The Night Mayor, a position first created in Amsterdam, has been taken up by cities around the world, first in Europe and now in more and more American cities.
The idea of a Night Mayor may sound fun or whimsical, but this is a position built for handling the very real issues. In any city, the population will divide itself between people who want to go to sleep at night and people who want to go out and seek entertainment. The Night Mayor is focused on adjudicating conflicts between the two and making sure a city and its bureaucracy is responsive to the entertainment and hospitality businesses that make its city distinct and give it charm.
These issues are not unique to the Netherlands. "Pittsburgh got its first “nighttime economy coordinator” three years ago, around the time Milan started in Amsterdam. Orlando Florida, recently created a “’bar czar’ position," Natalie Delgadillo reports in Governing.
FULL STORY: The Rise of the 'Night Mayor' in America
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Urban planners like the nightlife. They like to boogie. But one researcher argues that planners should better understand how to balance the positive and negative effects of a bustling nightlife.
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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