RSS FeedMeet and Talk to DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson On Sat, Nov 9 At 10 AM
From the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association we learned that Chairman Phil Mendelson will be at Teasim (8th and D St NW) this Saturday morning. The text is posted below:
Meet and Talk to DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson
Saturday, November 9 – 10:00am – 11:00am
At Teaism Penn Quarter – 400 8th Street, NWAll residents are invited to meet and ask questions of the DC Council Chairman.
I want to take this opportunity to mention one issue that is of great importance to many Penn Quarter residents and businesses and that is now in the hands of Chairman Phil Mendelson. I hope to hear some of you who have not before been heard ask the Chairman about moving forward with legislation on this important matter.
Since the last session of the DC Council, legislation that was introduced and for which hearings were held has been under awaiting Chairman Mendelson’s move to either amend the legislation or place it on the agenda for a vote by the Council. Our understanding is that the Chairman wishes to amend the legislation to gain additional support for it. We would like to know how he intends to amend the legislation, when this will be done, and when it will be presented to the Council for a vote.
You may recall that many residents in collaboration with the business community worked for over a year to develop and prepare draft legislation that would place limits on how loud buskers could play, sing, and/or amplify music AND, IMPORTANTLY, would be acceptable to the courts.
For some time now, cases tried that had been based on violations of the existing noise limits and that measure the noise from buskers to see if the music is within the maximum noise limits have been lost because there is no means of blocking out ambient noise from the meter readings and thus only an unknown portion of the noise can be attributed to the busker being charged with exceeding the
current noise limits.It is clear to us that not only must there be a different way to determine what is excessive noise, and that whatever is unacceptable cannot require a meter to measure decidable levels.
The group has conveyed this information to DC Council members and/or their staffs so they are aware of the existing situation – the current limits are unenforceable.
It is our residents and businesses, especially those on 7th Street between F and H streets that have born the brunt of this inability for the city to enforce current legislation limiting the level of sound buskers can make.
I hope many of you will come to this meeting and let the Chairman know that it is imperative for the Council to enact limits on noise and more specifically music so that the buskers can play but not as loud as they have been since amplified equipment became easy to transport.
We are only asking for enforceable legislation that would require buskers to turn down the volume.
We need the Chairman to amend the legislation that was the basis of the last hearing to establish ENFORCEABLE NOISE LIMITS THAT THE COURTS WOULD UPHOLD. This is one issue I hope a number of attendees will ask Chairman Mendelson to address and act on.
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