Long story short, I am going to have to spend some time in NYC for my job in the next few years and won't be able to carry a firearm when I'm there. My next go to would be a knife, but NYC knife laws are intentionally ambiguous to screw over people at will, plus knives are flat out banned in the subway which is necessary for travel anyways.
My thoughts are a high output flashlight and pepper spray (but even the pepper spray sounds annoying). I was thinking of a cloud defensive mch and putting the rein 1.0 head on it because it has crenulations. Any other thoughts?