On Friday September 15th, 2006 a complaint was received at 8:56 pm regarding a performance on the Firehouse stage by a local band (Slutty Putty) as part of our regular series of 3rd Friday performance art events.
We had 2 police cars with 4 officers come out to issue us one of the first new party ordinance tickets. This was given on their first visit with no warnings. We are appealing the fines at a hearing this Friday (Dec. 8).
As president of Artlink Inc. and a gallery owner, I feel that this ordinance spells trouble for events like First Fridays, 3rd Fridays and Art Detour in Phoenix.
My Original Appeal Letter -----------------------------------
City Auditor Department,
I am writing this letter to request a hearing in response to the bill I received for the police response to a noise complaint received at my place of business. I received this notice on the 1st of October, after returning from Thailand. The grounds for my appeal relate to the fact that the noise complaint was received at a place of business. The "noise" was from a band playing on our stage for our clients on a Friday night before 10pm at our art space. We feel that the complaint comes from a harassing neighbor who seeks to harm our business. We have been performing 1-2 events a month in this space for the past 4 years, always on weekend nights with performances ending by 10pm. The neighbor in question is a drug addict who moved in next door to our space this past year. This neighbor has a personal problem with one of our resident artists, and has chosen to harass us with noise complaints every night we have a performance.
Our business is an art space that depends on providing visual and performing arts for our patrons. We feel that the new noise ordinance is problematic for the development of small businesses such as ours in downtown Phoenix. This fine and the threat of future fines of up to $1000 are unreasonable costs to our doing business in downtown Phoenix.
As the president of Artlink Inc. I know I am not alone in our concerns about the enforcement of the new noise ordinance. Many feel that this ordinance is a tool for turning off the First Friday event that we have worked so hard to build. I have also participated in a downtown artist task force working with Phil Jones of the Office of Arts and Culture on an overlay that will protect small businesses from the unfair enforcement of this new noise ordinance. It was my understanding that enforcement of this ordinance would be delayed until the new overlay was completed. Please contact me for further information.
Michael Hudson
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ACTUAL CITY CODE CAN BE FOUND HERE-
http://phoenix.gov/POLICE/loud_party_pcc.html
Documents (police response & collection bills sent prior to hearing date) -
