Perusing my Facebook page last night, I saw a reference to a problem at the Marigny Opera House, a renamed old church in the Bywater. By candlelight (no electricity, apparently), someone started playing acoustic music, and a few shows have been performed there. The neighbors shut it down. Huh? Dave Hurlbert, who operates the church [...]
Tag Archives: Noise Ordinance
New Year’s Resolutions
January 4, 2012 – 5:12 pm
This is the time of year when we assess our performance over the past year, and make resolutions and set goals for what we’d like to accomplish next year. So here are my resolutions: tasks that I’d like to accomplish—or help accomplish—in the next year. Some of them may take more than a year, but, [...]
Best of the Beat Heartbeat Award: Mary Howell
January 1, 2012 – 12:16 am
For more than three decades, attorney Mary Howell has been at the frontlines of police misconduct and civil rights litigation in New Orleans. She has represented plaintiffs in the Algiers police rampage of 1980, the killing of Adolph Archie in 1990, and the execution of Kim Groves by order of policeman Len Davis in 1994. [...]
Noise Ordinance Roundtable Saturday at Sound Cafe
November 11, 2011 – 4:44 pm
Saturday, the Sound Cafe will host a roundtable on the proposed noise ordinance starting at 2 p.m. You can read the proposal online; pay particular attention to Division 3: Regulations, starting at line 180 if you don’t have time to read it all. As I’ve said before, particularly concerning to me are line 192, which [...]
Bring the Noise
September 21, 2011 – 11:02 am
In the wake of the bust of Bacchanal, supporters of live music in the city have portrayed government as being anti-live music. I don’t think that’s true in the sense that I don’t believe anyone on City Council or in government is actively hostile to live music. But it is passively hostile; government tends to [...]
Sal Geloso: From Street to Stage to Street
September 19, 2011 – 5:42 pm
Salvatore Geloso, a finalist for Rolling Stone’s “Street to Stage” competition, shrugged when some of the magazine’s cameramen asked for information. The word that best describes his encounter is probably unsuspecting. After all, this is a guy who loves to serenade people in the street for the hell of it (and a little tip money). [...]
Music = Noise?
August 24, 2011 – 1:43 pm
From the time that cities grew larger, there’s been a clash between residents and businesses who serve them. I suppose that’s one of the many reasons American suburbs developed. You live in one place; your business services are usually in a strip center, or suburban buildings away from homes, or a strip mall. Suburbs—because they [...]
What’s The Difference Between Bourbon and Frenchmen?
July 1, 2011 – 12:02 am
Last year at this time, there was a serious issue concerning the so-called “noise ordinance,” which prohibits street musicians on Bourbon Street after 8 p.m. and only allows noise up to a certain decibel level, among many other restrictions. At that time, the To Be Continued Brass Band was accosted by the NOPD for playing [...]
Mayor Mitch Landrieu
June 1, 2011 – 12:20 am
During his tenure as the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Mitch Landrieu made “cultural economy” his calling card. He worked to show how cultural products aren’t simply valuable in an aesthetic, intellectual or social way, but that they are good business. He has maintained this interest as mayor, and the recent 2010 Cultural Economy Report shows that [...]
