Wednesday, September 28, 2011

CMJ, David Guetta and the Toughest Doors in New York




Nightlife News for September 29, 2011
Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

Prince of the City
Tough Doors: The Most Dangerous Place in Nightlife http://bit.ly/oMJjRi

Music


Events


Opinion


New Venues
Have fun.
G

Monday, September 19, 2011

Sports Bars, Craft Beer and Fashion Week Fallout



Nightlife News for September 20, 2011
Compiled by Gamal Hennessy


New Reviews:
Read the five new reviews on my Yelp page including Cibar, Cienfuegos, East End Tavern, Public House and Summit 


Prince of the City:
The Import Lesson of Fashion's Night Out and Fashion Week.


Events:
NY Craft Beer Week 9/16-25. 

New York Fashion Week: D.J.’s Make the Music to Move Fashion Shows "

Fashion's Night Out: Was 2011 the last year for FNO? If so, the city wide party burned out in only three years. 


Health: Smoking in NYC is down to 14%, but the remaining smokers are using different tactics to keep their habit. 


Music: Def Jam Records has been around for 25 years. So much for hip hop being a passing fad. 


Politics: NIMBYs sue Liquor Authority for renewing a license. Instead of filing a lawsuit, why don't you just move? 


Sports Bars: Sheckys offers a list of NYC home team sports bars for every NFL franchise. 

Have fun
Gamal

Monday, September 5, 2011

South Beach, Fashion’s Night Out and the Sex Lives of Bartenders



Nightlife News for September 6, 2011
Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

Events
Fashion’s Night Out (Thursday, Sept. 8th)
For the third year in a row, fashion destinations throw parties to celebrate Fashion Week and start the fall season.

Prince of the City
I’m back from summer vacation with a nightlife travelogue for our sister city down south.

Opinion
Paul Seres, the head of NYNA and a prominent member of community board 4, speaks out on the relationship between City Hall and nightlife.

Culture
A recent column looks at the sexual benefits and liabilities that come with being a bartender.

The new restaurant/ bar health grading system put into place earlier this year prohibits dogs from venues, even the ones with outdoor space.

Crime
Bathroom molester sentenced
A fanatic who sexually attacked a young woman in a bar for refusing to dance with him was recently sentenced to 16 years in prison. Now he will be the one molested in the bathroom.

Obituary
The Motown songwriter, signer in the classic group Ashford and Simpson and owner of New York’s Sugar Bar passed away over the summer after a battle with throat cancer.

Have fun
G

Measure Twice Cut Once


By Paul Seres

The following is an op-ed piece from an operator, community board member and leader in the nightlife industry about the way local government relates to nightlife.

Growing up I’d be at my father’s side on any household project he felt like undertaking. Helping where I could, I found my place learning the basics of simple carpentry by observing him. Until I was old enough, the closest I got to power tools was helping him measure before work could begin. “Measure twice, cut once” was drilled into my brain to insure we could be as efficient as possible.

Somehow, many of the powers that be that run this City never learned that lesson when it comes to nightlife. The nighttime economy of New York, or as we like to call it, the "Other Nine to Five", is a powerful economic engine that provides more jobs and revenues to the State and the City than any other form of entertainment, including Broadway and all of the sports teams combined. And yet with all of that economic activity, the industry as a whole is often treated like a red headed stepchild when it comes to meaningful planning for nightlife activity.

In the never-ending cycle of gentrification, nightlife establishments play an important role in becoming a catalyst for future real estate development. In most instances it works likes this… In areas with warehouses or commercial or manufacturing zoning, one or two brave nightlife entrepreneurs will set up shop, hoping to attract the trendy and the elite. Next comes a few more nightlife establishments followed by restaurants who come in to capitalize on this new found flow of foot traffic. The galleries begin to move in followed by the trendy retail shops. Finally, the new residential development arrives cashing in on the newest trendy area. And that’s when the quality of life complaints begin, even though the nightlife establishments were there first.

For the better part of 20 years, Jim Peters of the Responsible Hospitality Institute has been dealing with this very issue in other municipalities who welcome a strong and burgeoning nighttime economy. His teachings are simple, almost obvious practices that are seldom ever followed, Plan, Manage and Police. If a city plans for the late night businesses, and sets up proper infrastructure to better help them manage, then the easy part becomes policing.

New York has become such a vast and expensive treasure trove of real estate valuations that not many people are thinking past tomorrow. New York just doesn’t plan and has no system of managing nighttime businesses. So it is left up to police to function in a way that is not productive as policing cannot make up for the lack of prior planning and managing by City government. This is exactly what is currently happening in the Lower East Side.

Cities such as Seattle and San Francisco, who recognize the importance of a vibrant nighttime economy, have set up governmental agencies to act as a liaison to these businesses. New York has an office for the film and television industry, offering tax incentives to attract productions of a variety of types and formats. So why can’t New York City, “the city that never sleeps” have someone representing the thousands of employees, business owners, and the millions of patrons who travel not only from other states but from all over the world to experience New York City when the sun goes down and the lights come up. This is something the New York Nightlife Association has advocated for years now.

New Yorkers are forced to deal with an ever increasing amount of issues that affect their daily lives, so wouldn’t it be in the city planner’s interest to measure twice and cut once? Shouldn’t there be designated nightlife districts that would make planning, managing and ultimately policing these areas so much easier so there wouldn’t be these constant clashes with quality of life issues. If my father was smart enough to impart the wisdom of measure twice and cut once, I think those that we select to represent our interests should do the same.

Paul Seres is the President of the New York Nightlife Association as well as being on Manhattan Community Board 4 where he co-chairs the business licensing and permit’s committee for licensed establishments. He is also a Partner in Patuá, a roof top restaurant lounge in the Fashion District set to open in 2012