The debate and protests over the sounds of silence in the city continue

By Michael Patrick Welch
Contributing Writer

As the state of Louisiana continues to rely on the slogan, “No America We Will Not Turn That Music Down” to attract tourist dollars, New Orleans’s City Council is threatening to enact new ordinances that would quite literally turn the city’s music down.

Amid brewing discontent in the city’s music community and press, New Orleans’s City Council decided Thursday night to temporarily withdraw the controversial new sound ordinance proposed by the Vieux Carre Property Owners Residents and Associates (VCPORA). The ordinances, supported by a majority of Council members, were set for a vote on Friday, but in a statement released less than 24-hours earlier, City Councilperson Kristin Palmer claimed the ordinances needed further revision that would focus the formerly citywide new rules instead on the French Quarter. The statement seemed to indicate, however, that City Council would keep the most controversial aspects of the ordinance in tact.

Despite the vote’s cancellation, a protest scheduled by the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MACCNO) again­st the new sound ordinances, scheduled for 11 a.m. outside of City Hall, went ahead as planned. Though more than 1,600 supporters on Facebook signed up to attend the event (with another almost 400 “may­bes”), just under 300 people eventually showed up to speak at the podium, play music and second-line, with the hopes that musicians get a seat at the table in creating the ordinances’ new draft.

Last November, New Orleans City Council spent tens of thousands of dollars to commission a report written by Oxford Acoustics and Dave Woolworth, full of sound science and suggestions for new laws. Members of MACCNO and the cultural community seemed ready to accept Woolworth’s rational suggestions. But over the Christmas holidays, VCPORA brought before City Council their own conflicting report titled, ”Seven Essential Items to Make our Noise Ordinance work for New Orleans.” The VCPORA report—which unlike the Oxford report, failed to include input by scientists or musicians—suggested strict regulation of amplified music and a citywide lowering of the decibel limits (for instance, dropping from 80dB to 70dB in the French Quarter during the daytime). VCPORA’s report also demanded that sound levels henceforth be measured from the property line of the sound source, rather than the widely accepted method of measuring the sound from the complainant’s property.

While the citizens of New Orleans were busy celebrating the holidays, New Orleans’ City Council chose to mostly ignore the Woolworth report they had paid for, and go ahead and vote for VCPORA’s version.

The withdrawn sound laws demanded that music be played at a level similar to that of people talking in a restaurant without any music at all—leading many to believe that VCPORA’s suggested ordinances would be impossible to abide by. “These regulations would be used as a hammer for a small group to use on whatever they personally do not like,” said MACCNO spokesperson Hannah Krieger-Benson from the protest podium. The crowd remained silent as Krieger-Benson spoke in a measured almost quiet voice on the microphone. When Krieger-Benson mentioned decibels, fellow MACCNO member Alexander Fleming interrupted her to announce that the his iPhone was registering Krieger-Benson’s speech at 70dB.

“Framing this as an issue of residents versus musicians is incorrect,” Krieger-Benson continued. “Because [musicians] are residents!” She reiterated a theme later repeated by Scott Aiges of the Jazz and Heritage Foundation: that rather than new ordinances, New Orleans simply needs more consistent enforcement of existing less-strict laws.

But her main complaint was that VCPORA’s suggested ordinances were created in a vacuum of a few French Quarter residents. Indirectly invoking lawyer Stuart Smith, who has led VCPORA’s push for strict sound laws, Krieger-Benson characterized the withdrawn report as, “Laws made by those who stand to profit from every lawsuit and fine” that the ordinances would create. Krieger-Benson demanded that new ordinances be drawn up among a committee consisting of one-third community members, one-third business owners, and one-third musicians.

Attorneys, City Council candidates and street musicians were all given the mic to rail against the new impeding laws. Revered local musician Glen David Andrews listed off the many major New Orleans musicians who would have been arrested for playing on the street under these laws, and told the crowd not to be scared to go to jail over this issue.

When the speakers were finished, a brass band led the crowd in through the doors of City Hall, where Councilperson At Large, Latoya Cantrell, listened to the crowd’s opinions for roughly an hour.

A revision of the proposed ordinances will be presented on January 27.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect a correction stating that the crowd marched in to watch the City Council formally withdraw the document, and to submit formal public comments on the Noise Ordinance drafting process.

This article originally published in the January 20, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.