The Spark Council is a volunteer leadership and civic engagement program for millennial and Gen Z residents responsible for leading engagement initiatives and advising the mayor’s office on the affairs of young Bostonians. Thursday night, SPARK held a conversation with Boston’s nightlife director, Corean Reynolds, and “local leaders shaping the city’s nightlife economy” at the Boston Public Market.

The panel skewed more towards Millennials than Gen Z. The panelists were owners, CEOs, executive directors, and city employees – a far cry from the local nightlife scene they were addressing. The demographic was further confused by the setting – how are the industry professionals most affected by Boston’s so-so scene supposed to make time on a Thursday evening?

The panelists mainly offered rose-colored recollections of their own nightlife. Moderator Montell Khaldi even suggested the best time to go out in Boston was before cellphones. They opined on issues facing the nightlife economy, but largely avoided the elephant in the room – how prohibitively expensive a night out in Boston is.

According to a social media poll by SPARK, 50% surveyed identified cost as the greatest impediment to nightlife. Roughly 30% responded with transportation. Extended MBTA hours and a repeal of the state-wide ban on ‘happy hour’ are popularly discussed remedies, but are beyond what the city can do without support from the state house, according to Reynolds.

Where the city has made progress is in rethinking its zoning requirements. City of Boston Community Engagement Manager Lewis “Grey” Black called the current zoning process discouraging to small entrepreneurs in the nightlife space, but added that the Squares + Streets initiative should help reinvigorate a vibrant restaurant and bar scene by amending how buildings can be used in certain main streets across the city.

“We’ve got an awesome Allston-Brighton plan going on right now, minimizing some of that red tape in the places where there’s already transportation,” he said. “Rossy Square just went through this process, and so, we’re hoping to see the affirmation from all the restaurants and bars.”

The “not in my back yard” (NIMBY) attitude typical throughout Boston was also called into question. The Davis System LLC CEO, Anthony Davis, Jr., said small but vocal community groups often oppose developments that would expand the activities made available to a community.

“I think that NIMBY-ism and those small civic associations or the groups that form to kind of combat some of the innovation in their neighborhood, we as people who are pushing forward for nightlife and people who want to see changes in our communities, we have to organize in the same way,” he said.

Reynolds added that though the culture was shifting, it would take time for the culture to change fully. “Patience is needed, but tenacity and a will to push forward and still work, even though it looks like nothing’s happening.”

The slow pace of change is still hard to swallow for a generation that lost its best partying years to a global pandemic and now faces a cost-of-living crisis where a single cocktail might set you back upwards of $20. Boston’s young adults have largely avoided the traditional bar scene, and though a robust underground scene has grown in response, barriers persist.

Marcelo Escobar, creative director of the artist collaborative Untitled Boston, identified their biggest hurdle as finding locations that won’t shut them out or shut them down. “We can usually rent out venues, but most of the time they are either very expensive or very hard to get in contact with,” he said. “I personally like house parties because they’re cheaper and just have a better vibe, but since Boston is so policed, we usually get shut down.”

Escobar added that more accessible venues and more leniency with sound restrictions would help Untitled Boston hold more shows, but that the restrictions make the shows more memorable.

“The risk will always be there, but when it works it’s the most fun shit ever,” he said.