It didn’t take long for the neighbors in question to respond to last week’s Sugar City post. In a recent post titled, Keep Allentown Artistic, I spoke of the precarious situation that the art organization found itself in. In the piece, I mentioned that due to neighborhood noise concerns, the group was facing being shut down by The City. At the time, I was told by Sugar City that they were having a hard time working with City inspection officials in order to clearly identify what the actual accusations were and how the group could remedy the situation at hand. Since that time, the live music has been silenced and Sugar City’s Director, Aimee Buyea, has told me that she is meeting with The City next week in order to get to the bottom of everything.
That leaves us with a nine-point clarification outline provided to BRO by the immediate neighbors. In that outline the couple stated that Sugar City had informed them that the organization had obtained a permit for the live music. They went on to say that, later, Sugar City recanted by stating that no permit was needed. From there, the noise ordinance came into question in the following summation: “That noise produced inside a building is unacceptable if it can be heard 100 feet from the boundary of the property. We could clearly hear the music from 19 Wadsworth at over 120 feet from their boundary. These facts were presented to the members of Sugar City but they refused to acknowledge that they are in violation of the Noise Ordinance.”
According to the neighbors, as drafted in the document, over a three-month time period they tried to work with Sugar City to come up with mutually beneficial solutions. They even went so far as to contribute sound dampening materials in order to remedy the situation. The letter went on to say that nothing appeared to work and the music remained loud. That was when communication between Sugar City and the couple ceased. In time, they voiced their complaints to the police and were told that Councilman Davis would be the best person to contact. Shortly thereafter a few of the Sugar City parents got together to help find a better noise solution, which would come in the form of a ‘super wall’. Apparently all efforts to combat the noise have failed thus far, and with the summer air carrying the noises even further, the neighbors continued to clamor for any semblance of peace and quiet.
In summation, between the differences in opinions regarding proper procedure (live music permits and non-profit claims), it looks as if The City is going to have plenty to sort through. Me? I see both sides. I understand the need to accommodate our young artists as best that we can, while at the same time appeasing those in the neighborhood who feel that their quality of life is being disrupted. That’s why The City should really make a concerted effort to seek the best remedy to the situation, while keeping in mind that these artists need to be able to find places to release their artistic juices. Instead of slamming the door shut, it would be nice to hear about a solution that would make everybody happy. Whether that is a solution that solves the noise problem, or one that helps to identify equally impressive and cost effective diggs.
I suppose that we will soon see what that solution will look like. In the meantime, if anyone out there does have suggestions, I’m sure that everyone would like to hear them.