Well, at Least He Made Gail Kerr Happy

Mike Jameson comes back to the Council tomorrow night with his much maligned bill to set a ceiling on Downtown noise consistent with those of other music-oriented cities. Once again, Jameson is the reasonable one making the compromises on behalf of his constituents to the hysterical local lifestyle tourists for whom Downtown is more of a commodity than a community.

Jameson's detractors tend to set up the straw man that people who move Downtown are unrealistic because they expect suburban noise levels. I've lived in urban neighborhoods for a long time (after growing up suburban), and I've never expected suburban decibels. By the same token, I don't expect that Nashville should have no noise limits whatsoever. Expecting louder noise levels does not lead inexorably to decibel anarchy or the silence of civility. I don't think P.J. Tobia should be allowed to set up an amplifier Downtown and cover the best of Dan Hill.

The buzz I'm hearing from task force set up to deal with this issue a couple of years ago is that Jameson's 85 dB limit applies to a handful of karaoke violators and not to most of the standard music venues plying their trade Downtown. The noise libertarians have brewed up a tempest in a teapot, and this bill should pass.