Points Of Contention: Noise ordinances
Things we can all agree on. Or not.
Victoria Renard
It's Grove so quiet: Shady Grove, the latest victim of noise complaints related to live music
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Like all cities catering to the well-educated and conscientious, Austin brews self-entitlement the way Seattle brews lattes. While it’s all too easy to tout the city’s advantages—from a live-and-let-live philosophy that borders on hegemony to the vibrant music scene and so on—that civic pride can oh-so-easily slide into vanity. As such, Austinites can be brutal about slamming anything they see as threatening their cherished way of life. Here Decider examines some of the city’s most common Points Of Contention and debates whether they deserve their bad rap. This time, we look at the city's increasingly draconian noise ordinances.
Point Of Contention: Noise ordinances
Why you hate it: For the second time in three months, the city's current noise ordinance has effectively put an end to live music at a local restaurant: the already-raucous patio at Freddie's Place was to the first to fall, followed by Shady Grove and its Unplugged At The Grove series, which so far this year featured free acoustic sets by not-to-be-sneezed-at acts like Rhett Miller and The Gourds. That's bad news if you're an Austinite who likes a little dinner music, and even worse news if you're a restaurateur who depends on live music to spice up your cuisine and who doesn't need another reason to lose customers in this perpetually flushing toilet of an economic climate. (It's enough to make a restaurant owner, say Rob Lippincott of Guero's, pull some sort of publicity stunt—er, demonstration of noise levels for the local media.) And as it's been said in several local discussion threads and comment sections, the ordinance is fundamentally biased against restaurants, which have a cap for amplified sound set at 70 decibels, as opposed to the 85-decibel cap for all other live music venues.
Why you're right: You don't get branded as "The Live Music Capital Of The World" by just having a handful of great downtown clubs—you've got to be up to your neck in venues for music and have a never-ending stream of musicians to fill those venues' stages. Currently there are four places to hear music in our fucking airport; having enchiladas served with a side of some dude warbling Dylan covers is an Austinite's inalienable right. Granted, none of those Austin-Bergstrom venues is outdoors, and it's outdoor music that prompted the complaints against Freddie's and Shady Grove. (Aside: How ironic is it that someone complained about the austere Americana of Sahara Smith, let alone that Smith was playing as part of a series with "unplugged" in its title?) But you wouldn't move into Red River Flats with the intention of getting the Mohawk and Stubb's shut down, so why is it that people (probably Californians) are moving to South Austin neighborhoods and then taking every step to ensure that they never have to hear the sound of a guitar or drums ever again? The fact that city hall—despite showy commitments to the music community like the Live Music Task Force—kowtows to these noobs means there's a few committee members who are in need of a serious haunting from the ghosts of Townes Van Zandt and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Why you're wrong: Actually, while newer residents may not be as reverent of Austin's history as sacred musical ground, evidence suggests that most of the complaints aren't coming from those new residents in their big, dumb condos. The Live Music Task Force's final public forum on sound control featured plenty of statements from residents of older homes in the Bouldin Creek, South Congress, and North University neighborhoods, but not one complaint from anyone living downtown. (Though the two people representing North University cited Stubb's as a problem, which is ludicrous considering the neighborhood is north of UT.) One South Lamar resident noted that he moved to Austin "for a love of music," but had grown weary of sound from the venues surrounding him. And while it is unfair that a zoning loophole keeps restaurants and clubs separate and unequal with regard to how loud their respective music can be, an eatery's first priority should be eats. If an owner is serious about presenting live, amplified performances, they should follow Shady Grove owner Mike Young's lead and apply for a variance that will lift their sound cap to 85 decibels.
Verdict: When was the last time that live music drove you toward—rather than away—from a restaurant? Having to concede to The Man (and the neighborhood associations pulling The Man's strings) is painful, but having fewer venues for music might just improve the quality of the performers at the remaining venues. Of course, if St. Vincent gets the plug pulled on her set this Friday because some Red River Flats asshat can't take the low-end rumble of "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood," we might change our tune.
