ABSTRACT
A performance club owner in Dumbo told me that artists are now leaving for Berlin, Germany where public interests are better distributed to arts and cultures (interview, personal communication, December 8, 2009). He voluntarily invoked Florida’s (2004) “creative city” thesis to underscore how arts and cultures are important to the competitiveness of cities, and to criticize the municipality’s inattention to subculturally important nightlife. On the other hand, Mayor Bloomberg, who is ironically equally inspired by Florida, frequently ensures the public of the city’s place as one of the world’s foremost cultural and artist centers. In tandem, the City’s marketing branch, NYC & Company, boasts of the city’s jubilant, fancy nightlife on its website as one of the symbols of the city’s attractions. This is the irony that has come with the “nightlife fix” in the city. The governmental as well as academic buzz over creativity and nightlife is actually a recognition that comes only when they are enmeshed with urban economic growth.
