The Liquor Control Board was in Clever Dunnes as well this weekend. I am not sure what initiated the raid but there were citations handed out.

Moral of the story: If Nickels does not like the type of music they play he wants it shut down. And the second part of the story: if condo residents want to live in the culture of Capital Hill guess what? LOUD music on the weekends if part of it!! If you do not like it move the hell out!!! And stop the bitching. FUCK, they sell those condos under the pretext of living amongst the club culture of Seattle and when they move in they start to bitch....

Good,

Its about time these bars recignized the responsibilities with being in mixed use situations.

Living next to a bar SUCKS ASS. And if you had to do it, you would agree.

Fuck Pony! Hopefully someone will point out at the hearing that existence of the Glory Hole among other more disgusting components of the bar, and the city will see no reason to allow them to continue to serve alchohol.

Fuck 'em. The fewer bars pumping out obnoxious drunks and noise polution in this city, the better.

Someone should open a club next door to Greg.

music playing loud, straights, homosexuals, liquor, music playing loud while homosexuals are drinking straight liquor... dont we call that city livin'!? hahaha! i definately enjoy it.
why buy a condo on capitol hill, if you are going to bitch about the appeal, and the reasons why we all live here?

its all greek to me!

ecce: What-the-fuck-ever. I live RIGHT in that neighborhood (next to R Place, actually) and yeah, it's a massive fucking party on the weekends. Guess what? I KNEW it was going to be loud as fuck when I moved here, and it's still a great place to live. It's a bar district. It should remain a bar district. The city NEEDS bar districts if it's going to maintain its vitality. I don't know where you get off insulting someone else's fucking neighborhood. Stick to your own.

(BTW, I know that feeding the troll is bad form, but I couldn't resist.)

have these places ever considered... i don't know turning the volume down? maybe encouraging conversation? inviting live bands every once and awhile? playing something besides shitty metal that only sounds good when its so loud it hurts?

if they are protecting workers from cigarette smoke and cancer why don't they do it from ridiculously loud noise and hearing loss? ;-P

There is an election coming up in a couple of years. Everyone in the city who likes music and nightlife needs to register to vote and we need to vote to get Nickels out of office. He is relying on young people in Seattle not voting, that's the stats. In the meantime, there is a council election coming up this fall. Nickels is backing certain candidates that will go along with his agenda. Be sure to vote against the people endorsed by him. I'm sure the pro-nightlife folks will endorse candidates. Watch for that, it's the first step in protecting music and nightlife in Seattle and getting rid of Nickels.

i'm with EH. normal people stay home on weekends, or maybe invite a quiet guest over for tea. i'd say convert the bars to libraries, but only if they don't let the bums in.

Not to play devil's advocate or anything, but how do they know it was new condo owners and not old apartment renters? Did the LCB come in and specifically say it was new condo owners complaining? Do the bar owners get to see who complained? Either way, it's fucked, but just asking.

Loud music from a club usually isn't a problem unless it's really bass-y.

When I moved into Belltown, the party scene wasn't half of what it is now, i.e., I don't think it's very "adult" to just blame residents for being wet blankets.

I don't understand why Mayor Nickels is going about this in the way he is, but as a club neighbor, what I want is:

1) More cops enforcing laws already on the books.

2) A noise ordinance that is even half as strong as NYC's.

3) Club owners who give two shits about the neighborhoods they do business in.

The closest 'new' condo building is the Press 2 at Olive St & Belmont which is way too far to be disturbed by Pony. Let's be objective, please.

I was at Pony on Friday night, and while the music was loud and terrible, it was no louder or more terrible than the old Cha Cha.

Will - just fyi - most bar owners do care. That's why we've proposed over and over again for years what you're requesting and more. It's crazy the Mayor has blocked this. The Mayor even blocked a proposal in Olympia that would have created 10 more liquor agents for Seattle dedicated to nightlife. The Mayor wants his proposal or none, and he's willing to sacrifice neighborhood's in the process. Sad. So glad we have some sane people like Steinbrueck and Rasmussen at Council. Hopefully they'll get something done soon.

it is important to remember that nickels spent a good amount of energy wooing the music community vote, only to later turn around and send a big fuck you with his bullshit anti-nightlife agenda.

pony is no louder than the metropolitan on a busy night.

I live next to a bar. The bar wasn't here when we moved in. Now they regularly have their putdoor patio open past 10 pm, pump crappy music outside and drunks smoke under my windows.

It ain't about being cloistered, its about having your quality of life disrupted by illegal and obnoxious behavior.

"A noise ordinance that is even half as strong as NYC's."

Seattle's noise ordninance is already draconian. IIRC you can be fined the first time the cops show up, if they so choose.

I used to live in that neighborhood, no one "has to live there", yes the loud music and people milling around loudly in the middle of the night sucked. But you know what? I FUCKING KNEW THAT WHEN I MOVED THERE. I didn't fucking whine about it to the cops.

"have these places ever considered... i don't know turning the volume down? maybe encouraging conversation? inviting live bands every once and awhile? playing something besides shitty metal that only sounds good when its so loud it hurts?

if they are protecting workers from cigarette smoke and cancer why don't they do it from ridiculously loud noise and hearing loss?"

Give me a fucking break. If people didn't want to listen to loud metal they would leave and the club would choose to do something else. Some people like loud metal, deal with it.

cry me a river, denial boy @17.

@17 personal anecdotes should not make policy, and certainly cannot be debated. your case may not be anything similar to the other case cited, if it is true at all. you can always find or manufacture one deeply touching heartfelt story to use as propaganda.

@20 That's not true! You'd know this if loud bars had killed your baby!

Anyways, I'm of the opinion that, indeed, you should be aware that if you move next to a bar, there's going to be noise, but not only that, if you move next to a commercial area zoned for alcohol, you should be prepared for a bar to move in someday. We're not the Brits, by any means, but Americans still do love to drink. So, feel free to complain and fight zoning changes that might bring alcohol to your neighborhood, but otherwise, shut the fuck up or move to the suburbs.

Josh- The nearest condo building would not have been able to hear the music from Pony. It's clear you don't like home owners in this neighborhood, & decided to sloppily incorporate this sentiment in your piece.

Signed, homeowner who loves the Hill & the noise that comes with it

I can feel sympathy for people who move to a neighborhood that isn't zoned for bars that gets rezoned and bars are opened. (of course, this doesn't really happen very often...)

Have zero sympathy for people who move to areas ZONED FOR BARS that bitch about the noise...either don't move there in the first place, or get out...no ones forcing you to live there...even if you move to a block that doesn't currently have a bar on it, if it's a street zoned for it, it can happen at anytime...it's like the idiots who buy homes in flood plains then whine when they get hit by a flood every 5 or 10 or 15 years...

i'd also have to say, that there ARE some clubs out of control that need to clean up their act AND there are areas of town that could use better policing..

@17 - You live in a CITY. A city full of people who - with a few obvious exceptions - would rather drink and socialize and generally enjoy their lives, instead of spending all their waking hours waggling fingers at everyone who doesn't live like them, and pissing and moaning about anything and everything on a local blog. Move out to Woodinville or get the fuck over it.

@8 And hey! "Shitty metal" is in the eye of the shitter... or something like that.

This is nothing new for that block. Manray got complaints for years until they finally closed up the outdoor patio. There are actually quite a few condos right near that intersection; the large white building on Summit behind the bars on Pine is a condo. I lived there for a while and you could definitely hear bar noise at times.

The attitude of "you live in a city, deal with it" is a bit tiresome. Litter, drug addicts, prostitution, crime, and noise are all part of city life. Does that mean that if a hooker is shooting up on your front steps while yelling to her pimp, whose car is parked half a block away blasting loud music at 2 am, and then she tosses her used syringe in your yard before getting into the car, that you just have to deal with it? There's got be some reason and compromise on both sides.

When I first moved to Seattle in my 20s I was looking for a vibrant city experience. I wanted to be able to be within blocks of bars, restaurants, coffee, clubs, and groceries. As I got older I decided I wanted to live a quieter life, so I moved to a quieter neighborhood. I didn't demand that Capitol Hill shut the fuck up. I have no sympathy for people who move to Pioneer Square, Belltown, Broadway, Pike/Pine, or Market Street. The noise was there long before you arrived. Until we stop electing real estate developers and start electing community activists, or Stranger staffers for Mayor, we are fucked.

@26 - there are reasonable demands to make of a dense urban neighborhood, and unreasonable demands. Expecting that authorities will deal with crime and that your property rights will be respected (e.g. no one tossing syringes into your yard) is perfectly reasonable. Expecting the entire neighborhood to turn into Mayberry to satisfy your delicate sensibilities is not.

@28, that's why I don't live on the hill anymore. I didn't expect the neighborhood to change just for little ol' me, and wouldn't want it to. While I don't live there, I do patronize bars and clubs that are there. My point is that there are unreasonable people on both sides of the argument, and shouting "just deal with it, you live in a city" doesn't accomplish much. Somehow we all gotta get along.

If I remember correctly Man Ray got complaints because they would empty their glass recycling at 4 in the fucking morning. That shit is loud. There would have been no complaints if the owner just emptied his recycling at a decent hour.

If he would have com in the morning and emptied his glass bottles in recycling bin when all the garbage trucks and whatever else were about, say after 8 am, I doubt there would have been any noise complaints.

@17

"...Now they regularly have their putdoor patio open past 10 pm, pump crappy music outside and drunks smoke under my windows...its about having your quality of life disrupted by illegal and obnoxious behavior."

None of the activities that you listed are illegal. Obnoxious, maybe, but that that is an opinion. YOUR opinion.

I'm sorry that you have a bar by where you live and it annoys you. Unless it is Pony it is not relevant to this Slog article.