nothin After-Dark Ideats Silenced; Whose Plaza Is It? | New Haven Independent

After-Dark Ideats Silenced; Whose Plaza Is It?

Jay Dockendorf File Photo.

Ideat Village 2010.

For the tenth straight year, Bill Saunders wants to fill a downtown plaza with go-go dancers, fire spinners, and indie rockers playing under the stars. But after objections from a new residential high-rise next door, the city has ordered the Ideat Village arts fest to pull the plug at 7:45 p.m.

Which raises the question: What’s a downtown plaza for?

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Ideat Village, the June alternative arts festival. Ideat Village brings together visual and performing artists and emerging rock bands in a free-wheeling celebration of underground art and music. It’s the scrappy DIY counterpart to the more polished and sprawling International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

For the past several years, Ideat Village has been held over two June weeks in the Pitkin Plaza on Orange Street between Court and Chapel streets. It also uses the Millenium Plaza behind City Hall.

When organizers Bill Saunders and Nancy Shea put in for their permits to use the plaza this year, they encountered opposition from a large new neighbor that’s sprung up since last year’s festival: 360 State, the new fuel cell-powered 32-story 500-apartment tower that fronts on the plaza. Lots of people now live right on the plaza, in a former downtown dead zone that has now become a public open-space centerpiece of new urbanist revival, featuring not just 360 State but two communal gathering spots, Devil’s Gear Bike Shop and Bru Cafe.

The controversy of Ideat Village reflects new questions about public space-sharing that can emerge from the soil of downtown revival. Downtown dwellers want some quiet at night. A vibrant downtown alternative-arts scene thrives after dark.

Obviously we’re very supportive of the arts in New Haven but there is a problem in terms of peace and quiet for our tenants,” said Bruce Becker, the developer behind 360 State. So the official position 360 State is to oppose the amplified music at Pitkin Plaza.”

In response to requests from 360 State and complaints from other neighbors concerned about noise, the city put the new limit on Ideat Village’s permits this year allowing no amplification after 7:45 p.m.

Jay Dockendorf File Photo.

Saunders.

Saunders said that will be a devastating blow to the festival, which he said sees most of its traffic after 7:30 p.m. He said he’ll have to cancel many of the headlining performances, like the Ideat Village fashion event, the New Haven Advocate’s circus show, and a slew of indie rock bands’ performances. Click here for a list of the cancellations.

Jennifer Pugh, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, presented the new permit restrictions as part of an evolving process of trying to accommodate the various needs of downtown businesses, residents, and festivals. She said if complaints continue, the festival may have to move to a new venue next year.

The current conflict is in some way the product of city success, Pugh said. More and more people are moving downtown, drawn in part by a vibrant street life that includes alternative art shows like Ideat Village.

In the New Urbanist vision, the downtown would develop into a more livable, walkable area of dense mixed uses, with a blend of residents, businesses, and evening entertainment. How do plazas fit into that vision? What if the people drawn by the convenience and excitement of downtown life rebel against the underground art festival that may have helped bring them there? Who owns the space?

A Decade Of Ideats

Thomas MacMillan File Photo.

Graffiti artists at Ideat Village 2009.

Ten years ago, Ideat Village began as a three-day festival in the plaza on Temple Street, Saunders said. Over time it evolved into a two week festival held at Temple and Pitkin and Millenium Plaza, behind City Hall.

After the second year, the city put in new guidelines prohibiting amplified music after 8 p.m. But those guidelines were never enforced and never mentioned again, Saunders said. We’ve always had amplified music up until 10 o’clock,” Saunders said. We got our permits like clockwork.”

Then last year, the city consolidated the festival to Pitkin Plaza only. And this year, the guidelines resurfaced, Saunders said.

After he put in the permit application this year, the city convened a meeting on May 16 in the plaza, with Saunders, Shea, 360 State, the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop (which fronts on the plaza), and the Town Green Special Services District (which signs off on the permits). Saunders and the others discussed how the festival would use the plaza but came to no conclusions, Saunders said.

Shortly afterwards, according to Pugh, 360 State representatives came back with their verdict on the festival: We don’t want it to happen at all.

That’s not an option,” said Pugh. The event has been going on for 10 years; it’s not for us to say it can’t happen.” The city’s task was then to find a way to ensure the festival occurs in way that minimizes problems for neighbors, she said. That led to the 7:45 p.m. deadline for amplified sound.

Pugh described the deadline as merely 15 minutes earlier than the longstanding no-amplification deadline of 8 p.m., which she said has always been in effect for the festival.

The permit regulations have been sort of a work in progress,” Pugh said. They’ve evolved to respond to the needs of the festival and complaints of neighbors, she said

The festival’s noise level has been a longstanding complaint, she said. Even in the early years in Temple Plaza, the festival had to coordinate with the Shubert Theater to make sure noise from the festival didn’t bleed through the back wall of the theater, Pugh said. As more people moved into condominiums near Temple Plaza, the noise complaints increased, Pugh said.

In Pitkin Plaza, those complaints have continued in recent years, Pugh said. Last year the music was very loud. One guy [living on Court Street] said he couldn’t hear his TV.”

The evening performances are the loudest, Pugh said. Their music builds in a crescendo. For the people surrounding the plaza, it’s kind of unbearable.”

Pugh acknowledged that Ideat Village helps make New Haven an exciting destination for people. Certainly events like this are to the benefit of downtown,” she said.

The challenge now is to balance the needs of everybody involved, she said. All parties need to say, I’ll give a little.’ If this year is successful and the noise is not outrageous, then next year is not so hard.”

Pugh said 360 State is reacting to the festival without first experiencing it. Everybody needs to take a deep breath, do this year’s event,” and then reassess, she said.

If we get a lot of complaints,” she said, then maybe we need to look at another place.”

Contributed Photo.

This year’s Go-go dancer performance will be cut short.

This is a downtown festival, and there are no more downtown spaces, honey,” Saunders said on the question of moving to a new location.

He said the city’s 7:45 p.m. deadline does not represent a fair middle ground. It’s not a compromise at all.”

If people move to a city, they should expect to be near public spaces where there will be activity, he said. If there are problems, invoking the city’s noise ordinance is the appropriate way to deal with them, not by forever adjusting permit regulations, Saunders said.

Devil’s Advocate For Compromise

Matt Feiner, owner of the Devil’s Gear bike shop, said all of his worries were addressed by the May 16 meeting. Our only concerns were that we’d have unobstructed use of the plaza.” The shop uses the plaza as a test-ride area. Feiner said he’s satisfied that the positioning of the Ideat Village stage will be satisfactory.

As for noise, Feiner said it doesn’t affect him because the store will be closed in the evenings. He said, however, that he can see that it could be a problem for others. I’m sure it’s keeping people up.”

We support stuff happening in Pitkin Plaza,” Feiner said. I think the [7:45 p.m] restriction is a little heavy-handed. I think there’s a middle ground.”

I’m hoping something can be worked out,” he said. Ideat Village only benefits the city.”

Feiner suggested 9 p.m. might be a more reasonable time to shut down the amps.

Curtis Packer, who runs Pitkin Plaza’s Bru Cafe, wrote a May 31 letter of support for an amplified Ideat Village. The festival is fun, responsible and economically beneficial,” he wrote.

Numerous concerts have taken place until 10 p.m. and beyond in the plaza, Packer noted. The 7:45 p.m. deadline is arbitrary and goes against the goal of making the plaza a place for people to enjoy events, he wrote. It is self-evident that the loss of these events from Pitkin Plaza will be detrimental to the local arts and business economy.”

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