1996 Flare Up Between Bound'ry and Residents Resulted in Uneasy Understanding

From spring 1996 until the beginning of the fall of the same year controversy over the Bound'ry restaurant's late-night amplification of music 100 feet past its boundaries grew. Records at a residence hall across the street from the loud eatery indicate that there were complaints about loud music keeping neighbors up all night, there were neighbors moving out because of the noise, there were Bound'ry valets running across private greenspace to retrieve patrons' cars, and there was litter and trash left laying around the block that did not get picked up by Bound'ry staff. One community leader wrote former Metro Council Member Julian Sloss, saying:

we are frequently forced to clean up empty beer bottles and drink glasses from our front sidewalk and yard area, left by patrons of the restaurants [Bound'ry and South Street].

He also contrasted the Bound'ry management's unwillingness to respect residents' requests with the previous restaurateurs' willingness to accommodate their neighbors.

While neighborhood representatives and a Bound'ry manager met that year to agree on a solution, one report said that the manager made no guarantee that things would get better for the neighborhood. Accordingly, he made it "very clear that open air patios and noise are a part of their 'concept.'" Residents reportedly made it clear that they would reserve the right to call the police if initial phone calls to the Bound'ry had no effect on noise violations, but the internal reports indicate that warnings about calling the police are empty threats when the police would not properly enforce the noise and amplification codes.

Twelve years later, the Bound'ry seems to still be imposing its concept on the Midtown neighborhood to the point where newer neighbors are taking their own turns at pushing back. And the newest neighbors recently moved into the high-rise Adelicia may have more resources to bring to bear on this situation. Consequently, have the police changed their tune about enforcing the codes? First indications look promising for sleepless Midtown residents, even if the police reply was less than enthusiastic.

Bound'ry Owners Turned Away Previous Openness to Turn Down Amps in Favor of Their Code Violating "Concept"

When Bound'ry owners took over a spot already notorious to some in Midtown for posing a "nuisance" to the folk who actually lived in the neighborhood, they let neighbors know with no apologies (like those of owners past) that they would guard what they called their "concept": a late-night open air atmosphere where the amps stayed turned up generating loud decibels past the 100 foot code restrictions and into the neighborhood. Moreover, the speakers would be directed outside and elevated to reach farther by means of their placement on an open-air second-story balcony.

According to documents on file at the Disciples Divinity House (across the street from the Bound'ry) lifetime restaurateur Jay Pennington and his partner Jimmy Lewis (who was once convicted for running an illegal gambling enterprise) made it clear to residents two years after the Bound'ry opened that they were not going to turn down their amps due to their "concept."

Mr. Lewis would go on 10 years later to piss off Midtown businesses at a separate location by bequeathing the gift of a strip joint called "Vivid" to the same neighborhood:

The businesses surrounding 19th Avenue and Division, a thriving urban business district, include a karaoke bar, hair salon, law association and upscale eateries. None seem pleased with the new addition to the neighborhood, but nobody is quite as close to the problem as Cassie Aitkens, operator of Hot Yoga Nashville. Vivid has opened on the first floor of the building where Aitkens runs her yoga studio, and no number of downward dog poses has given her peace about this development.

"I'm very upset about it, only because I was led to believe that a much more tasteful establishment would be going in there," she says. Aitkens says that, so far, most of her students remain committed to the yoga studio and continue to take classes. But, "Some of the more conservative population that come from Belle Meade haven't been attending as much," she says.

Unbowed by neighborhood criticism, the strip club/Bound'ry landlord suggested to the Nashville Scene in 2004 that Vivid was more wholesome than art:

Scare up some 8-foot copper thongs and banana slings, make it a lapdance and everybody's happy.

When the strip club Vivid opened directly underneath Hot Yoga this year, yoga-goers and neighborhood regulars were understandably upset about their seedy new neighbor. But Vivid's landlord, Jimmy Lewis, didn't see why they were offended. The real vulgarity, he said, was Musica—the classical sculpture in the Music Row Roundabout. According to Lewis, nude sculptures are "more offending to me than a dance club." He considered the art very sexual and inappropriate, claiming he felt more comfortable driving his grandchildren by a strip club than the statue. (Thanks, Grandpa!) His leasing agent, Jim Boyd, went even further, saying that the Venus de Milo and David shouldn't be shown to children. In conclusion: porn good, art bad. Got it.

UPDATE: Here is more neighborhood reaction to Bound'ry owner Jimmy Lewis's strip club a few years ago (via William Williams at the City Paper):

Advocates of the fast-changing commercial and residential area met Monday afternoon on the Vanderbilt University campus to discuss how they can address the overlay district that permits adult entertainment activity. "It's time to take another look at the boundaries [of the overlay district]," said Betty Nixon, VU assistant vice chancellor for community, neighborhood and government relations. "The area is undergoing growth in a very positive way. I don't see [Vivid] as damaging that growth, but I do see it as inappropriate to the development that is happening." Others share Nixon's views. They say the timing is bad, particularly given major Midtown additions such as Roundabout Plaza, Bristol on Broadway, 807 18th , and Jim Caden's Demonbreun Street strip that contains restaurants, bars and retail. Ashlyn Hines, a partner with Bristol on Broadway developer Bristol Development Inc., said she is disturbed by the thought of having an exotic dance club only one block from the residential building her company will unveil by year's end. "This is the kind of business that sets the neighborhood back," Hines said. Bill Knestrick, president and chief executive officer of Knestrick Contractors Inc., said his company has a contract to purchase area property to develop a residential project. "This will definitely make us reconsider doing that," Knestrick said. "Has anybody ever said anything positive about a strip club going into a neighborhood?" he asked.

Restaurants Fight Attrition Warfare?

Reports from Midtown neighborhood leaders about today's scheduled court hearing with the Bound'ry and South Street Crab Shack on two recent noise citations suggest that the owners may be trying to wear down their opposition by forcing them to mobilize for cases that don't end up being held. I was told that Bound'ry/South Street citations were paid last Friday, a fact that was not announced until after Midtown leaders had waited at least an hour for their case to be heard. As a result the leaders and their lawyers were made to sit and wait in a crowded court room (with DUIs and other offenders having cases in the same place), burning an hour of their own time.

What's a Metro noise citation cost? $25? $50? Probably nothing compared to the time that neighbors put in to being available to testify and compared to the lawyers' fees involved. Now the Bound'ry and South Street will likely turn up the decibels again betting that future citations will not move as many people to act. It's a similar issue to the neighborhoods vs. developers issue. Developers have more time and resources to game the system than neighborhoods do. Business can commit petty infractions that don't cost them nearly as much as they do their neighbors in lost sleep and lost time in a court room. And aren't lawyers' tricks fun?



UPDATE: Check out this morsel of hypocrisy on the Bound'ry website:

The courtyard patio faces a quiet neighborhood street for fun dining during the spring, summer and fall.

Yeah, quiet until the Bound'ry's speakers get turned up real loud. Owner Jay Pennington seems to make his money off the benefits of being on a quiet neighborhood street without returning the favor to the neighborhood.

Nashville Yesterday: Restaurant Before the Bound'ry Was also a Late-Night Imposition on Residents

Since I wrote last night's post on problems Midtown residents are having with the Bound'ry after midnight, a couple of commenters have compared Midtown to Downtown with respect to the noise level. As one friend pointed out to me today, such a comparison is one of apples and oranges. Downtown is primarily and unmistakably an entertainment district that has only recently become residential. Downtown probably has very loud decibel allowances.

Midtown was largely residential until more recently; now it is more mixed-use. One would expect a greater tolerance for sub-woofers (and jacked, wall-shaking sub-woofers are nothing like just turning the volume up on your garden variety music) in Downtown and less tolerance in a more traditional mixed-use neighborhood like Midtown.

There is a residence hall right across 20th Avenue from The Bound'ry, and that hall has been in operation since the 1950s. So, the commenters who suggest that loud venues have been around longer than residents and that new residents should realize what they are getting themselves into are not being entirely correct. The history of the place is not that restaurants got built first and complaining neighbors came later. The recent Adelicia complaint is probably one in a long line of complaints over the decades of commercial encroachment. Midtown wasn't born in the 1990s when The Bound'ry was.

In fact, I was given a note today written by a resident back in 1987 regarding the restaurant that stood where the Bound'ry does now:

Last night The Third Coast played music until 1:40 a.m .... residents confronted the manager at least five times and called the Cafe numerous times as well. Metro police visited the Cafe three separate times but to no avail.

The city ordinance states an 11:00pm silence, yet the Third Coast has not obeyed the ordinance ....

[another resident] picks up at least one large size garbage bag full of beer bottles, etc. which are thrown out by patrons of Third Coast & Marty's .... Third Coast and Marty's do nothing to help keep the neighborhood clean.

That hardly sounds like someone writing in a predominantly entertainment district like Downtown. I don't believe that it serves the communities that have called Midtown home over the decades to compare them to new urbanism's residential communities (like those springing up around Downtown). And I don't think it's too much for neighborhoods outside Downtown to ask that their noise levels be kept well below Downtown's (like at a middle range of decibels?); otherwise, Midtowners would live in Downtown.

Bound'ry So Loud Last Night that Neighbor Could Not Hear His Own Television

Emails between Midtown residents indicate that last night around 11:00 the Bound'ry Restaurant turned its music up, and way up so that inside their homes neighbors could sing along with the amped up version of "Maybelline," and one neighbor reported that he could not even hear his own TV set for the noise. Metro Police were called. The cops measured a 78 dB level and they issued the Bound'ry a citation. Midtown residents are continuing to encourage one another to call the police whenever the Bound'ry fails to be a good late night neighbor.

Police E-mail Says Bound'ry Not Exempt from Noise Ordinance

E-mails passing between Metro Police and the Metro Council office in the last 24 hours indicate that the Bound'ry may have indeed violated the noise ordinance and that police have not enforced it under the mistaken belief that the restaurant was excluded.

After being contacted by Midtown residents about possible noise violations, CM Erica Gilmore asked for clarification from Metro Police on the situation. Here is the e-mail response from Metro Police to the Metro Council Office's inquiry (spelling errors left in):

For a long time now it was believed that The Boundary was within the CC and CF excluded "entertainment zone" which would make them exempt from the Noise Ordinance. I am sure that the Boundary manager would also assume that they are as they are so very very close. After taking a second look it does appear to me that the actual "exempt zone" is actually in-between Scarritt Place and Edgehill and then 21st and 16th. That would place The Boundary just barley half a block north of the "exempt zone", just technically outside the protected zone [actually, The Bound'ry is one and a half blocks from Scarritt Place]. On the other hand I would say this---- Boundary has played this music at this loud level for years and persons have always accepted it as part of the bar/entertainment district and also a part of urban living. I suggest that the midnight officers that will be checking on this be accompanied by a Sergeant as I am sure the Boundary management will be very unpleased with this enforcement action. I would suggest that the midnight supervisor take a copy of the Noise Ordinance to point out the correct geographical area. It may also be wise to issue warnings so all parties can become educated to the ordinance itself and also get used to it's enforcement.

I would question the conclusion that Midtowners have already accepted it. I've already located a 1987 note that residents did not accept it, and I bet that more evidence exists. More to come.

Checkered Restaurant Audibly Assaults Adelicia Residents

The Bound'ry Restaurant--which has been connected with past controversy--reportedly turned its sub woofers up after midnight one morning recently, waking Adelicia Condominium residents, even a number of floors above the street.

Calls residents made to The Bound'ry to ask the restaurant to bring down the decibels were reportedly met with cold indifference. Police were called out, but the cops merely drove by the the Bound'ry without stopping. Some residents are looking into the amplification codes to determine what the acceptable late night decibel level is in and around the Vanderbilt area restaurant.

Some business owners simply fail to understand that their indifference to the neighborhood has a way of emboldening neighbors to action. I'd like to see the residents grab a decibel meter and a camcorder to use in the future if they find out that there are stricter amplification codes. If not, then they ought to contact their council member, Erica Gilmore, and look into tightening up the code. Either way, they're going to need a strong homeowners association to win. Finally, they should also contact the community affairs officer in their police precinct to check into why the cops did not stop to follow-up on the noise complaint.

Adelicia Residents and Bound'ry Owner Reportedly Resolve Dispute

A source tells me that a meeting yesterday between Adelicia Condominium residents upset about recent Bound'ry noise violations and Bound'ry owner Jay Pennington went better than expected. Reportedly, Mr. Pennington has agreed to turn amplifiers back in toward the restaurant rather than face them out toward the Midtown neighborhood. Perhaps Metro Police won't have to be tested in the future on the enforcement of amplification codes. Let's hope the mutual understanding holds.

Bound'ry Owners' Other Watering Hole Caused Midtown Residents to Complain about Amplification in 1994

On Sunday, September 25, 1994, South Street (which is also owned by Jay Pennington and Jimmy Lewis) held a six-hour charitable street concert, which raised local ire to go along with donations because of the amplified music and the lack of crowd control. In a letter to Metro's Charitable Solicitations Board, residents of the Disciples Divinity House (20th and Adelicia) complained that the noise was unrelenting until 11:00 PM and that there were children living in the house who had to go to school the next day. Additionally, they pointed out that their access in and out of their residence was blocked, hundreds of people "overran" the DDH property, and several South Street workers were caught illegally dumping trash in the House dumpster.

In an October 31, 1994 letter to DDH, Solicitations Board Chair Marilyn Swing wrote that her office would remind the groups organizing the event that it was "their duty to comply with all local laws which would apply to any type of event held in Nashville -- including trespassing, noise levels and parking regulations." She also encouraged DDH to let her know whenever such fundraisers were scheduled in the future so that she could alert Metro Police. But given what we know about the lack of action by police officers to deal with noise complaints in Midtown over the years, how could the prospect of alerting police be of any comfort?

In a separate letter to DDH, the beneficiary of South Street's excuse to get buzzed and obnoxious charity event, Dreammakers, Inc., offered residents its "sincere apologies" for the disturbance. Dreammakers asserted that it was "unaware" that the South Street party might create problems for Midtown residents, but it assured them that if they are selected to be beneficiaries of South Street productions in the future, they would bear their "responsibility to be considerate" of the neighborhood.

Obviously, the Bound'ry's ownership team was just as willing to extend their "concept" into the street and on to adjoining properties as they were to have it blaring on their premises. Could it be that Midtown has been forced to accept whatever the Bound'ry owners impose upon it? (That's not a rhetorical question).

The Bound'ry Strikes Again

Well, that didn't last long. Midtown residents tell me that Bound'ry owners have once again imposed their "concept" on the neighborhood by turning their music amps out toward the street over the weekend, even as they were cited last Thursday for violating the noise ordinance at South Street restaurant.

Bound'ry/South Street Also Broke the dB Law Just About Every Day Last Week

I already related the citation of South Street Restaurant on the Sunday before last. Midtown neighbors report that Tuesday and Wednesday night of last week were also bad. Adelicia front desk guards called the building manager to report that music was so loud that they could identify songs coming from across the street through the building walls. The manager could also hear the music over the phone line as she spoke with them. The Adelicia management has a new policy that whenever any of their residents has a complaint about South Street or the Bound'ry, then they can call the guards at the front desk, who will contact police. They asked police to check in with the guard whenever they respond to a call.

Last Wednesday police were called again to respond to complaints about South Street. The folks at the Adelicia measured the decibel level of 50. The police arrived went to the deck several floors above street level and measured a decibel level of 70 (levels are not supposed to be above 50).

Police emails indicate that South Street was also cited Thursday and Friday. A court date has been set for the citations: Wednesday, June 18 at 1:00 in court room 5D of the Birch Building (408 2nd Ave.) Neighbors are being encouraged to attend in case they are given the chance to testify. CM Erica Gilmore has been kept in the communication loop of police-resident correspondence.

1990 Letter from Restaurant to Residents Acknowledges and Apologizes for "Inconvenience" of Late-night Noise

While the Metro Police and others have suggested that late-night amplified music has always been an embraced norm of the neighborhood around The Bound'ry restaurant, there is even more evidence from the past that suggests otherwise.

I have obtained a copy of a letter dated May 21, 1990, in which the president of the company (Low Country Associates, Inc.) owning Third Coast Cafe, the restaurant that stood on the property on which The Bound'ry currently sits, writes to nearby residents:

We the management, staff and entertainers at Third Coast Cafe hereby commit to the following live entertainment schedule, effective immediately:

Monday thru Thursday evenings outdoor live entertainment hours will be 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m.
Friday and Saturday evenings outdoor live entertainment hours will be 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience which our schedule may have caused in the past, and we look forward to a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship with you in the future.

Sincerely,
John H. Tunstall, Jr.

If late-night amplified music has always been an accepted and ordinary event in the Midtown neighborhood, then why would this restaurant CEO be publicly apologizing and restricting his commercial hours?

If you are keeping score at home, so far we have evidence of Midtown neighbors expressing opposition to amplified music in the 1970s, in the 1980s, in the 1990s, and at the present. The real question is not whether current residents should stop complaining and accept a mythic history of late-night music in Midtown. The real question is whether there has ever been a time when the neighborhood expressed actual contentment with and acceptance of a late-night commercial music venue that projected sound more than 100 feet past its boundaries. Where is the evidence that such a time ever existed? I have yet to see it.

Police Chief Wrote Reassuring Letter to Concerned Midtown Resident about the Noise

The Metro Police seemed to express a different attitude in 1999 toward a Midtown noise complaint about The Bound'ry than they did in the e-mail I posted earlier this afternoon regarding a complaint by Adelicia residents about the bar's late night sub-woofing.

I obtained this copy of a letter written by former Chief of Police Emmett H. Turner to a resident living across the street from The Bound'ry; the letter promises action on any violation of the code on amplified music or other loud noise:

(Click on to enlarge)

While in the 2008 e-mail police also say they are going to follow up to enforce noise codes, it looks more like a rather weak attitude waffling between "well, I guess we have to do this" and "we just have not received complaints from the content neighborhood." Some research into past police records would have at least turned up Chief Turner's letter, which makes it clear that there have been past complaints. I'm tending to believe that there are other police records that have not been looked at that show calls with neighborhood complaints about the noise level in Midtown.

Injunction Brought Against Restaurant's Amplified Music in 1979

Some kind of audibly imposing restaurant has existed at The Bound'ry's location for a long time, a fact which is attested to by court documents from 1979. At that time an injunction was brought by married couples and individuals of the Disciples Divinity House (which was built in the 1950s and still houses residents today) against "Daddywackers, Inc.," which owned and operated a restaurant with electronic amplification equipment occupying the space where The Bound'ry now resides.

The 1979 injunction charged that Daddywackers was operating "in such a manner as to unreasonably interfere" with "the reasonable use and enjoyment" of the residents' living quarters. The injunction--filed pending a law suit to "restrain and prohibit the Defendants"--argued that the commercial business constituted "a nuisance." The hall's lawyer argued that music was "plainly audible between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. at a distance of 100 feet," which was a violation of the existing law.

An injunction and a lawsuit 30 years ago do not sound like a legacy of neighborhood contentment and acceptance of amplified music to me. Although I concede that those bar patrons who stagger out of a pulsating establishment after midnight with a hard beer buzz on may not think that the establishment is a nuisance as they head back to their quiet homes elsewhere.

Police Enforce Noise Ordinance in Midtown

According to an e-mail I received from a Midtown resident, last Thursday night South Street Restaurant was cited for violating Metro's noise ordinance. Police have had a history of not responding to noise complaints coming the vacinity of South Street and the Bound'ry, which both belong to the same ownership group. Recently e-mail correspondence from the police indicated that they would start enforcing the code.

According to last week's e-mail, police have said that South Street must take responsibility for the disorderly conduct of its patrons in the Midtown neighborhood. That conduct has included public intoxication, shouting, and vomiting on the street in front of the restaurant. Neighbors around the restaurant are encouraging one another to report any obnoxious and illegal activities that occur to police.

Time to Put that "Midtown is for Locals" Myth to Bed

According to a 2004 Nashville Business Journal:

[The Bound'ry] brings in the 30-to-55 crowd .... More than half its customers are from outside Nashville or are not native to the local area.

So much for that cliché about where locals go and where tourists go.

Reminder: Bound'ry/South Street Has Its Day in Court Against Midtown Neighbors Tommorrow

1:00 tomorrow afternoon, and Midtown leaders have been encouraging put-upon and noise-weary neighbors to show up and perhaps testify about both recent problems with restaurateurs and those that stretched back to the 1970s.

S-town Has Its Own Noise Problems

I caught some flack from some of my Salemtown neighbors for coming down on the Bound'ry restaurant for its urbane and hip noise violations, which were keeping Midtown residents up some late nights. That's me: the party spoiler.

Now the Salemtown e-list is buzzing with drama over what has become over the past few weeks a regular street party on 6th Avenue, North with a lot of noise egged on by alcohol consumption. Parents are starting to complain about the revels disrupting the peace on school nights. Police have been called by several residents.

I'm not reading or hearing any more S-town lectures yet about how we don't live in the suburbs and how residents just need to submit to late night intoxicated party noise as a part of city living. Perhaps you think a little differently when the nuisance is in your own back yard or plaguing families with kids just around the block.