Posts Tagged ‘noise’
Tourists, residents aren’t mutually exclusive downtown
I usually agree with Gail Kerr, but I think she’s missed the mark today with her column comparing downtown noise limitations to fairy tales such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Guess what happened next? The clubs closed down. The tourists stopped coming. Downtown Nashville was, once again, a ghost town. The moral of the story? Silencing Nashville’s honky-tonks would be akin to flattening the Smokies so tourists could get to the outlet malls faster.
No one is suggesting that honky tonks be “silenced,” only that the noise be reduced to reasonable levels late at night. If it’s working for Austin, Texas, another hot destination for live music, surely it could work here. Last time I checked (earlier this year), the only ghosts there were the “spirits” stocked behind the bar at every popular nightspot. There were zero indications that downtown Austin was turning into a ghost town, but there were plenty that it was very much the place to be.
Striking a reasonable balance between tourists’ and residents’ needs downtown seems like the right approach to me. It’s great that tourists once again feel welcome downtown, and I think we should make sure that residents do, too.
Tags: community, downtown, gail kerr, metro council, noise, politics, the tennessean, tourism
Downtown needs both nightlife and neighbors
If it’s good enough for Austin, it ought to be good enough for Nashville. I think expecting reasonable limits on late-night noise is an appropriate thing to do:
[T]he 85-decibel standard matches the limit in Austin, another music-driven town, and is much louder than Manhattan’s. The standard actually would give the clubs more leeway than downtown establishments that are outside the central business district, which would violate the proposed ordinance if their music was “plainly audible” from the nearest residence, [Council member Mike] Jameson said.
Manhattan is an amazing city because of its nightlife and its residents. I’m thrilled that Nashville continues to have a vibrant downtown nightlife that attracts locals and tourists, and I want to see residents keep moving to the central part of the city, too. When people live downtown, it makes it a more welcoming a safer place for everyone. There’s room enough for both singing and slumber downtown.
Tags: butch spyridon, community, metro council, mike jameson, nashville, nashville convention and visitors bureau, noise, politics
