DALLAS, Texas – Imagine walking through an entertainment district and not hearing live music, just the silence of the streets. That’s what Dallas venues fear their future will be after the Dallas Police Department turned noise regulations over to the City of Dallas Department of Code Compliance Services, which cracks down on.
Deep Ellum venue owners are frustrated with CCS for saying it’s a deliberate attempt to silence the centuries-old entertainment district.
“There’s no point in code compliance and paying people to have an outdoor speaker on their patio because if they did, I mean every single Bennigan and Applebee and just like the most general places in Dallas would have to really be closed. ” “Said Allen Falkner, owner of The Nines. “And it’s just frustrating because someone is targeting Deep Ellum and we don’t know why. We don’t know what’s going on. “
Deep Ellum was shut down during the pandemic, resulting in a huge loss of revenue that business owners are now looking to bring back. You say this enforcement of the Noise Abatement Ordinance is offensive.
“This is literally our elixir of life, being able to make live music. We host 400 live music events a year. So for us it’s literally everything, “said Scott Beggs, Operating Partner of Three Links Kick the Groin I think.”
In one of Dallas’s biggest entertainment districts, don’t expect silence as Deep Ellum thrives on sound, which means you can regularly hear live music on the streets. But now companies are facing severe warnings and fines for violating the city’s noise ordinance.
“We were told that if you walk down the sidewalk and hear about your business, they can tell you to turn it off, turn off all the noise, regardless of how many decibels is or the time of day or anything else . Only when you hear it on the sidewalk, ”Beggs said.
To relieve the Dallas police force, Code Compliance took over enforcement of the city’s noise ordinance in April. They stick to the letter of the law, something that falconers say hasn’t been studied as closely in the past.
“The most frustrating thing about this law is really that there is nothing in the law about sound levels. You’d have to look at the law for the exact wording, but it’s basically supposed to be a common sense law, but what? Us as common sense consider could be different from what others might consider common sense, ”said Falkner.
“They hired Code Compliance to properly enforce regulations in Dallas and removed them from the police, which is probably a good thing. The police have enough things on their hands, ”said Beggs. “But the way the regulation is being read at the moment is that this is common sense and I think we are asking for clarity on what common sense really is.”
The Dallas city code states that “any loud and annoying noise or vibration that violates normal sensation” is a violation and is subject to warnings and tickets. Business owners say the vague language needs to be changed and a middle ground should be struck.
“Code enforcement must understand that being in the middle of Deep Ellum is very different from being in a sleepy suburb of Dallas,” said Falkner. “Even when there are no bands playing, when you’re in downtown Dallas at four or five on a Friday, it’s loud. It’s noisy from the buses and cars and the people walking around, so you can’t have the same sound restrictions that you would have anywhere like Lake Highlands or Highland Park or something like that. It makes no sense. This law is not a unitary thing. “
Falkner recently went to Deep Ellum for a weekend for decibel readings, which showed his establishment, The Nines, was on the low end of decibel readings. But he says that since there is an upper floor, this sound projects itself further and “covers” the area. He worries that his club will be next on the CCS list.
“Most of the clubs were in the 90 decibels range, some up to 100 dB and others up to around 80 dB. But there really wasn’t anyone below 80 dB, ”said Falkner. “There were a few over 100 dB, but most of the ones that were over 100 dB either had speakers right on the outside window or there were things like motorbikes that were about 110 dB over 100 dB. And it just depends on where you are. The intersection of Main Street and Crowdus Street and also Elm Street and Crowdus Street, only the ambient noise is over 90 decibels. “
A working group is being set up to develop district-specific changes to the city-wide regulations so that the cultural district can flourish as it has for over a century.
“I understand some frustrations, but at the same time, Deep Ellum has been a musical cultural epicenter for more than 100 years. The idea of removing music from Deep Ellum is not only destructive to culture, but only to the city of Dallas in general, ”said Falkner.
A petition on Change.org received more than 5,000 signatures in support of businesses in the Deep Ellum entertainment district. The aptly titled “Don’t Silence Deep Ellum” makes it clear that business owners feel that change must take place before they lose their livelihoods for the second year in a row.
[ad_1]
