| There's such a sad conflux of economic & opportunity problems that drive self-reinforcing doom loops. Living in a concentrated vibrant space has gotten ever less accessible. So nightlife is further away, less appealing to just go do. So nightlife has less locals you might start to form better connections with over time. Younger generations face enormously scary economic prospects, low or intimidating opportunity in many ways, so they don't feel they have the surplus to go to nightlife. And prices have soared; dive bars have folded left in right in many many cities. It feels like there's been such a march upmarket, that only people with lots of money are targeted for nightlife now. Anecdata, but I've also seen a lot less live music than I used to. Local haunts used to have DJs spinning or bands pretty regularly, we used to have more local watering holes with music & dance, and that's kept being reduced in my opinion. Drunk driving laws are different but driving shouldn't be required. It feels stupid to open my mouth &nsay it, there's certainly much danger, but biking out to a local bar, having some great music, and bicycling home is a pretty awesome. It's an opportunity situation, in my view. The expense has gone up, being nearby vibrant spaces has gotten harder, and countless bars and venues have matched up up up market. It was always a bit of a crazy puzzle in my head to imagine so many people flocking to nightlife in the past, spending so much money, and in the shadow of that old pattern I find myself greatly missing this phenomenon (or it's availability) which felt so hard to rationalize out in my head. |