US

DC Councilman Wants Bars To Measure Noise Level Hourly, Report To Government

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Font Size:

If one District of Columbia councilman gets his way, business owners in the city would be forced to submit mounds of new paperwork to the city about noise levels in their bars.

City councilman Vincent Orange introduced the legislation earlier this month. It would force any establishment with a liquor license to measure noise levels emanating from their business on an hourly basis between the hours of 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. every night they are open.

In addition, the businesses will be required to record the levels on a paper form and submit the form to the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration at the end of each week.

Those businesses that failed to comply with the paperwork requirements would face a warning for the first violation, a fine between $500 and $1,000 for the second, a 15 day suspension of their liquor license for the third and a revocation of their license for the fourth.

The legislation appears to have stemmed from complaints by a group of four citizens calling themselves the D.C. Nightlife Noise Coalition, which, according to its website, formed to “promote the enforcement of DC’s noise ordinance for nightclubs.”

The problem, the group says, centers around a group of seven clubs in the DuPont Circle neighborhood of the city that they dubbed “Club Central,” that feature open air lounges and roof decks. These establishments play music that disturbs the sleep of nearby residents, the group claims.

“The World Health Organization finds that such music disturbs sleep to the extent of damaging health,” the group’s website reads. “DC noise law blindly rolls all the possible sounds into one legal maximum allowed sound level but then fails to enforce even that law.”

They claim the clubs regularly violate the city’s noise law, which only allows a maximum sound volume of 60 decibels, or roughly the level of a typical dishwasher running.

The group wasn’t satisfied with the proposed regulations, though.

In a letter sent to the council, it said it wanted the D.C. Council to expressly limit the hours of operation for summer beer gardens and sidewalk cafes and flat out ban permits for DJs or “music suitable for dancing in outdoor spaces.”

The bill doesn’t appear to be garnering much support in the council, however, as it only picked up one co-sponsor, Mary Cheh, and that was by accident. She mistakenly raised her hand during the council meeting and didn’t get her name removed before the deadline.

Request for comment from Orange’s office was not returned in time for publishing of this story.

Follow Josh on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel