When the music died: Bellingham losing downtown venues

| Photo Courtesy of Chris Fuller

• Former Bellingham music venues

• READ THE NOISE LAW
  
  To view Bellingham’s noise ordinance, click here.
• 
  '80s Night Video
• TO JOIN B’DAMN
  
  The Bellingham Downtown Alliance for Music and Nightlife promotes communication between Bellingham’s music community and local government and law enforcement.
  Web site: www.myspace.com/bdamn.
  E-mail: bdamnmail@gmail.com.
  Phone: Richard or Kat, 820-2306.
  
  CLOSED VENUES
  
  The Factory (State Street, where Callaloo Caribbean Kitchen now sits). Closed February 2005 after the owner died.
  The 3-B Tavern (State Street, next door to Rudy’s Pizza). Closed January 2006 after the building was sold.
  Chiribin’s (Magnolia Street, next door to Everyday Music). Closed July 2006 after its owner decided to leave the bar business.
  The Nightlight Lounge (corner of State and Chestnut streets). Closed Saturday because of financial issues.
  
  

D’Anna, 51, closed Chiribin’s in July of last year, in part because he felt the city didn’t support him and saw his business as a “nuisance.”

“They wouldn’t let me sell my business,” D’Anna said, adding that the owners of Cap Hansen’s Bar, his first prospective buyers, withdrew two liquor license applications after police said both times they would object. D’Anna said that forced him to sell to Bistro Zazou, a French restaurant that closed at the start of the year.

The Bellingham Police Department and the city of Bellingham can make recommendations or objections, which the Washington state Liquor Control Board considers before issuing a liquor license.

Owners and employees of several current and defunct downtown businesses, including Chiribin’s, The 3-B Tavern and Cap Hansen’s Bar, said the police department objects to nearly every liquor license application by a bar or venue, making it difficult to do business.

Police Chief Randy Carroll didn’t return several calls for comment. In an e-mail, his assistant said he would respond only if questions were submitted in advance.

Deputy Chief of Operations David Doll said the department has no bias against live music venues. The department objects to few of the many license applications it sees each month, he said, based on the type of impact they cause on law enforcement and previous liquor violations, among other factors.

D’Anna is among several business owners who said they stopped calling 911 for disturbances at their bars for fear police would hold it against them when their liquor licenses were up for renewal.

“It’s like you have to take matters into your own hands instead of calling the city because you don’t want it to be used against you,” D’Anna said. “That can get pretty dangerous.”

Doll said the department considers the type of call and situation before citing call volume in a license objection. Calls for a fight involving overserved customers might weigh in a decision, but a call for a customer violently resisting removal for being disruptive would not, he said.

LOSS AFFECTS MANY

The trend of venue closures isn’t just affecting club owners and patrons. Sound technicians, booking agents and nearby businesses that benefit from live music crowds also are feeling the blow.

“Having a live music venue next to Cap’s has been the best thing that ever happened to us,” said Brad Howard, a bartender at Cap Hansen’s Bar, which is next door to the Nightlight on Chestnut Street. “Our busiest nights are when they have shows.”

Carlie Henry, 35, booking agent for Bellingham’s Starbird Promotions, said dwindling venues will mean big acts won’t have a space to accommodate their audiences.

“I’ve had (non-local) bands come up here that want to come back and now I have to say, ‘I don’t know if I can help you,’” she said. “There’s going to be a lot less music coming through town, period.”

Sam Top, 24, a sound engineer at the Nightlight and bassist for local metal band Piano Mover, said he moved back to the area from London in 2004 because of Bellingham’s thriving music scene.

“I’m grappling with the idea of moving,” he said, noting that few venues with high-quality sound systems remain. “I’m first and foremost an engineer. There’s no more work.”

Several spaces still offer a place for bands to play, including Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro, Whatcom All-ages Arts & Music, The Rogue Hero and Rumors Cabaret.

But each venue poses a problem for loud rock music, whether it be lack of space, no high-end sound-system or no alcohol for older crowds.

Venues like the Green Frog Cafe Acoustic Tavern and the Wild Buffalo cater to more subdued music styles, and student booking for Western Washington University can change with each school year, Top said, making booking styles tough to predict.

NOISE VS. NEIGHBORS

As the city promotes more residential growth downtown, residents are clashing with music venues.

“You’re trapped in between disrupting residents and allowing the downtown to be an entertainment center, which is what I think it should be,” said Bob Hall, owner of Daylight Properties, which manages hundreds of downtown commercial and residential units.

Current and prospective venue owners say it is almost impossible to comply with the city’s noise ordinance. Noise complaints result in law enforcement visits, which dissuade property owners from renting to businesses that host live music, they say.

Bellingham’s noise ordinance vaguely describes a violation as disturbing the peace or comfort of others. The law can be enforced any time of day based on even one complaint, with fines of up to $250 for a first infraction.

“It’s at the whim of whoever wants to write a citation,” said Aaron Roeder, 42. Roeder owned The 3-B Tavern, a bar and venue, until it closed in early 2006 when the building was sold. “That’s why you see businesses strangled to where they can’t have live music.”

Under the law, Roeder said, a single call can silence a live performance if police consider the music unreasonable, even downtown.

Ken and Amy Mann considered renting Roeder a space they own on Commercial Street when he tried to relocate the 3- B, but shied away after one neighbor rallied area residents to complain in advance.

“We were sensitive to the fact that there were offices around,” said Ken Mann, 38, also chairman of the Whatcom County Planning Commission. “But we were fans of the 3-B and we were really excited to have them there.”

Mann said a neighbor rallied area businesses to call in preemptive protests to potential noise. The conflict was a major factor in the Manns’ decision to rent to Uisce bar instead.

“I would love to open another venue,” Roeder said. “But I don’t trust the current state of downtown noise tolerance.”

James Hardesty, 32, who owns the Green Frog Cafe Acoustic Tavern, said despite repeated noise complaints against his State Street venue, he sees the calls as part of doing business.

“I don’t think the city and the police are out to get me,” he said. “I don’t believe places are going out of business because the city is trying to put them out of business. I think they’re going out of business because they don’t have a consistent customer base.”

‘GENTRIFICATION’

Amy Mann, 34, said her experience trying to rent to the 3-B is part of what she sees as the cultural gentrification of the downtown area.

“There is a push toward promoting certain kinds of art forms downtown that may be in tune with how (residents and developers) feel downtown should be,” she said. “For example, people may be really supportive of the Mount Baker Theatre, but not support a place like the 3-B.”

As venues dwindle, owners, musicians and fans say the Bellingham music scene, once fertile ground for developing artists and bands, will fast deteriorate if the city doesn’t address the issue.

“(Bands) might just have to face the fact that you can’t play downtown anymore,” said Neil McAdams, 26, who sings for Bellingham-born hardcore band Black Breath. “Does anyone really expect government to be on the side of kids having fun? No,” he added. “It’s not like this is shocking.”

Henry, the booking agent, said she hopes remaining venues will fill the void left by the Nightlight. “On one hand I’m really jaded that another venue will open,” Henry said. “There have been so many efforts that have been squashed. You kind of get tired of fighting.”

TOWARD SOLUTIONS

City Councilman Terry Bornemann said he’s in the early stages of trying to ease noise regulations for the downtown area, allowing live music to thrive.

“There’s a lot of revenue earned by the city through clubs (and venues) downtown,” said Bornemann, a music fan. “(The city needs) to say, ‘We want a vibrant downtown.’ To have that you need that vibrant night life as well.”

Bornemann said crafting a revised noise ordinance could take the better part of the year.

Both Bornemann and Mann said setting a decibel level for noise violations could help.

“The current noise ordinance is entirely too vague,” Mann said. “If we had something that was easier to monitor for both business owners and neighbors we would make a lot of progress.”

Mayor Dan Pike said he hopes to make the building permit process “more predictable and less time-consuming” in the near future.

“I certainly value having live music in our downtown,” he said.

Hall said he is more than willing to rent to music venues and has several vacant State Street properties he’d like to see become spaces for live music.

Western Washington University’s Hospitality Resource Alliance began bringing venue and bar owners, police and Liquor Control officials together at monthly meetings, starting last summer, to promote communication.

Members of the Bellingham Downtown Alliance for Music and Nightlife, which community members formed last year, now attend the meetings.

“People have got to take control,” said Nightlight Lounge owner Matt Feigenbaum. “This is our town. We can sit here and (complain) about decisions being made, or do something about it and take part in the growth of our community. Participate. I intend to.”

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