Downtown
residents have raised quite an uproar about the racket generated by these
social establishments, and debates regarding noise complaints and how to deal
with them fairly have recently escalated for Bellingham’s Entertainment
District.
City
of Bellingham Municipal Code 10.24.120 outlines in detail the noise ordinance
in place for the established Entertainment District downtown. Though it governs
both public establishments and private persons, Western junior Alex Taylor said
he feels there is not enough enforcement on the latter.
“Initially,
I wanted to live downtown,” Taylor said. “Had I known the noise could get so
loud, I would have probably found a place on South Campus.” Taylor said that it
isn’t just the weekends that are bad. With various “happy-hour” promotions,
late-night noise is a usual occurrence even mid-week, he said.
According
to the ordinance, "It is unlawful for any person to cause, or for any person in possession
of property to allow to originate from the property, sound that is a public
disturbance noise.” Taylor also stated that the current ordinance airs on a
rather subjective side, as it is up to an officer’s sole discretion whether or
not an individual or establishment is breaking the law with the noise it is
producing.
Over the past two years, changes
to Bellingham Municipal Code regarding noise levels have been the topic of multiple
City Council debates. With the passage of these updates, multiple complaints
about a particular noise disturbance must be logged before Bellingham Police
can respond.
Western junior Jessie Wixom, who used to live downtown but moved away
because of similar noise issues, was not a fan of this idea.
“Just because an individual or
party doesn’t receive multiple complaints doesn’t mean it should go unattended
to,” Wixom said. “Sometimes people just won’t make the call to police, but are
still just as frustrated as the one
person who did, so the disturbance just goes on.”
A proposed addendum to the
ordinance would allow Bellingham police officers to carry decibel meters to
determine whether or not noise complaints are valid, however this has since been
tabled, and it is not certain whether it will return to consideration. The
threshold set in place by the ordinance is 85 decibels, though according to a
study done at Purdue University; even merely a telephone dial tone can surpass
that.
Bellingham’s Downtown Alliance
for Music & Nightlife, or B’DAMN for short, is a non-profit, third-party
organization that represents musicians, artists, promoters, venue owners and
other professionals with an interest in the Central Business District’s
nightlife.
According to its website, B’DAMN
strives to better the relationship between the downtown nightlife community and
local government and law enforcement agencies. “We believe that the majority of
these issues stem from a lack of communication between these parties; this is a
gap we hope to bridge,” is the mantra posted on B’DAMN’s website.
Downtown resident and B’DAMN
member Nathan Schaller said he could not agree more with the statement given by
the organization.
“I really don’t agree with how
harshly people come down on the noise complaints downtown,” Schaller said. “I’m
almost positive that if we had a better means of communication [with local law
& government agencies], we could easily avoid a lot of this bullshit.”
Schaller also said that he had
been in trouble with Bellingham Police on more than one occasion for
noise-related issues. He said he felt confused by the lack of strict
enforcement, as he noted he had been a part of seemingly much more
“peace-disturbing shenanigans”. Schaller said he has been with B’DAMN since
just after it was founded in 2007.
To date, there is
no set period for the revisions to the noise ordinance. City council continues
to discuss ways to handle the issues in the most effective way possible.
Council is open to, and encourages, public opinion on anything pertaining to
the ordinance.
No comments:
Post a Comment