I just heard about this, so I apologize for the late notice. Tonight there is a Public Safety meeting at 5pm in the City Council Chambers where this important issue for Portland live music and nightlife will be discussed. If you enjoy the live music scene and entertainment establishments in this city, please go to this public meeting to show your support, and prevent some extremely prohibitive measures being proposed from being approved.
Read on for an explanatory note from Nicholas Dambrie, owner of Oasis.
I’m asking for the support of the people of Portland to help keep
the Old Port Entertainment District alive.Your city needs your help! A few weeks ago, I learned that the City of Portland has an established noise ordinance that is unrealistic for the Entertainment District of our fair city. The current ordinance restricts ANY noise in the Entertainment District louder than 55 decibels after 9:00pm, and a maximum 60 decibels from 7:00am to 9:00pm. As a reference, 55 decibels is equal to the average noise level of a conversation between two people! (As you read this, it is likely you are in an area that has noise levels louder than these levels.) Any establishment offering patrons outdoor patio use will be in violation. Remarkably, any site within the Entertainment District is often in violation. As a resident, business owner or fan of Portland’s Entertainment District, this doesn’t allow much in the way of entertainment after nine o’clock. When and if this ordinance is enforced, the resulting effects on businesses will be devastating.
Portland is a city that promotes the arts. Artists and performers need a venue to showcase their talents. If you are a business owner wanting to promote live entertainment, such as bands or soloists, you will be in violation of the current city ordinance. If you’re an entertainer, the available venues will be nonexistent.
We who live and work in this great city are all interconnected and need each other’s support to foster positive growth and success for this imperiled, precious part of our city. I ask that you come out and support the Entertainment District which houses some of the finest museums, performance venues, restaurants, boutiques, galleries, pubs, coffee shops, and street musicians. The Old Port is the beating heart of our great city.
Your voice can make a difference!
Public Safety Meeting date has changed:
The noise ordinance issue will be discussed
at the next Public Safety Meeting in the City Council Chambers
on September 8 at 5:00 pm.Please come and support our city’s heartbeat
I am really upset that i am not going to be able to attend this meeting. this is absolutely insane that this would even be considered— i’ve felt the extra police presence in the old port as of late, and i’m annoyed with it. portland has been a haven of drunken hooligan behavior since the 17th century, and its not going to change— the best way to combat stupid drunken behavior is to have propper entertainment to offer on a cultured and propper platform. Portland is small and isolated enough, lets not cause more reason for the young and creative to commit exodus at such an early age—> lord knows I have. I will be paying attention to the outcome of this latest attack on portland night life with baited breath, and I fully expect that no matter what, we as a creative society will not stand for the tyranny of boring middle aged white men in suits who haven’t sipped a drink past midnight since the 70’s. I personally will set up a sound system and do a show the night that this ban would take effect and gladly be taken to cumberland county jail to stand up for something i firmly believe in— if your going to live in the northern most continental state in the union, let us have an atleast decent night life that involves propper music at propper venues. a 1 am last call is insulting enough, lets not let this take effect.
thank you,
josiah scribes
employmentrecordsonline.com
I’ve been to a few town shows this summer and I had a lot of fun with friends and seen the turn out they provide. The shops and every one else who provides some where for some one to spend money raked in profits off people in the area at these times taking this away from portland and it’s people would be a shame, when looking for things to do on a night off form the Hospital I look forward to seeing someone is playing in the square!!! The last CD I bought was from one of the bands there, and let me tell you I listen to it all the time it’s great!! I’m 32 I didn’t go and drink I don’t smoke and after all my friends and I went to a local resturant and had dinner, the night was perfect. I encourage more bands to play and for more people to show up if you ask me it’s a good time to see your city and the people around you, to be together as one in unity..I would also like to add I see shows that play such as at the station, and a few others that are right in town off of congress st. With out these shows and people watching them they might not have a chance to be herd on a different leavel other than the internet or parts of the computer in which this generation is so know with..Please don’t take away these wonder concerts and shows they mean a lot to all of us, I would be there tonight but have to work overnights, which some time due to this I miss out on a lot of things, but look forward to them when I can enjoy them so for them to be taken away would make me sad. I love Maine, I love Portland I would more than likely think differently if this was taken away..Sincerly Renee Pratt, Windham, ME.
good grief that’s ridiculous. stop the madness / save live music!
i would try to change everything if i could but you have to do what the majority says. So far the majority of everyone says it’s too loud at night. Probably because of the lack of light here in the winter time. People just hate commotion late at night here. I wish it were different, but i’ve tried making one old person see my way. it was hard. let alone hundreds or thousands.
I can’t be there in person but I just sent emails to every member on the city council.
I just received a reply from City Council member Jill Dudson and she said the noise ordinance has to do with motorcycle noise, not music. So…I suppose this is all rumor.
The Old Port is not a library.
People who move into the Old Port expecting peace and quiet at night are certifiably insane. If someone needs quiet, all they need is to look anywhere north to the massive rural area we call the rest of the state.
I hope for the sake of my home city this ordinance is repealed.
Otherwise I’m going to have to take my act somewhere else.
goddamn, the portland scene is crippled enough as it is with 21+ venues, dont need a ridiculous noise ordinance to make things even worse.
Screw this… I’ve got hope for you folks up there to fight this. 55 decibels? REALLY??
Unfortunately I missed the meeting. Any news/feedback…anything I can do to promote and gather more support on our end?
Way back when the Alehouse was pushed out because of the so called noise ordinance. during this time I would stand outside monitoring the DB rating using a highly sophisticated meter. The cars going down Market Street read at 50db… It was crazy and an unreal expectation that any business would be subjected to.
Well…being a professional drummer…between the suggested “non-entertainment days” and the suggested db limit, I’ll never be able to work in Portland again. And why?!?? Because of the greed of some folks who knowingly built a new hotel…next to an entertainment district!! When it was buit, they knew that they weren’t moving into a neighborhood of daycare centers and cemeteries. I equate this to someone who knowingly moves into a rent over a bar and then decides to bitch and complain about the neighborhood. Not too practical.
I believe that we…the professional musicians of the Portland area…should do whatever we can to make sure that this ridiculous ordinance is not kept on the books. We need to meet and organize now…and start with a petition drive to collect signatures in the event that this does pass. Also, we need to do whatever we can personally. I sent a copy of the proposal to the Maine Civil Liberties Union this morning, asking if it was even leagal for a city to tell musicians when and where they can work. Contact members of the Portland City Council…even if you don’t live in Portland…because their decision is going to affect your living for years to come.
LET’S MAKE SURE THAT THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN TO US!!-jg
Hey All,
I was forwarded this link by Ian Carlsen. I’m a member of the Public Safety Committee and can assure all of you that all we were ever considering on the Public Safety Committee was liberalizing the so-called dispersal ordinance and legalizing the entertainment that necessarilly breaks 55DB. The question of how to make the decibel limits more reasonable will be on our agenda again for our meeting in October. Please feel free to wrote me at kjdonoghue@portlandmaine.gov or find my on Facebook if you have any other questions.
Best,
Kevin
It really upsets me when someone doesn’t get their facts straight and just starts rumors.