Maybe that’s the wrong title for this post. Our intent isn’t to create an us and them with this post, but rather to give voice to some residents who have been writing in with a common concern: the balance between nightlife and the quiet life.
Some sample mails we’ve received lately include this from KBJB:
I’ve got a question for masses to weight in:
What are the merits of having night clubs like Babalu and Monsters Lounge situated in residential neighborhoods like ours? Having not slept ’till 1am yesterday due to deafening music (I am close to 45th) from ML and faced with cranky underslept child this morning, I am wondering – do local folks patronize these places?
I do understand that people have to make a living, but I’ve had drunk kids running through our back yard coming back from Goldies, car window smashed, and countless screaming matches in the middle of the night. Half the families on our street have kids, and while we want Wallingford to be commercially healthy and popular place, do we really want noise/crime magnets like these here?
And this one from Joyce (sent a few weeks ago):
I’m wondering if any of the other Wallyhooders, especially those who live near the Sea Monster Lounge heard the “music” blasting until 4 a.m. last Saturday night. We unfortunately live nearby and often hear the noises coming from the lounge but nothing quite like this past weekend and certainly not until 4am . So just wondering if anyone else is disturbed by this and if so I’d like to hear from them.
For ourselves, we’re ambivalent. We’ve had our fair share of late night to early morning parties at our house (especially Halloween), and have generally felt that, while weeknights ought to be quiet nights, Saturday night is, well, Saturday night. Late night weekend noise is part and parcel of living in a lively urban area. There’s peace and quiet in the sterile cul-de-sacs of Bellevue if the noise isn’t to your taste.
That said, being conscious of your neighbor’s well-being is an essential part of being a good neighbor, and, especially as summertime and open windows roll around, bars and restaurants with music (and patrons that need to step out for a smoke) need to recognize that they chose to open in Wallingford, not Capitol Hill.
So, we’re curious: what are people’s experiences? Where’s the balance?
Just like they have a right to a business you have a right to a reasonably quiet night. Seattle just imposed some new noise abatement ordinances on night clubs last year. Here is a link to the DPD website, you can read the regulation and file complaints there.
http://www.seattle.gov/DPD/Enforcement/Noise_Abatement/Noise_Ordinance/default.asp
As someone who hosted mostly acoustic house shows in Wallingford (until we were shut down by the DPD, I might add), I would simply recommend stopping in to talk. I know I was always worried about noise, and was very receptive to neighbors.
I have had neighbors who told me they had to work early in the morning, and agreed to turn down the Hendrix. I have also spoken with police officers, whose response: “We just have to come by and check” [when there’s a noise complaint] obviously didn’t have the results intended by whomever had called in.
In my experience, direct communication was much more likely to result in a mutually acceptable outcome.
am I mistaken to think that seamonster has been in that location for many years?
if one moves in near a bar/club, it seems that one might expect noise/music till wee hours
I think it sucks – but I don’t know why ppl expect different when living in close proximity to such businesses. sure, w’ford is not cap hill, nor is it a sleepy suburb
we live 3 blocks from pacific Pub – we sometimes get some late night carousers – I chalk it up to life in the big city. I don’t mnd, cuz I like being able to walk to pubs
also, letting our dog into the front (fenced) yard encourages ppl to move on. lights on a motion sensor might help in a rear yard
babalu – well, that’s a whole different douchbaggy animal, IMO. we hate them
Having lived for many years now next to a house that is generally rented to multiple UW students (2nd Ave, twixt 45th and 50th), I’ve seen and employed many strategies for mitigating the impact of loud, late-night parties on our middle-aged weekend bedtime (10-11:30pm). My first strategy is to cultivate a neighborly rapport during non-party times so that we’re real people to each other, not “those students” or “that grumpy neighbor”. My student neighbors tend to be nice folks, and quite well-intentioned when it comes to keeping the hollering down and the bottles/cans/cups/barf on their own property. They’ve even gone so far as to give me their cellphone numbers to call if the noise is becoming problematic (unfortunately the noise was so loud they couldn’t hear their cellphones :-).
But the larger the party is the less control the tenants have over what’s going on, and the noise and litter can overflow mightily. If the noise exceeds my earplugs and the city’s noise ordinance “curfew”, I take a walk next door, point out the time and ask them nicely to bring the noise level down. Most nights, like last night, this works fine, and they thank me for coming over and not calling the cops.
I’m with Forrest: direct, calm communication usually works and makes for good neighbor relations. If this doesn’t work, I call the cops. I don’t like doing that (and it rarely comes to that), but it has been effective because the city now calls the landlord (not the renters) when there’s a noise complaint. I know that this particular landlord has a penalty written into his rental agreement for x number of noise complaints, and he certainly doesn’t like getting complaint calls, so he takes action.
Are Babalu, Seamonster and Goldies “situated in residential neighborhoods”, or is your residence (of choice) situated in a vibrant commercial district? The Ballard Bear was here before you were.
Yes, Wallingford locals do go to the bars in their neighborhood. That’s one reason they live in the city so they can walk to a bar and hear music, dance and drink. This is a mixed neighborhood for everyone. That’s what makes it fun!
I think of 45th as one of Wallingford’s main business centers not a residential neighborhood. I would love to see a more vibrant night scene there and am hoping the addition of destination restaurants (Tilth, Joule, etc) will allow for it.
45th has gotten more popular lately, it seems, so it /feels/ like a new “problem” but its one of the things you have to expect when you live near a commercial district with nightlife options.
Noise is one thing, and we live right Murphy’s and Changes (loud karaoke twice a week!). I was much more annoyed by the douchebag heading to Babalu who decided to take a leak on my neighbor’s house before partying, and also gave me tons of attitude when called on it.
45th St. is a busy, urban commercial district. Bars are part of that mix and that’s never going to change. Wallingford is a great place to live but the trade-off you have to make for a walkable urban neighborhood with lots of accessible amenities is that you have to live in a walkable urban neighborhood with lots of accessible amenities.
We used to live in an apartment right on the main drag of Upper Queen Anne, which would fit most people’s definition of a “quiet residential neighborhood”. We still had bar patrons urinating by our building and drunken revelry on the weekends, and Upper Queen Anne isn’t exactly bustling with douchebags and college kids.
This is life in the city. It’s full of trade-offs. So in the end, you are the only one who can decide if it’s worth it.
country folks have these great things that attach to a garden hose for deterring deer.
they are tiggered by a motion sensor, I believe.
I think it would be fantastic to employ the same device for a-holes that pee on people’s homes. Life in the big city is one thing – urinating on one’s home is cause for…well, whatever one can get away with I’d say
I think eM has struck a perfect Wallingford entrepreneurial collaboration: Stone Way Hardware / Tweedy and Popp should team up with Not a Number / Archie McPhee to develop and market the “Drunk Flusher”: a motion sensitive device hooked up to a hose to sprinkle the sprinklers.
We live near Kate’s Pub, but they were there before we were so we knew what we were getting into. Earplugs takes care of most of the problem.
Hey, love your blog and thanks for all the work you put into it. I have to say though that I find the white on green really hard to read, so I never read the comments.
I agree that urban noise is something you kind of have to live with, but 4AM seems like it’s going a bit too far.
We live very near the SM and Rain. Seamonster and Goldies are one thing. They are pretty much built for the noise. Rain on the other hand is not. When they open their windows and let the music blast at 3:00 am; that’s a little much. As for drunkards urinating on a property? Complete disrespect. Man, I am glad I dont live THAT close. I would be spraying those MFer’s with a hose. “See how fun it is to drink and dance soaking wet dirtbag!” We just get an occasional beer bottle or two.
We live around the corner from Murphys on 45th. We expect to hear stumbling drunks on Saturday evenings and usually they’re not too loud. Things are usually worst on St Patrick’s day – and it would be rich for us to complain about that really (being escaped-from-Dublin Irish). The loud bass coming from Babalu can be annoying, but really, it’s only a problem in the summer when windows are open at nght.
Love the Drunk Flusher idea.
Would be even happier if the drunk who stole our Skel-amingo lawn ornament last month could kindly return it 🙂
As a trusted helper/friend to both Rain and Seamonster, I will pass on
your concerns, especially about music past 2 a.m., which should not be
happening. Both establishments are very community based and I will post
owners personal phones for complaints very soon. Lynne
Why can’t we have a thriving business district AND businesses that are considerate of the neighbors that live in close proximity. It seems that many of you are saying that this is just life in the city and loud music blaring at 1:00 a.m. is the price you pay. If you lived a few doors down from these businesses I’m guessing you’d change your tune (no pun intended). I do not live close enough to these businesses to hear the late-night music but I know people who do and they have lived there longer than Sea Monster or Babalu have been around. Imagine if a business set up shop across the street from your house and started blasting loud music every night keeping you awake until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. Would you just accept it as “life in the city” or would you try to do something about it?
I think one of the problems with high density living is that you’ve got people living on different schedules. 1 AM may be late (early?) to others, it is the only time they have to enjoy going out. Do I like everything that goes on around me? No. But it is my choice to have it that way because it is not acceptable to me to have to drive to get around just to live in a quiet residential area. I don’t want to do anything about it.
Bars bring in money to Wallingford. As a friend of many local business owners I see no problem with them. Bars play loud music. If you don’t like loud music don’t live by bars. What are you? New?
I’ve been thinking more about this. Why is it that we try to take an urban environment and make it something it’s not. My relatives who live in the country complain about life in the city all the time. But you know, their life in the country wouldn’t exist without the city being there – to provide all the services their communities can’t or won’t. Let’s stop trying to make our urban areas quiet neighborhoods.
Lauren, Maybe not everyone has the same vision as you do for what they want in an urban environment. Yes, noise is part of living in the city but what’s considered “reasonable” to you may not be to others. How would you feel if I stood outside your bedroom window at 3:00 a.m. banging my drums? Is that reasonable? Or, should you just accept that as part of urban living?
I guess that’s my point. What is reasonable to one person might not be reasonable to another person. And where do you draw the line? I know you were being extreme with the question about standing outside someone’s bedroom window at 3:00 AM banging on drums, but how would you feel if someone was playing drums inside their space at 3 AM and you could hear them? Is that reasonable? It’s a slippery slope.
Interesting.
People are considering Wallingford “dense urban living”, and therefore it is o.k. for LOUD noise through the night.
Where does the idea that Wallingford is a dense neighborhood come from? “Densely packed – high density” We have “small?” lots (40’x100′), but we are not a dense urban living situation. Try Pittsburgh with their row houses…front doors at the sidewalk. You can stand between some houses and touch both houses – some are right against each other. That is dense.
Wallingford is a residential neighborhood, which happens to have a couple of streets in it that have some businesses on them, some stores and restaurants on them. We aren’t a loud nightclub neighborhood. If someone wants to go to a nightclub, well, go to Belltown – it has been a nightclub area for decades. A vibrant nightlife doesn’t have to mean loud through the week and doesn’t mean very loud on the weekend. When people buy a house in a residential neighborhood, like Wallingford, they shouldn’t have to put up with loud music late at night.
I’m just glad that I’m not close enough for the late night noise. I don’t hear the nightclubs, just the roar of the freeway. Sure sounds like Sea Monster Lounge, Rain & Babalu need to abide by the noise abatement ordinances or be fined – each and every time they don’t control their noise limit…
FWIW, I was talking about 45th. Which I don’t consider residential and wish was more urban.