Hoboken business owner and mayoral hopeful Karen Nason wants to bring the “night mayor” concept to the Mile Square City in hopes of breathing new life into bar, club and restaurant scene.
The night mayor, also known as the director of night life or the DON, is a concept that is picking up steam in Europe and is now heading to New York.
As the New York Times highlighted, a night mayor is essentially “an ambassador tasked with giving after-dark activities a more congenial reputation.”
In a video segment filmed with House of Que owner Sean McGarr last week, Nason discussed why she felt this concept would be beneficial to Hoboken.
“This town was originally built on the restaurant scene, the bar scene, that’s what brought a lot of people to Hoboken … Hoboken has more liquor licenses per capita than anywhere in the country,” said McGarr.
“We have more restaurants in a smaller area than New Orleans. And the very important nature of that is to protect that: there’s something very cool about Hoboken still.”
McGarr and Nason were in agreement that should the night mayor position be implemented, business owner Rob Gebhardt would be the right man for the job.
“To have someone that looks after that, that becomes a sounding board not only between the administration and the restaurant owner, or the bar owner, whomever it may be, but also become the person that bridges the gap between the resident and the venue.”
Nason is widely considered a long shot to win the November 7th municipal election, competing against elected officials such as Freeholder Anthony Romano (D-5), Council president Jen Giattino, 1st Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco, Councilman-at-Large Ravi Bhalla.
Nevertheless, she continues to try and establish herself as the only outside-the-box candidate with no ties to the Mayor Dawn Zimmer administration.