nothin Noise? What Noise? | New Haven Independent

Noise? What Noise?

Thomas MacMillan Photo

(Update 5 p.m. 9th Note owner Chris O’Dowd relayed to the Independent that a city mediator said the landlord wants to work things out.)
Someone heard too much noise” coming from a Ninth Square jazz supper club. The city’s cops and health department didn’t hear it — at least not by official standards.

Yet that one anonymous someone’s complaint helped prompt a landlord to seek to evict the club, the 9th Note at 56 Orange. (Pictured above: A mural inside the club.)

Paul Bass File PHto

Since the eviction proceeding was first reported this week, a campaign has mounted to keep the city’s newest spot for jazz and burlesque in that spot, part of downtown’s lively Ninth Square district. The landlord cited the noise complaint, along with late rent payment, in papers served on the club.

Meanwhile, officials said they don’t know what the clatter is all about.

Back in mid-October, an official from the Department of Health’s bureau of environmental health investigated an anonymous complaint about loud noise emanating from the club Wednesday through Saturday.

On Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., respectively, Senior Sanitarian Brian Wnek measured the sound coming from the club from seven different locations around the building. He took two separate readings, both less than 62 dBA. He found the complaint unjustified. Read his full report here.

The sound was loudest — 60 dBA for both readings — in front of the 9th Note’s front window. Sound measured at other points around the building were less than 60 dBA on both nights. New Haven Code of Ordinances requires noise levels for businesses in a commercial district to not exceed 62 dBA.

Though the club was not found to be violating any of the city’s noise ordinances, 9th Note owner Chris O’Dowd said, in November police visited the club nearly every night because of an anonymous complainer. This month he was hit with the eviction notice, the fourth time his landlord has initiated eviction proceedings against him since he opened a year ago.

Downtown top cop Sgt. Tammi Means said Thursday that officers followed up on the complaints and talked with Wnek. They determined that there was nothing that could be offered from the police side.”

Win Davis, executive director of the Town Green Special Services District, said that he is aware of the issue, and trying to mediate it.” He declined to provide details.

Click on the video and on this story to sample an evening at the 9th Note.

A five-year resident of The Chamberlain, the building that includes the 9th Note storefront, said he can hear the music in his apartment, but he doesn’t find it to be a nuisance. He said he would hate to see the 9th Note go out of business. It relaxes me,” remarked the tenant, who declined to give his name. It helps me sleep.”

Not everybody finds living above the sound of jazz soothing. The Independent followed up on a noise complaint that surfaced on Facebook. The poster said people who enjoy the club, ]should try living above it.

My opinion is that he can’t make money selling food, so, ‘[Hey], Let’s make it a nightclub.’ A nightclub in a building where people live right above him and he won’t do a thing about it. As long as he’s making money who cares about the people above. He surely doesn’t. I would love to see him gone,” said the Facebook poster, who declined to say whether he also filed the noise complaint with the city.

Everything is the same from the 9th Note,” he wrote in a message posted at 8:26 p.m., while jazz was in full swing. Music still loud, even facing eviction, he just doesn’t care. Do you really think the management doesn’t think about the empty space and no rent coming in? But I am grateful that they are considering the tenants first; you don’t see that happening very much. If he wanted a night club he should have looked some where is suited for that.”

Markeshia Ricks File Photo

O’Dowd (pictured) said he has received nothing but positive support since he went public with the eviction notices. But he said he hasn’t heard anything from his landlord, the Ninth Square Project Limited Partnership, and doesn’t know what might happen next. The New Haven Independent hasn’t heard anything either. Repeated attempts to reach the landlord have been unsuccessful to date. A local representative referred the Independent to bosses in New York, who didn’t return calls seeking comment.

O’Dowd said he’s not planning to leave. Meanwhile, comments supporting the club have been flying on Facebook, and a burlesque performer who goes by the name Mistress Leona Star has already started #Savethe9thNote on Twitter, and tweeted “@the9thnote is far too awesome to let this one person’s complaint be the reason for its demise.”

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