Conseil de la Nuit — Night Council

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Efficiency, Health, Sustainability

Conseil de la Nuit — Night Council

Striking a balance between an attractive night-life and residents’ well-being.

Paris City Council

France

Local policy

POLICY OBJECTIVE

Address noise pollution: With DansMaRue, Paris residents can report problems in public spaces, with over 12,000 reports submitted annually.
Make nightlife inclusive: Part of prioritizing an inclusive nightlife is enhancing social cohesion, reducing harassment and discrimination, and making night venues and public spaces more accessible for disabled individuals. Additional efforts include comprehensively combating sexual and sexist violence in nightlife spaces.
Reduce drug- and alcohol-related harms: Paris is deploying measures to create a healthier nighttime environment, and not just in dining and entertainment venues. This means promoting cultural shifts to address violence and criminal activities in private homes at night, as well.
Engage the nightlife sector in the SDGs: Involving the nightlife sector in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and supporting development of eco-friendly nighttime economic activities in outdoor spaces can enhance the environmental dimensions of nighttime sustainability while improving nightlife workers’ well-being and creating new business opportunities.
Increase support for music venues: Paris aims to boost the visibility of support schemes for music venues that invest in security, accessibility, noise reduction, and ecological transition. Annual calls for proposals, conducted in partnership with the National Centre for Music, provide financial assistance to professionals and business owners in the nighttime economy to renovate venues and enhance sustainability.

CONTEXT

The role of the night in the economy of Paris is crucial: more than 15,000 bars and restaurants (25% of the city’s shops), 170 nightclubs, and over 600 venues operate after 2.00am. The city invested heavily to preserve night venues and create the conditions to open new ones, including by temporarily allowing nighttime activities in buildings pending repurposing and by creating so-called “third spaces” – alternative venues hosting parties and recreational events. Paris’s nighttime economy employs 83,000 people, and 13% of them work after 9.00pm.

In 2010, Paris organized a consultative assembly on the nighttime economy which led to creation of the city’s night policy and establishment of the Night Council (Conseil de la Nuit) in 2014.

POLICY DESCRIPTION

The municipality manages nighttime policy, but the process is based on contact points in each administrative department. One of the deputy mayors’ mandates clearly includes nighttime policy, and in each district, an elected official oversees nighttime policies.

The Night Council brings together six categories of stakeholders (institutions, associations, unions, specific organizations, experts and personalities, committee of nightlife users) and eight thematic working groups (New spaces for Paris’s nighttime; Preventing risky behaviors; Discrimination; Mobility; Safety; Retail and work; Nightlife promotion; Ecological transition) which address the main strands of the local debate on the nighttime economy.

KEY ASPECTS

The City of Paris is committed to creating conditions for a positive nightlife and invites nighttime economic stakeholders, residents, and night owls to mobilize for quality nights characterized by well-being, diversity, solidarity, and respect. Parisian nightlife policy aims to foster the fulfilment of all nighttime activities, including rest, work, and leisure. In particular, it:

Implements a cross-cutting and participatory nightlife policy.
Diversifies and expands the range of festive, sports-related, civic, and cultural activities at night.
Regulates nightlife by promoting a party culture conducive to health and well-being.
Promotes equal access to activities and public space at night.
Promotes nightlife by improving information on nightlife diversity and promoting Parisian nights nationally and internationally.

RESULTS

From 2014 to 2020, Paris took 37 actions in 4 main thematic areas to develop, promote and regulate the night economy at the urban level. For example, the Night Council supported nightlife projects like festivals and exhibitions, created a map of outdoor spaces for night activities during the pandemic, explored connections with Paris’s tourism strategy, launched an awareness-raising initiative to limit the use of non-reusable plastics in night venues and, in collaboration with the advocacy group Consentis, promoted a campaign to foster a culture of sexual consent at festivals and nightclubs.

Several services are available at night: night bus lines run from 12.30am to 5.30am, 60 sports facilities are open until midnight (others close at 10.00pm), 5 municipal libraries are open in the evening and a post office is open round the clock.

Policy's Website

Thierry

Charlois

Head Officer on nighttime policies

nuit@paris.fr

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