterly transparency reports on Multi-Agency Response to Community Hotspots (MARCH).

Today, weeks into a nearly universal shift to working from home, for those who are able, the previous appeal of the home office is waning. Perhaps the discomfort comes from the over exhaustion of daily routines or because what was previously your “corner” - has become the place where you least want to be. Maybe it stems from family feuds, a lack of privacy, or the dissolution of tranquility, now drowned out by a continuous stream of distractions. Each minute feels as if everything is happening to you. You may have plenty of space or just the bare minimum: a place to get up from your chair, go to the bathroom (if no one is already waiting), to the kitchen (if there is space) , to stretch out on the sofa (when it’s not occupied), or to look out the window.

In July 2022, Mayor Adams suspended the city’s 25 percent surcharge businesses pay on state liquor licenses for a year, which will help businesses citywide save an estimated $6.5 million over the next year.

Across the country, the City of San Francisco has championed its Cultural Districts and Legacy Business programs—which both launched during the 2020 pandemic—as joint agency efforts to support community development, placemaking, and placekeeping. The Cultural Districts program’s vision is to preserve, strengthen and promote cultural communities, while the Legacy Business program focuses on supporting legacy businesses, nonprofits, community arts, and community-led traditions. Both programs aim to support specific cultural communities and ethnic groups that have been historically discriminated against, displaced, and oppressed.

Globally, the movement is gaining momentum as well. The Global Nighttime Recovery Plan is a collaborative, practical guide for cities that are interested in developing safe and feasible strategies to reopen and reactivate their creative and night-time economies. The guide was published with the input of 130 practitioners, academics, public health experts, advocates, and service representatives from more than 70 cities all over the world, and is meant to be an interactive platform to share frameworks, tools, and practices among cities to map a new future for nightlife.

If spending time with your family is already somewhat awkward, it can be compounded by working from home. Tight quarters, shared resources, and lack of personal space can create conflict and discomfortseeing your mother running from here to there doing housework like an hormiga loca, your father watching TV and your brother playing and screaming. During times like these, perhaps your mother exclaims,

The solutions to our most complex urban dilemmas aren’t so far out of reach. As planners, we should follow in the footsteps of advocates by leaning into the sticky intersections of our work. Now is the time to take in everything, all at once, and see the bigger picture. Once we understand the value of community engagement and the generational expertise of those who have been systematically silenced is when we will begin to build a more equitable future for us all.