Manning has joined our city government at a heavy moment. Raheem Manning (right) chats with Friday Saturday Sunday chef/co-owner Chad Williams in the restaurant’s bar. Or, at least, I’ll believe that he’ll try. By the end of the night, he’ll use the phrase “strategic governance plan” numerous times and say his goal is for Philly to become a globally competitive 24-hour city. We’ll traverse the city on Arch Street, and Manning will reveal his karaoke preferences: anything by Ja Rule and Ashanti, or “Eye of the Tiger.” He’ll tell me his dream to expand his role into a fully staffed office. Over the course of our evening out, Manning and I will drink cocktails at Friday Saturday Sunday, slurp spicy cold noodles at EMei in Chinatown, watch Miss Lisa Lisa’s drag show at Bob & Barbara’s on South Street, split a chicken cutlet at Palizzi Social Club in East Passyunk, and end up somewhat spontaneously at the Saint. A woman finds her car towed on Spruce Street. Streeteries fill with pleasant but awkward Thursday-night dates who realize their decision to sit outside in the summer heat was ill-advised. Office denizens in sweat-stained dress shirts wait for the 21 bus, stepping around a man passed out on the sidewalk. Twenty-Second Street flows with the WFH crowd toting Trader Joe’s bags. Six hours before Manning and I do shots with his friends at the Saint, I meet him in Rittenhouse. I asked Manning if he’d let me follow him around for a night out, while his appointment was fresh, so I could see Philly’s nightlife through the eyes of someone who’d just been made responsible for helping the scene flourish. If Philadelphians don’t go out at night, the city inches back toward its not-too-distant past - the urban desolation of the 1980s and ’90s. While his job title is undeniably fun, there’s soberness at its core. News outlets fawned, wanting to know his favorite drinks, hangouts, party destinations. The announcement inspired chatter among civic nerds on Twitter: Here was a Wynnefield-born 33-year-old who was about to attempt the totally new in a city typically associated with the old. and New York City - is officially dubbed “Director of Nighttime Economy.” When Manning accepted the role in the summer of 2022, he became the first of his kind in our city government, part of the Department of Commerce’s business development team. In Philadelphia, the municipal position that’s become known globally as “night mayor” - first in Amsterdam in 2012, and now in over 70 cities worldwide, including Pittsburgh, D.C. But if you wanted to, say, throw an EDM festival on a pier, Raheem Manning might be just the person to help you do it. He’s not an anonymous superhero who lives on an abandoned pier and fights supervillains. In case you’re wondering, Philadelphia’s Night Mayor isn’t Jim Kenney in pajamas.
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