It's all-hands-on-deck for the Mayor's "Neighborhood Challenge" today, but how "environmentally conscious" does Karl Dean really want us to be?

With Mayor Karl Dean waltzing his big-ticket Metro budget items past the passive Metro Council once again, today he turns to the perennial afterthought in his 6-year administration: neighborhoods.

Keeping neighborhoods in their place: a subsection to the CEO

The official invitation to the Mayors Neighborhood Challenge Kickoff Event promises prizes for the best performance by volunteers:

Join Mayor Karl Dean, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods, Metro departments and other community groups at the Music City Center to kick off the Mayor’s Neighborhood Challenge! Similar to the Mayor’s Workplace Challenge, this is an opportunity to evaluate how green, healthy and involved your neighborhood or community group already is, learn how to improve, and earn points for both as you compete with other neighborhoods. There will be prizes for first place in each category.

How green is your landfill?

How "green, healthy and involved" we are in the neighborhoods? I do not know whether my neighborhood association is participating in this, but it would be ironic if they are since the Dean administration is about to finish a landfill of carcinogens and fuel contaminants on our doorstep. Yet, the Mayor's Challenge is promoted as an event to make us more "environmentally conscious",  even as the Mayor ignores calls to stop polluting the environment around Metro Water Services outside Salemtown. My message to Karl Dean: "I am sufficiently environmentally conscious, Mr. Mayor, and I expect you to end the dumping here in North Nashville and haul the debris out."

In my opinion the Mayor wants us to focus on volunteering to pick up some trash or to report codes-violating neighbors (through the NOTICE program) in order to give us false hope and to ignore real environmental problems like Metro Water burying toxic debris 300 yards from the Cumberland River. That landfill happened without any feedback from the community. We cannot even report Metro Water to Codes through the NOTICE program, because Codes approved the dump without taking the community into consideration. In that context, reporting neighbors to Codes for their violations looks like small-potatoes and divide-and-conquer. How can dumping old tires or garbage on private vacant lots be worse than burying heavy metals below the water table on public land?

How healthy is Metro's toxic dump?

Mayor Dean has been banging the drum of about how we should be living our personal lives (his enduring focus on us getting healthy is a prime example), and ignoring our reservations about his policies, programs, and practices inconsistent with healthy living. But wait. Today he is buying more of our voluntarism with promises of prizes for the neighborhood that shows out the best. How voluntary can it be if people are prompted by prizes? Can healthy living be sustained on the promise of swag and block parties?

Many local organizations inside and outside Metro government, beyond neighborhood groups, are responding to the Mayor's call for all-hands-on-deck. The Neighborhoods Resource Center, which claims to "organize residents to obtain more power" (even when it seems to run silent on Metro polices that discourage popular power) is a "tool" in the Mayor's "kit". I am not kidding: the Mayor lists organizations, including the NRC in his "toolkit". Other organizations are promoting the Mayor through social media:

When organizations choose to stand with a powerful municipal executive, they will not stand with communities when the latter are casualties of municipal policies that are anything but "green, healthy and involved in the neighborhoods". No wonder Hizzoner needs to give away prizes in order to entice average citizens to this event.

UPDATE: Head of Mayor Dean's campaign war room Office of Neighborhoods, Courtney Wheeler, added a tweet to the stream on the Mayor's Neighborhood Challenge:

In related news, I received an email saying that Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association indeed plans to accept Hizzoner's challenge.

Updates on cohousing and development

A couple of updates:

• A friend who has been involved in the Germantown cohousing project told me today that the meeting last week produced several resolutions, including building of a "common house" where residents can gather for meals, meetings, or entertainment and a community garden for the homes in the project at the corner of 5th Av N and Taylor St. The square footage of the two dozen multi-family structures will vary from 750 to 1,700. Cohousing intentionally includes home owners in the planning and design of their mutual community.
• Roy Dale, the engineer working with the developer of the project at 6th and Garfield, indicated to me by email 2 days ago that it may be 2 weeks before the high grass and brush can be cut at the rezoned property. Reportedly, it will be that long before developer Robin York can acquire the property and take responsibility for its upkeep. Dale also said he would ask York to make an attempt to convince the owner to mow and clean up the property. The current absentee owner is Ray C. Nathurst of Brentwood.

Whipped off a quick email to Erica Gilmore before the start of Metro Council

Metro Council begins in a matter of minutes, but I managed just now to get one last minute email away about pending legislation affecting Salemtown:

CM Gilmore: I know that you are going to pass BILL NO. BL2012-141 to rezone the corner of Garfield and 6th Ave N from R6 to RM20-A very easily at third reading tonight. You've done your due diligence by holding a community meeting alongside the two public hearings that this legislation had to go through.  

I continue to have concerns about the potential of the project given the current poor quality of the vacant lots being rezoned. I'm not convinced that the development team cares about our quality of life unless it hits them in the pocketbook. I have attached photos I took Sunday of the blighted lots, including one that clearly shows that other vacant lot owners at this intersection are responsible and keep their lots free of tall grass and brush.

I was wondering if you could do their concerned neighbors like me one more favor after the bill passes by turning to the development team and saying to them "Congratulations. Now go mow the grass."

Regards,
Mike Byrd

UPDATE: CM Gilmore was absent from council tonight. CM Walter Hunt introduced it and CM Megan Barry introduced a substitute on behalf of CM Gilmore. The rezoning is a done deal. No word on when the overgrown scrub at 6th and Garfield will disappear.

Salemtown developers allow nearly rezoned properties to blight

The rezoning request for Salemtown properties at 6th and Garfield, which generated sparks on the neighborhood elist a few weeks ago, breezed through a May 1 public hearing with no comment:

[CM Erica] Gilmore requested a hearing from the public on this bill which had been previously advertised. The President asked if anyone desired to be heard for or against the bill and no one came forward to be heard. The President declared the public hearing closed. Ms. Gilmore moved to pass the bill on second reading, which motion was seconded and adopted by a voice vote of the Council.

Without any further objections at the council's public hearing, passage on third reading is a done deal at this point. Even with the way cleared for Roy Dale and Robin York to realized their concept, the vacant property they will build on has deteriorated into an overgrown, vermin-infested, trash-catching, codes-violating mess. Here some photos I took of the southeast corner of 6th and Garfield yesterday:

I have listened to both developers and Salemtown's association president preach to neighbors that the way to clean up vacant lots is to give developers a free, unchecked hand to build. Well, these developers enjoyed objection-free public hearings both at the Planning Commission (which I attended) and the Metro Council (which I did not attend), and yet they still neglected their responsibilities to care for their property. It is now a health risk and quality-of-life nuisance for Salemtown.

Look at the photos and convince me that we are not supposed to question the quality of their product when it is eventually built. We're supposed to believe that they give a flying fling about Salemtown?

Lame logic

The past couple of days I've been surprised to hear the rationalization that we can put an end to overgrown, garbage-strewn vacant lots by just supporting whatever a developer proposes to build on them.

Actually, no. We can put an end to overgrown, garbage-strewn vacant lots by holding the lot owners accountable for keeping their grass cut shorter than 12 inches and for picking up litter on a regular basis. We can report them to Metro Codes when they fail to live up to the same obligation that we all have to cut our grass and pick up litter on our properties.

Making excuses for property owners to shirk the obligations that attach to having land is a cop out that practically ignores the quality of life of the neighborhood.

CRIME ALERT: vacant, neglected Salemtown house burglarized

According to the Salemtown elist earlier today the absentee owner of 1900 4th Ave N (Google maps streetview likely from 2008-2009) reported to a neighbor that that someone broke into the the long-vacant property and stole appliances, electric meter, ceiling fans, HVAC wiring and other miscellaneous metals. The property is notorious to neighbors as overgrown and unmaintained with broken windows, gang graffiti and a front door obscured from plain sight. The blighted conditions have been reported to Metro Codes several times without positive results, and the owner has been cited before. No one heard any suspicious noises during the break-in and neighbors believe it might have happened overnight. Salemtown had been enjoying a drop in crime over the past year, but unkempt blight will always lead to other problems like vandalism and theft. This owner's irresponsibility forces us to once again deal with crime spreading to the rest of the neighborhood.

Illegal dumping mushrooms if neighbors do not collectively leverage Metro response to them

Illegal dumping of furniture, tires, demolition debris, etc. is something we used to have to deal with much more in Salemtown a few years ago, but we still get it periodically on vacant lots and near alleys. Much has changed with the improvement of quality of life here and because of the coordinated efforts of the associations.

A South Nashville blogger is dealing with the problem to a more chronic degree and reminds us that action coordination matters:

MDHA neglect of Section 8 property mars Salemtown streetscape

A perennial recurrence in Salemtown since I moved here 6 years ago is the failure of Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency to properly care for its Section 8 housing properties. Once again this year MDHA, which manages Housing and Urban Development-subsidized housing, is allowing some of the grass on its properties to rise to a codes-violating height.

The irony in this instance is that the offending 7th Avenue North and Garfield Street property adjoins streetscape elements--crosswalks, period street ID signs, traffic bulb flora, lamppost--that were funded by a HUD block grant. The construction of those elements, which are intended to enhance rather than obstruct neighborhood quality of life, were also managed by MDHA. What QOL MDHA might giveth it also taketh.

Yesterday a band of us went around weeding and cleaning up the traffic bulbs, which in some cases are overwhelmed by the curb-side thickets on 7th Avenue. Today I reported MDHA to Metro Codes for keeping tall grass and the garbage that gets caught there. If you would like to report MDHA for violating Metro Codes, you can do so online after the jump.

Chestnut Hill/Cameron Trimble Neighbor Confronts Illegal Dumper

From the Nashville Neighborhoods e-list:

INCLUDED BELOW- Violator who just dumped in our neighborhood
picture of truck, and perp. Next to sign that says $500 fine.

[Neighbor] saw this dumping just before 8am 07/24/09
This man said that "he can dump on his boss's property anytime he wants". He was dumping on the City's right-of-way on Old Radnor Car Line (just off 2nd Av South where Nolensville Pike turns into 2nd Av S)
registered to:
William Bass
6304 Laurelwood DR
Brentwood TN 37027
242-8600
(Bass Properties)

Reported to Jawon Lauderdale- Metro Health Department
He will be charged a $50 fine.

Neighborhood leaders have asked Metro government to contact the tire merchants in the area and remind them that tire dumping is illegal and punishable. Community leaders are also organizing to picket the businesses of suspected dumping merchants.

Downtown Noise Restriction Bill Passes; Single Serve Bill Deferred Indefinitely

Mike Jameson's excessive noise bill, based on the research of the Downtown noise task force, passed third and final reading tonight.

Erica Gilmore deferred the single serve ban bill on second reading tonight. She gave no explanation for her motion.

Council Passes Measure to Prohibit the Consumption of Alcohol at After Hours Clubs

No discussion, but bill sponsor Anna Page did present a petition signed by Nashvillians who did not have access to e-mail to contact council members.  Passed on second reading.  Next reading will be final reading.


UPDATE: Page passed on third and final reading a companion bill that restricts the location of after hours clubs:

No after hours establishment shall be located within five hundred feet from the property line of any residential property. Distances shall be measured in a straight line from the closest point of the after hours establishment building to the closest point of the residential property line.

After hours club supporters may argue that this makes Nashville unhip, but neighborhoods, not pub crawlers, are the ones most put upon by after hours clubs.

Troublesome Salemtown Market Has Beer License Suspended

On the heels of another neighborhood association meeting filled with residential complaints about continuing problems at a beer market at 7th and Garfield, Salemtown Neighbors President Freddie O'Connell followed up with Council Member Erica Gilmore, School Board Member Sharon Gentry (minors loiter by the store during school hours), Metro Police, and Beer Board Member Jackie Eslick.

Ms. Eslick was the first to respond to Freddie with some positive news:

inspectors got direct evidence of drinking on the premises, which is prohibited. As a result, Volcano Discount Tobacco (the new operating name for K&M Market) has had its beer license suspended for 14 days effective Dec. 1st. Weakening their case, the owner of the market did not respond to a subpoena to come before the board to represent himself.

This property is owned by well-placed Nashvillian Kenny Norman, and the store seemed to be the subject of a recent Tennessean article that suggested it is the focus of frivolous, race-based phone calls to the police. Tennessean reporter and Germantown resident Janell Ross interviewed a man outside the market who told her that police had been called against him because he was black and merely talking about the weather and politics while standing outside the market.  Maybe Ms. Ross can make amends by doing a follow-up on how law-breaking public consumption on the premises translates to innocent conversations about the weather and politics.

Police reported to SNNA last night that the market operator was arrested two weeks ago for reckless endangerment after he shot a gun at his own bulletproof glass while customers were in the store just to see if it would work. The officer also told neighbors that the Women's Rescue Mission around the corner on Rosa Parks Boulevard does not help the situation since many of the women staying that the mission have been involved already with alcohol, drugs, and prostitution, and the recidivism rate among the mission's population is probably high.

Salemtown truly needs Ms. Gilmore, Ms. Gentry, the police, and Ms. Eslick to work together to change the poor conditions at 7th and Garfield.  I don't know how much influence property owner Kenny Norman has in keeping conditions as they are in Salemtown, but Metro officials have to do more for the sake of the community.  Also, neighors need to keep in mind that the Women's Mission owns several vacant lots on 7th behind their mission and across the street from the market.  There has been talk of plans to expand the mission in the future.  That is a prospect to which we should strenuously object, given the current conditions.

Downtown Noise Bill Deferred

Mike Jameson said tonight that he, the Noise Task Force, business leaders and the Downtown partnership are waiting on a lawyer to render a legal opinion regarding the attempt to place a decibel level on amplified music Downtown.

Kotz Drinkanistas vs. Urban Neighborhoods

Not only is PiTW's Pete Kotz guilty of speaking in vague generalities about how cities become vibrant sphincter-free epicenters without reference to their actual codes (ever heard of NYC's Paradise Garage, Pete?), not only does he mention Austin, Texas without reference to Austin's decibel restriction on amplified music (which might soon be Nashville's), but like so many other lifestyle les misérables Pete puts on a persecution complex to propose the preposterous point that his liberty is somehow maligned by limits on after-hours clubs. (Full disclosure: I've been to a few after-hours clubs in my time).

Pete refers to his preference for after-hours clubs as "freedom," which seems to cheapen substantive ideas like assembly, protest, voting, self-determination. I really have no problem with appealing to after-hours clubs or commercial consumption of alcohol in those clubs on the premise of having a good time, but bringing freedom into the debate is over the top. Maybe the economic argument that after-hours clubs help promote development is worth a fair hearing, but let's not confuse consumerism (including black market consumerism) and liberty. When the Happy Hour bar hoppers start using swizzle sticks like peasants with pitchforks or start mimicking mobs storming the Bastille buzzkill they have nothing left but weak arguments.

And the weakness is aggravated by a low tolerance for diversity outside of the empty-nest lifestyles of the young and the beautiful (his claim brushes variety to the "tattered" fringes). That seems to be the crowd who Pete believes will save Nashville, and after-hours clubs are the vehicles of the saviors' advent. However, urban residents of all stripes who have to live in the vicinity have valid concerns that hocking alcohol at after-hours clubs, which attract gangs and criminal activities, is like throwing gasoline on fires that endanger the safety of neighborhoods. Some of those residents have been banging away on Pete's argument for the past 3 days in the comments section of his post.

And their arguments against Kotz look strong from my spot in a diverse urban neighborhood:

Pete, you and anybody else who wants to see progressive I'll be happy to take you up to La Casa Blanca at 6am. We can sit on my neighbors porch and discuss the lack of personal freedom .... If we don't get shot it'll be great fun.

Get off [bill sponsor] Council Lady Anna Page's back . She is simply responding to what many Government agencies won't do . Apply the existing laws and ordnances to shut down these barely legal and in most cases illegal businesses . Get on the asses of the Mayor , the Codes Dept. , the Health Dept . etc. that can't or won't shut these places down . Council Lady Page is using her only resources available to her to remedy a deadly situation occurring in her district .

Shootouts, dead bodies, Surenos 13, MP13 and Brown Pride Gangs treated like VIPs, prostitution, drugs, gang tagging, drunks laying on their cars, crossdressers working the night, 15 men in 90 minutes urinating in public, illegal sell of alcohol in a BYOB club, total disrespect for the police. What have I left out?

Pete, Thanks for the press. Now maybe we here in Woodbine will get something done. It's absolutly ridiculous that a few shit-hole, afterhours clubs have more rights than citizens of a community do. Where is the 'Freedom' you speak of in that? Families laying on their livingroom floor to avoid the gunfire, prostitutes in the parking lot 15 feet away, drugs, gangs. Come hand out with us in Woodbine on the corner of Nolensville Rd. & Chilton Ave. between 3 and 6 am on any given weekend...excercise your 'freedoms' let's see how long you and can stand it. Anna Page is for the people of her community of Woodbine/Flatrock.

The people of Woodbine/Flatrock have been living in terror for well over a year now. Two separate families with children have moved elsewhere for the safety of their families. Why? All because of La Casa Blanca-La Copa Fiesta located at 3312 Nolensville Rd. This place is located right in the heart of residential neighborhood.

The owner of this establesment doesn't care about her neighbors, nor does she care about the businesses located next to her. As her overflow parking has gone into the neighboring businesses. Before these businesses can even open the doors for their own operation the following day they have to clean up their parking lots of broken beer bottles, used condoms empty baggies that that were used for some sort of dope. Not to mention the gangs that hang out there and do their own business right inside the after hrs. club. The shoot outs in the parking lots between the security guards and the patrons from the club. And lets not forget the houses that have been hit by gunfire or people finding shell casing by their mailboxes from the drive by shooting that occured back in June of this year.

Anna Page is doing something good for the neighborhood she is not opposed to people having a good time.

I closed down the bars downtown at 3 am every weekend and even tried the after-hours clubs a few times. However, I felt unsafe and surrounded by people who were in a very different state of mind. I don't remember any music or significant contributions to Nashville's night life so I guess I don't see the economic advantage. I personally think working to defeat the English-only referendum is a much better way to make Nashville look like a "cool city."

I pay taxes, am involved in bettering our community, volunteer at school and abide by the law, as do most of my neighbors. I choose to live in this neighborhood and I don't think moving is the answer or solution to any of these questions. If that were the case, then I would encourage you to find some land and open a commune with all-night establishments and require no rules. You won't like a lot of the patronage it will draw but since its all about individual freedoms, you shouldn't need security.

The police are enforcing the law. La Copa Fiesta and her 13 siblings around town have hundreds and hundreds of 2008 Police Reports. Why are they not closed down? Why do they only get a slap on the hand with an affordable fine. The Police are not the Judge and Jury. It is the "SYSTEM" one enters into after the citation is written that fails here.....
La Copa and La Casa was shut down recently for no WATER. (they did not pay their bill). But no one shuts them down for the illegal purchase or selling of alcohol, sell and use of illegal drugs, gangs with guns, public urination, etc.

An After Hours Club is in my South Nashville Glencliff neighborhood which I have lived for many years. This Bar opened in Jan. of 2008. The bar brought with it all kinds of crime-gangs, drunks, wreckless driving, prostituion, drinking from open containers in the parking lot, gross sexual behavior, guns and violence, and on and on. All of which I have personally witnessed.

Nashville's growth and ability to exist as a thriving metropolitan city does not hinge on the 'BYOB FACTOR'.

Isn't regard for safety more important than an after hour beverage? You know, you can choose to drink at home or at a friend's house.

The drinkanistas who ditto Kotz in the comments by contrast are predictably lame. They're blaming residents with legitimate community safety concerns with being buzzkills on their weekend fun and thus destroying realization of Nashville's manifest destiny to be hip.  They're chiding residents to move out of their neighborhoods if they don't like the increase in after-hours crime. So, whose freedom is being threatened in that exchange, Pete?

The Virtues of Balance: Just Because We Can Do Something without Limits Does Not Mean We Should

PiTW's P.J. Tobia doesn't seem either to realize or to acknowledge that the Council's proposed noise level ordinance liberally allows a higher decibel level than two party cities that never sleep, New York and Las Vegas. So, why does he raise such a subjective stink in such a rhetorical vacuum? The whole libertarian premise of his argument is raggedy; there are all kinds of effective municipal codes that co-limit and balance interests, but would not be allowed by overplaying libertarianism. Rather than unravelling the idea of checks and balances in city life by absolutizing individual liberty, we should promote government regulation that strives for fairness between competing interests.

The Nashville law would be consistent with one in Austin, Texas, and I wish Tobia all the luck in the world ever referring to Austin's 6th Street as "lamed-up" and "quieted down." He'd be laughed out of the Dirty Dog Bar. He'd be lucky to pick up a tamale undeterred near 6th & Sabine. Austin is the friggin' "Live Music Capital of the World," and nobody (except, by logical extension, P.J. Tobia) calls their noise codes "galactically stupid."

The idea that Music City's Downtown would lose cache if it allows any level of eardrum-popping music is crazy, and it sounds like an argument made by an interloper, a local tourist who only uses Downtown as a lifestyle option rather than a dwelling and a community. Arguments against balanced and moderated modulation are typically made by those for whom Downtown is disposable, those who have no commitment to the place except in what they can take from it. Just because Downtown residents should be prepared for louder decibels than the suburbs does not mean that they should accept any level that clubs can blare into the night to lure and to rile up the drunk and clueless.

And contra Aunt B., one need not be labeled "Victorian" to argue for obviously sane and relatively liberal limits on urban noise. In my opinion, even linking the issue of noise overtly to the art of seduction strikes me as a bit repressed itself. There are classically based arguments for balance and moderation that have little to do with sexuality per se. In that sense, I can see nothing wrong with balancing entertainment "concepts" with community welfare, but then again, I'm not committed to a disposable Downtown. And it's not exactly like Nashville has anything remotely resembling Antone's that would ever get me believing that if loud music is good, then louder music than any city in America is great.

So, get over it, libertarians. There's nothing that absolutely entitles you to scream up in other people's ears for the sake of your own entertainment without having a fight on your hands.

"Plainly Audible" Noise Resolution Up for Final Council Passage Tuesday

On Tuesday night a resolution that would remove maximum decibel level restrictions from the noise codes and replace them with restrictions on noise that is "plainly audible" from the boundary of the nearest residential property will be up for third reading at Metro Council. The resolution would also add motor vehicle noise audible within 200 feet to the noise restrictions. Good luck with that one, Harley riders. I haven't heard much debate on this issue, and it seems to me to be more common sensical than expecting people to carry around decibel meters.

Would New Council Noise Ordinance Help or Hinder Neighborhoods Burdened with Nuisance Noise?

It looks like a resolution to be introduced on first reading by Eric Crafton, Jim Gotto and Anna Page will do away with decibel level limits in the noise code and prohibit any noise (except in the central and commercial core zonings) that is "plainly audible" from the nearest residential property.  Ostensibly, this would seem to simplify matters, since people don't generally own decibel meters, but I would like to hear more discussion.  Would this code change aid or constrain neighborhoods dealing with unruly noise issues?

Concept G(rass) Cut

But no sign of a harvest festival on the once bushy Concept G property.

CONCEPT G(rass)

I took the photo above standing erect on the plot where Double A Development and Village Real Estate plan to build "Concept G: Townhomes at Six Hundred Garfield" (http://www.600garfield.com/) in Salemtown (although they prefer to call us "Germantown").  I'm around 5'10", and as you can see there is some thicket that is over my head.  It's a clear violation of the Metro grass code (grass and weeds are supposed to be no higher than 12 inches).  It's even bursting through the erosion-preventing silt fence at the sidewalk.

The Concept G team has already met with some criticism here for its somewhat institutional design and for running cheeky ads even in a community that can hardly be characterized as prudish or puritan.  But those are less important, more subjective disagreements where a difference of opinion is expected.  Violating the Metro code times 6 so that vermin, trash, and probably drug dealers can gather hidden on their overgrown lot is unacceptable and an insulting blight on our neighborhood.  I am particularly disappointed in Mark Deutschmann's Village Real Estate company, which sells itself as a community-friendly, neighborhood-supportive group.

I wish the 600garfield.com people would treat Salemtown better by keeping their grass mowed.  Or if not mowed how about scythed once and a while?

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.