Pipe down, why doncha
The Live Music Capital of the World thinks it’s getting too noisy:
This week the reports have been all over about Freddie’s Place on South First having to finally shut down their outdoor music after receiving a warning from the Austin Police Department for noise violation. The battle between Freddie’s patio music and the surrounding neighborhood has been ground zero in the noise ordinance debate the past few years, and Freddie’s has been careful to maintain a strict policy of no outside music after 9:00pm and that the decibel level doesn’t exceed the traditional level of enforcement for live outdoor music at 85 db. So what went wrong?
Turns out that on February 26, the city council adopted Ordinance No. 20080226-028 (pdf), which set a distinction between outdoor music venues and restaurants hosting live music. As the Chronicle reports, this allowed for the enforcement of the previously established City Code Section 25-2-808, which set the db level for live entertainment at restaurants at 70. With the clarification, APD was given the power to enforce the 70db limit at Freddie’s. The problem is that the ambient sound level for the restaurant would be between 65 and 70dbs, which effectively nixes any outdoor entertainment.
As the Austinist reported, after being notified of the new enforcement policy, owner Fred Nelson shut down the show and canceled the 83 shows he already had booked at the restaurant. The worse part is that restaurant residencies and gigs are an incredibly important means of support for local musicians, and city hall has effectively just killed that work for already struggling artists. Nelson estimates over 200 musicians are out of gig just from his cancellations alone.
So much for keeping Austin weird, huh? I hate noise as much as the next guy, but this seems awfully draconian. And it’s not, as I might have expected, the result of a steady influx of new center-city residents who aren’t used to this sort of thing:
These folks have been complaining about venues on Barton Springs and Congress and Red River ever since I’ve been here — for more than a decade; and there hasn’t been any new group of downtown residents joining them; they’re just using the supposed downtown residents as cover — most people living downtown view music as an amenity, not a problem.
Maybe it’s just me, but if you’re expecting the benefits of a vibrant urban center, you shouldn’t be surprised to detect an occasional bit of, um, vibration.
