By Marco Shalma

New York has always lived in tension. That’s part of the charm. A city built on rules and chaos living side by side. But over the last decade, the balance snapped. The city can’t decide if it wants to loosen the reins or tighten them, so it’s doing both at the same time, and the result is a disaster that hits everyone. Businesses, residents, workers, artists, vendors, and anyone trying to do more than commute and go home.

Take public space. On one hand, agencies announce they want activation, vibrancy, culture, outdoor dining, pedestrian zones, weekend markets, plazas that actually serve people. On the other hand, every single one of those things requires a gauntlet of applications, community board approvals, restrictions, curfews, inspections, signoffs, and rules so tangled that even city employees get them wrong. Street vendors are told they’re “part of the cultural fabric,” yet the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection still enforces a legacy permit cap from the 1980s that left more than ten thousand vendors locked out of legal status for decades. That’s not freedom. That’s red tape dressed like compassion.

Look at nightlife. Officials say they want the “city that never sleeps” reputation back. They run campaigns to revive nightlife spending. But they also ramp up enforcement on noise, crowding, outdoor music, even the type of seating restaurants can use. You can’t revive nightlife while treating nightlife like a misbehaving child. The contradiction shows up in the numbers. New York’s Office of Nightlife reports rising complaint volumes and declining venue stability at the same time the city claims it’s prioritizing entertainment recovery.

Small businesses feel the squeeze hardest. The city celebrates entrepreneurship, but the regulatory burden keeps growing. Fines can hit four figures for signage. Inspections overlap. Permits stack. And a 2023 comptroller report showed that commercial vacancies in key corridors reached some of the highest levels in twenty years. That doesn’t happen in a system that’s working. It happens in a system confused about its purpose.

Then there’s enforcement. Some rules are applied aggressively. Others are enforced only when convenient. Storefront cannabis shops explode across the boroughs while legal operators drown in regulation. Delivery platforms operate with limited oversight while independent restaurants face ten different agencies. Cyclists get ticketed for minor infractions while reckless drivers skate past enforcement gaps. New Yorkers aren’t against rules. They’re against contradictory ones.

The irony is the city keeps trying to do two things at once — keep control and claim to modernize. Expand freedom while expanding bureaucracy. Encourage risk while punishing improvisation. So New Yorkers get the worst version of both: a city that’s not flexible enough to evolve and not structured enough to protect people when it matters.

New York doesn’t need more rules or fewer rules. It needs clarity. A city that knows what it stands for. A city that stops sending mixed signals and finally picks a lane. Because right now, everyone’s paying for the confusion.