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“Night Mayor?” mulls Jeffrey Garcia, the newly appointed head of New York City’s Office of Nightlife, with half a laugh. “Well, listen, while beautiful [phrasing], there’s really only one mayor in the city, and that’s Mayor Eric Adams.”
Adams, who’d been given the honorific by NYC’s press corps since before he was even sworn into office a little after the ball drop in Times Square on January 1, 2022, named Garcia to the position on November 17. The paid post was created under the previous administration before the pandemic to liaise around evening enticements and was first occupied by former nightclub owner and community board member Ariel Palitz from 2018 until earlier this year. The concept was a relatively late arrival to NYC, following similarly nicknamed alter-ego enforcers in locales from Amsterdam to Zürich.
“My title is executive director,” newly installed Garcia says over the phone a few days after the announcement, “And my role is to put out the mayor’s visions and goals for this city; the city of ‘yes,’” he says, referencing one of the oft-quoted elected’s recurring phrases. Like Adams, NYC native Garcia comes from a career in law enforcement. He retired from the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau in 2014 and went on to open Mon Amour Coffee and Wine Bar in Kingsbridge in 2015 and Wahizza Pizza in Washington Heights in 2021. He was also president of the New York State Latino Restaurant, Bar, and Lounge Association, and on the board of the New York City Hospitality Alliance before co-founding the Latino Cannabis Association.
“I have a very unique background,” Garcia says, one that he believes makes him particularly equipped to communicate between the disparate fields of fun and the officials tasked with regulating it. “I know how to bridge those two entities.”
“Nightlife encompasses vibrancy, it encompasses bringing people together, it encompasses folks from all parts of the world, all cultures, to come together in venues, and just find themselves in a very relaxed space, in a safe space, where they can just enjoy some great times together,” he says, “Whether it's listening to music, whether it's great food. Our city, that's what it's all about, it’s the city that never sleeps. We understand that we are the global hub for nightlife. And that's what that is to the city, and what it is to this office.”
Because NYC’s Office of Nightlife was created prior to 2020, priorities have changed. Moving it from under the umbrella of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment to the Department of Small Business Services, which Adams also announced on November 17, seems to signal a shift in focus, and Garcia says that a big part of his job is working to maintain the $35 billion industry’s recovery and expansion, which he believes SBS is well-positioned to do via assistance navigating legal matters, lease agreements and city programs.
Even with all the resources in the world, businesses, large, small and in-between, need customers to thrive. And Garcia says tourism is an obvious catalyst to accelerate the industry. But tourists don’t always tunnel to the small businesses Garcia champions, instead patronizing certain destinations in such great droves they’re slapped with dreaded designation, sometimes suffixed “-trap”.
“One of my main priorities coming in here is, how do we get folks to visit these wonderful businesses now in the South Bronx, in the North Bronx? How do we get them to go to Staten Island, to Brooklyn, to Queens? I think that is all about information, and putting these businesses out there, putting these neighborhoods out there, so that people can see there are wonderful places to visit all across the city. Not everything is, you know, in midtown Manhattan,” he says.
Garcia expects that the new move to SBS will bolster his office’s ability to work with the city’s Business Improvement Districts to promote those businesses.
These dual aims, supporting businesses beyond a few dozen blocks in Manhattan, and driving locals and visitors toward them share the common priority of raising awareness.
“It's education on the rest of the city,” Garcia says.
Some of those tourists, of course, might harbor apprehensions about the perceived danger of traveling between boroughs, particularly during the nightlife hours. Garcia echoes the NYPD’s assertions that crime is down, and he says that people should feel safe taking the subway because of the system’s police presence.
“I think that omnipresence helps create that safety, and should help people feel comfortable.”
He also cites the Narcan Behind Every Bar campaign, an earlier initiative by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment to curb opioid overdoses in nightlife venues as one ongoing effort to keep people safer in their leisure time, as well as some common sense measures everyone can take when hitting the town.
“Be responsible. And, you know, just go out and enjoy all that the city has to offer. There are different party safety tips that we have on our website. Just become knowledgeable of the spaces that you are going to visit. And again, just have fun. And always have your cell phone charged. That's the worst part of going out, right? That you can’t communicate with folks. So just have fun. The city's a great city. Have fun.”
This whole administration seems like it says yes to fun. And having a boss with intimate knowledge of your field can be a blessing or a curse. To Garcia, Mayor Adams’ demonstrated fondness for nightlife, is the former.
“That is so great for the city, that we have a mayor that understands nightlife, that loves nightlife and understands what the economic impact is to our city,” he says. “I mean, that’s what he’s supposed to do, right? Put that out there for people to enjoy. And to understand that, you know, this is the safest big city. This is the city that has the best nightlife, the best restaurants, the best bars, so that is great for our city, that we have a mayor that can really bond with that industry, understands it, and encourages people to go out and enjoy all parts of the city, and all the venues that the city has.”
Garcia, himself, belongs to two-thirds of the groups he’s broadly trying to reach—business owners and New Yorkers. Asked about some of his favorite destinations, though, he is, as expected, a diplomat.
“All of them,” Garcia says.