Select Takeaways and Points of Discussion:
Nightlife and Night Time Economy
- Nightlife is a factor that reaches beyond individual venues or subcultures. Issues are as far reaching as economic development, affordability and access equity. Who can participate in life after dark and what are possible obstacles? How does it affect housing prices and the cost of nightlife itself? What are the impacts on the work/life balance and talent retention- especially for smaller companies that may not be able to pay top salaries - but who offer an interesting city to work in? How does nightlife impact suppliers, contractors and each person that is navigating the city at night?
- What do we mean, when we say nightlife? The term references far beyond partying. Discussions centred on the idea that by combining spaces, and create diverse options for people to go to at night that include: creative spaces, co-working spaces, fine dining, experiences, accessibility to education, libraries shopping, markets, food halls and more. The key to efficient and diverse spaces is adaptability and reuse.
- The government, the public and nightlife communities, define nightlife issues in different ways. Cities tend to want Night Mayors to talk about noise and littering, whilst the music scene and community want them to address policing policies and transportation. How can we bring the two together?
Stakeholders and Communities
- Getting the public and/or government involved can be a challenge when we try to discuss nightlife and 24h city issues. How do we get decision makers and the community on board?
- Many decision makers follow their instincts rather than research and fact-based analysis. The argument was brought up in the context of curfews and drinking ages as well as drug policy. Surprisingly, where there is less regulation it leads to more safety and fewer issues, which, to some, seems counterintuitive.
- 24 hour cities, by expanding hours of bar and club operation, enable fewer restrictions for club revenues and regulations. Staggering closing times tends to create safer cities, increased profit and more adaptable spaces.
Technology and Design
- Technical topics and solutions are ultimately about people. What problems are we trying to solve? What ethical challenges do we have to face? For whom do we develop our technical solutions? Can all sections of the population benefit equally? Whose interests do we cater to?
- Transportation is a huge challenge for the 24 hour-city, which highlights a lot of other issues such as equity, affordability, public and private partnerships. Cities have to look into reliable transport networks, including micro transport solutions. Discussants encouraged city official to pioneer new transport solutions.
- How can data be used to protect music venues and for placemaking? How can we monitor gentrification and analyse the quality of content? Projects like the
Creative Footprint and
CityScopes need to team up to involve all stakeholders into the process.
- How can we liberate existing knowledge and existing solutions from their institutional silos and connect them better? A lot of good ideas are already out there but not enough people know about them.