There is a new sheriff in town, regarding Nightlife of course. New York City has appointed a new executive director of nightlife with the exit of Ariel Palitz. Jeffrey Garcia will take over for Ariel who was the first person to hold the title. Garcia was appointed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams who had this to say:
“With the appointment of Jeffrey Garcia — an experienced entrepreneur and hospitality veteran who has long advocated for minority-owned businesses — we are also ensuring that the Office of Nightlife has the strong leadership needed to uplift nightlife businesses across the city.”
Garcia is a retired detective in the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau. Jeffrey also owns a cafe and bar Kingsbridge and a pizzeria in Washington Heights. He also co-founded the Latino Cannabis Association in 2022. Maybe more legal dispensaries are on the way. His goal is to widen New York City’s nightlife center outside of the hustle and bustle of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s trendy hotspots.
He has Bronx specifically in mind for nightlife expansion. But, he wants to hit the other 2 lesser-known nightlife boroughs as well “How do we get them to go to Staten Island, to Brooklyn, to Queens?” NYC created its first nightlife advisory board in 2018, trailing cities like Amsterdam and London in giving its nightlife businesses an advocate.
Speaking from a local, nightlife has taken off in the last 5 years in New York. From a dance perspective, I remember when we were lucky to have a headliner on a weekend. Now, there are multiple huge artists across the city almost every day of the week. Nightlife is getting bigger and bigger each year and unique clubs are popping up in Manhattan and Brooklyn all the time. It will be cool to see if the other 3 boroughs can keep up, my money is on Queens next.
