Council Calls for Sound Check for Street Performers

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

October 18 -- Keeping street performers from cranking up the volume may once again become a priority after City Council members last week asked staff to take another listen to the noise levels they produce.

With hundreds of street performers crowding the Pier and the Third Street Promenade, the City has spent time and money to craft an ordinance to keep the levels down.

Now, at least one street performer is complaining the music and noise from break-dancers at the Pier may also be too much to groove with.

“I find that certain problems on the Promenade are spilling onto the pier,” said Walt Davies, a street performer in Santa Monica for 19 years. “Primarily I speak of the lack of enforcement for the noise ordinance which we seem to be having with the amplification of performers who come out and crank it up.

While council members asked staff lend an ear to Davies’ concerns, they also requested a sound check to determine how well the noise ordinance is being enforced at the Third Street Promenade.

“We spent a lot of time trying to come up with standards that are constitutional and legal and workable,” said Council member Ken Genser. “If there are problems in enforcing the standard we came up with, I think we need to hear about it.”

Genser said he was bothered by the noise during his latest visit to the Promenade, where he was waiting for a friend to pick him up.

“I couldn’t take the noise, I had to move away from where I was standing,” he said.

More than 700 permits have been handed out to performers on the Third Street Promenade this year, according to City staff. Since January, 43 citations have been issued and 12 permits are in the process of being revoked by the City Attorneys office, they said.

Still, City Manager Lamont Ewell said he will make sure residents and visitors can enjoy some degree of quiet.

“I think the point is that there is probably an opportunity to do a better job,” Ewell said. “We are enforcing it, but it sounds like we can be more aggressive in that effort.”