Guest Opinion: Keeping Nightlife Safe in New York City

Dec. 28, 2023: Mayor Adams launches an effort to enhance nightlife safety and strengthen small businesses. | Photo via nyc.gov

BY NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS | New York City is the city that never sleeps. We are a 24-hour city that is the nightlife capital of the world. And we remain the safest big city in America. When I came into office two years ago, we had a mission: Protect public safety, revitalize the economy, and make this city more livable for hardworking New Yorkers.

Our bars, restaurants, music venues, and nightclubs employ workers across the city and are home to every level of our live performance industry. But across the five boroughs, local residents often deal with noise, trash, and crime from nightlife. Complaints can lead to unannounced inspections that shutter nightlife businesses, sometimes permanently.

Just because our nightlife establishments throw a great party, residents and businesses should not be stuck with a hangover the next day. We want to protect public safety, while keeping our nightlife businesses open.

So, last week, I joined the owners of the nightlife venue, Paragon in Brooklyn, to announce a new public safety program to keep our nightlife venues safe. CURE, or Coordinating a United Resolution with Establishments, brings together the NYPD, Small Business Services, and the Office of Nightlife to improve public safety responses to nightlife establishments and better engage business owners by focusing on compliance and education, not punitive enforcement.

Previously, nightlife establishments had faced unannounced, late night, multi-agency inspections, through a program created in the 90s called MARCH. We heard directly from the nightlife industry that this program wasn’t working. We listened to our business owners and residents, and together with multiple agencies, we went work to make sure we were improving safety while keeping nightlife venues open.

CURE creates direct lines of communication between the Office of Nightlife and local establishments and gives businesses a chance to correct issues before enforcement takes place. No more demonizing nightlife in our city. When a noise complaint or trash complaint about a venue comes in, we will work with businesses to resolve the issues, so residents can have peace of mind and quiet and businesses can keep their doors open. CURE is how we protect public safety, cut red tape, ensure better quality of life, and keep business doors open.

And it is all part of our efforts to drive down crime while supporting our local economy and making our city more livable. This year, jobs are up, and crime is down, our streets are cleaner, and we remain the safest big city in America.

We are going to continue to roll out programs that make living in this city easier for residents and business owners — programs that make our neighborhoods quieter, keep our streets clean, support small businesses, and reduce crime. And we are creating a better-quality of life for everyone who lives, rests, and plays in our city.

To visit the Office of the Mayor of New York City online, click here.

—END—

NOTE: The views expressed by our Guest Opinion writers are not necessarily those of Chelsea Community News–an independent, hyperlocal news, arts, events, info, and opinion website made possible with the help of our awesome advertisers and the support of our readers. Our Promise: Never a paywall, no pop-up ads, all content is FREE. With that in mind, if circumstances allow, please consider taking part in our GoFundMe campaign (click here). To make a direct donation, give feedback, send a Letter to the Editor, or contact our founder/editor, send an email to Scott Stiffler, via scott@chelseacommunitynews.com.

To join our subscriber list, click here. It’s a free service providing regular (weekly, at least) Enewsletters containing links to recently published content. Subscribers will also be sent email with “Sponsored Content” in the subject line. That means it’s an exclusive message from one of our advertisers—whose support, like yours, allows us to offer all content free of charge.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login