CFRA Live with Andrew Pinsent called up the Night Mayor of another capital city and asked him what the job entails.
Salah Czapary, director of Washington, DC’s Mayor’s Office of Nightlife and Culture says that, like Ottawa, his city’s downtown has still not recovered from COVID-19 shutdowns.
Some highlights:
- ‘Understanding that you have this industry that operates mainly at times when the government is not open’
- ‘In some of our neighbourhoods, there is now a lunch rush because about 50 per cent of our workforce is working from home’ and there is suddenly a problem with trash in an area that never had it before
- ‘Nightlife has been historically seen as a liability and by having an advocate within government, we can shift it to being seen as an asset to the city’
- ‘Our office is nightlife and culture, and I like to say culture is any time two or more people meet, so everyone is part of our constituency’
(Apply for the Night Mayor job) (Audio interview)
Tomorrow: our regular Wednesday Food and Drink Update.
– Martha and Darren
