Closing time, RNC hotel maps, TONY and ODB.

Giuliani did what he could to force the sex industry out of the city. Then Bloomberg came along and banned smoking in bars. Now the New York Nightlife Association is claiming that the mayor is presently trying to make New York even more like Dayton by forcing bars and nightclubs to shut down at 1 a.m. every night.

It sounds like a typically wrongheaded Bloombergian plan to destroy something else that has always been fundamentally New York?the city that never sleeps, and all. When we first heard about it, we were just as pissed as NYNA. He wants all the bars to shut down at one? For God's sake, man!

Then we went and took a look at the actual proposal being presented by the Dept. of Consumer Affairs.

That something needed to be done about the city's musty Cabaret Laws?the ones that barred dancing without a permit?goes without saying. NYNA has been calling for changes to the laws for years now. And sure enough, the new proposal leaves dancing completely out of the mix. It's not even an issue anymore and has little to do with why the laws are being changed.

More than anything else, the new proposal comes in response to the outlandish number of quality-of-life complaints (mostly noise-related) filed against city nightclubs every year by their sleep-deprived neighbors.

No matter what's behind it, NYNA's attorney told the Post, at its core the proposal "is in fact a directive to shut down New York nightlife at 1 a.m."

Well, not exactly. The Consumer Affairs proposal suggests that an establishment will be required to obtain a license from the city if it meets all of the following three criteria:

The club has a capacity of 200 people or more (within a commercial zone).

The club plays music (or something akin to it) more or less continuously at more than 90 decibels.

The club stays open later than 1 a.m.

If a place doesn't meet all of the above criteria, it doesn't have to worry about a license. If you have loud music playing on fewer than three nights a week?just once a week, or once a month, say?you need to get a permit for each event.

Normally we're ready and willing to get behind anyone who's trying to give the mayor a boot in the teeth, but in this case we're forced to admit that NYNA's overreacting, and raising a fuss over something that simply isn't the case.

You want to serve liquor or food? You need a license. You want to provide entertainment and charge a cover? You need a license. You want to hold a parade or a street fair? You need a license. The list goes on and on.

In this case, why not consider it a license to annoy the neighbors?