This report sent in by Lower Wallingford Correspondent, Chris Witwer.
What is up with the sound stage & loud electric music on Wallingford Avenue, just below 34th? It seems that the little cul de sac there has been blocked off with “road closed” signs and a music stage has been erected.
At 2:45 pm today, some very loud, electrified rock bands did a sound check. My partner (working from home at 35th & Wallingford) wandered out to see what’s up. She was told that a photography gallery near the Wallingford steps is having their 1st anniversary & a party to go with it. No further details could be heard over the amps.
So my questions are: is it legal to close part of a street & set up a sound stage? If so, did they get a permit (and if they did, who do I complain to about that?)? And finally, when does this party start & end?
It’s amazingly loud. Like having a Bumbershoot stage in your living room.
Yes, it is the oddest thing down there right now. When I walked by earlier, it was so loud I had to cover my ears. And the sidewalk was actually vibrating up through my feet!
Really? One day a year, while living in the city, you experience some loud music because your neighbors are having a celebration, and you want to complain to someone?
The paradigm of the new Seattle demographic: wanting an urban neighborhood to feel like a Bellevue McMansion cul de sac. This post captures that paradigm beautifully.
Its Friday in the city!!! I am so thankful I live in an active urban environment, that is why I live here. Ill be walking to the Oktoberfest in Fremont tonight! How lucky are we???? Now if the music goes on into the wee hours of the morning then a complaint could be legitimized.
I think it’s terribly rude. We’re going on 3 hours now and INSIDE my house the floors are shaking & I can’t hear my own music or television. I don’t mind a little celebration. The 4th of July was cool, Solstice, etc. But there are residential windows just feet away and it’s ridiculous.
There are babies living over here, ya know?
Anytime hey marseilles and the Presidents of the USA want to put on a performance on the street in our neighborhood, they are welcome! It was a private party, but still enjoyable from the street.
I live just a block up from the party and yes, it was loud, but so what? Its Friday night and it was over at 10pm. I walked down there when the Presidents came on and had a great view of the concert standing on the street corner. I thought it was pretty cool.
Comparing this post to wanting our ‘hood to feel like a Bellevue McMansion is just a bit of a stretch. There are very good reasons why we have noise ordinances and zoning laws. At the very least, someone could have given the neighbors a flier to notify them this was happening, and maybe even invited them? That seems like the neighborly thing to do. As a person who has exercised a LOT of tolerance for my neighbors’ parties (and who also likes to have her own occasionally), I think we’ve got a long way to go to get to McMansionville. And kids do live her, and they take naps. It would at least be nice to let parents know they need to make other arrangements on that day.
Karen, you’re much more levelheaded on this subject than I. Thank you!
I could hear the music from my house last night (with the windows open), and I’m up near 38th and Woodlawn, so I can’t imagine how loud it must have been for those who live nearby. I’m sure it was great for the people who like loud music and those particular bands, but that doesn’t include everyone. Some notice to the neighbors within a block or two would have been nice.
Just because we live within the Seattle city limits doesn’t mean we live in an “urban neighborhood.” One of the reasons I chose to live in Wallingford is because it’s relatively quiet but also convenient to places like Fremont and 45th St. I’ve performed in rock bands professionally, and I enjoy going out and seeing them — but I like coming home to a peaceful place. If I’d wanted to live in an urban neighborhood, I would have looked in Belltown (or above Babalu), where loud music is the norm.
“There are babies living over here, ya know?”
Apparently so.
Sigh.
Making loud noises within reasonable hours on a weekend evening/night? A-OK.
Doing so unexpectedly without letting the neighbors know beforehand? Totally unneighborly and rude.
That’s the problem with stuff like this– it isn’t the noise or the volume, it’s that we live in a community, and we live pretty close to one another. Making loud noises and having big ol’ loud parties is totally your right, but if you do it without any thought of the people who live nearby, that’s a pretty dickish thing to do. It’s a courtesy thing.
In this case, the event organizers could have somehow let people know that hey, we’ll be playing loud music, we’ll be done before 1000, come on down and join us if you’d like.
That said, if I were in this situation and was bothered to this extent, I wouldn’t hesitate to call the 5-0 and at least register a complaint. I know this is Seattle so everybody gets all passive aggresive and whatnot, but it sure would be nice if people thought about how their actions were going to affect their neighbors a little more often, instead of just doing the “if you don’t like loud music blasting into your house on a Friday night, you’re not as cool as I am and should move to a farm.”
Whatever happened to common courtesy?
Would prior notification have made a difference in peoples’ opinions? If I recall, there was plenty of neighborhood uproar over the Summer Nights shows when they were at Gasworks Park a couple of years ago.
Good question Doug. You know, for me, I think it would have. Just the shock of such an event without any warning was enough for me to go ballistic over it. But warning, and the opportunity to prepare accordingly, would certainly have gone a long way for me.
Of course, my opinion is probably colored by how nice it felt to get warning from the Breast Cancer 3-Day folks that they were going to just walk down the street on a Sunday morning a few weeks ago.
I remember hearing some folks who live in Fremont on 34th street complain that they didn’t have access to the parking garage where they live during the Brides & Briefcases 5K, but they had fair warning & it was only a few hours on a Friday night, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. 🙂
So yes, I think notification would have gone a long way.
“there was plenty of neighborhood uproar over the Summer Nights shows when they were at Gasworks Park a couple of years ago”
Correct – I chipped into the lawsuit because Summer Nights wanted to turn the Gasworks field into a wall of sanicans and fence off a substantial portion of one of the few open spaces left in Wallingford. It’s not unlike how the school district thought so little of assuming that the Wallingford playfield should be a free staging area for the Hamilton rehab.
people need to lighten up. it was a party and it was over early. i was there. yes it was a bit loud for people who live there but i also don’t think that it was necessary for Chase to invite all the neighbors to his party. we live in a city. he got the permits. RELAX, it’s ONE DAY
Actually, as more folks post, I’m beginning to think that it was the City — whoever issued the permit — who should have notified neighbors of the event. Just like they did when they started making all that noise up on I-5, and when they shut down Aurora today for road work. (Though I believe media outlets were used in both those cases.) Anyway, notification would make sense to me.
If they issue a permit that will impact living space, I think they should notify those that will be impacted.
Off to write to the City with my suggestion… (does anyone know what division issues these permits?)
D – you’re so lucky you got to go to the pahtay! my son (a very young fan at 3.5yrs) LOVES them!