Meet NYC's First Official "Nightlife Mayor"

Bureaucracy is so not punk rock, but New York City's first-ever Nightlife Mayor totally is. This week City Hall named one Ariel Palitz as the Senior Executive Director of the Office of Nightlife. According to the Times, she'll be heading up a "mayoral office with a 12-person advisory board, a $300,000 budget and a salary of $130,000 a year." Sounds cushy until you realize just how relentless local residents can be when it comes to issuing liquor licenses and filing noise complaints.

But Palitz is no newbie when it comes to conflict or the nocturnal arts. The born and bred New Yorker has lived in the East Village since 1996, and was the proprietor of Sutra, a now-shuttered nightclub on First Avenue.

According to The Lo-Down, the after-dark veteran, who had also served on Community Board 3's Liquor Authority & Department of Consumer Affairs Licensing committee, is known for her "fairly legendary" clashes with residents fighting new venues.

And while she's certainly set to be an advocate for the city's bar owners, Palitz seems to be open to finding some middle ground. Her first official act will involve "a series of listening tours [to] entertain the gripes of those who are bothered by the vomit on their streets or the noise at 3 a.m."

We already think she should get a raise.

[Photos via Reshot, @arielsutra]