Nicolás Medina Mora Pérez Photo
Professor Choi: “Things like these are part of living in a downtown.”
Tom Angelini shook his head when asked about noise outside his apartment tower last Saturday night.
“It wasn’t noise,” he said. “It was music!”
Angelinii lives at the new 32-story 360 State St. apartment tower. According to the official version of events, noise complaints from his neighbors sent the police to break up a music festival outside Angelini’s window on public Pitkin Plaza and led to the arrest of the festival’s organizer. (Click here for a full story on that event.)
The noise complaints followed an email to tenants from 360 State management — which has long opposed the 12-year-old festival — urging them to forward noise complaints to the police department.
Judging from interviews Monday with tenants like Angelini, that negative view of early-evening live music in a public square might not accurately reflect the consensus of people who live at 360 State.
In fact, reaction tended to range from shrugs to support.
“I don’t see why they shouldn’t use Pitkin Plaza,” Angelini said. “This is a city, you know?”
Saturday’s music came from a rock and punk show at Ideat Village, New Haven’s alternative arts festival. Following noise complaints from Angelini’s building, police rushed to the scene. A confrontation ensued between the officers and the festival-goers. It culminated with Bill Saunders, the festival’s organizer, arrested for “inciting a riot.” Witnesses claim that the cops pepper-sprayed the crowd that tried to follow Saunders after his arrest. Police dispute that claim. Two police officers also suffered injuries, including a fractured hand, and had to receive attention at the hospital. One of the two is now out on sick leave as a result.
The calls to police stemmed from a longstanding beef between the management of 360 State and the festival’s organizers. Citing noise concerns, the tower’s management tried last year to get Ideat Village cancelled or at least moved to a different location. In the end, amid public outcry over private attempts to limit performances in a public space, the tower backed down, and the festival obtained city permission to play amplified music until 10 p.m., permission that was re-granted this year. (Read about last year’s beef its apparent resolution here and here).
Most of the tower residents interviewed Monday outside their homes said that they didn’t think the noise levels were excessive. A good number of them hadn’t heard the music at all and didn’t even know of the festival. Others expressed appreciation for Ideat Village.
Several also defended building General Manager Lauren Lenox, who sent the email urging calls to the cops. They said she had the right as the building’s administrator to inform residents of the appropriate course of action in case the festival’s music was bothering them.
Kids Are All Right
Some of the strongest support for the festival came from tower residents who are raising kids in Pitkin Plaza. Angelini (pictured), who owns Studio Lulu, a Ninth Square beauty salon, said that his 4‑year-old daughter had been at the plaza for the earlier part of the show. She enjoyed the music, he said.
“I’m totally supportive of the festival,” said Angelini. “It’s unfortunate what happened, but [Saunders] kind of played into the hands of the cops.”
Not every parent in the building agreed, though. Rickard Fahlquist, a computer programmer, said his two young children had trouble sleeping that night.
“I don’t have any strong opinions,” he said as he pushed a baby carriage with one hand and held his other son with the other. “If they control the sound level and stop at 10 (p.m.), that’s reasonable. But my kids go to bed before that time. They had to come to our bedroom, which faces the other side of the building.”
Floors? Or Sensitive Ears?
Most tenants interviewed agreed that the floor where they live determined the penetration of noise from the festival.
They didn’t agree on which floors were most affected.
Tiffany Lu, an architect who lives in the 24th floor, said she hadn’t heard any noise Saturday night.
“I doubt the noise carries past the 10th floor,” she said.
A Yale-New Haven Hospital doctor, who declined to give his name, said that he too lives on the 24th floor — and that he found the noise unbearable.
“It’s nice that there’s culture out there,” he said, “but there are some very serious professionals, doctors especially, who live here and need to get their sleep. They need to wake up at five in the morning to perform delicate surgeries, and they should be allowed to rest.”
Interpreting An Email
Several tenants said they didn’t consider Lenox’s email an instigation to flood the police department with noise complaints.
James Choi (pictured at the top of this story), a professor at Yale’s School of Management, said that while he likes the idea of having a festival right on his doorstep, he doesn’t think the building’s management had acted improperly.
“I think the festival is a good idea,” he said. “I recognize that some people don’t like the noise, but it ended by 10, and things like these are part of living in a downtown. But I didn’t think the email was inciting people to call the police. I think it was just pointing out the appropriate way to file a complaint if somebody wanted to — not with the building’s management, but with the police.”
Eric Gershon, who works in Yale’s communications department (and once wrote a personal essay about living in 360 State for this publication), agreed that Lenox was not at fault.
“I think it’s good for New Haven to have a variety of outdoor cultural events. It makes the city interesting,” he said. “I also think it’s entirely appropriate for a building manager to communicate with residents about matters that affect the building. Everybody can make up their own mind to call the police or not. The building’s residents are grown-ups, you know?”
Ideats Strike Again
Post-arrest sign found on the floor of Pitkin Plaza.
Pitkin Plaza showed signs Monday of the presence of Ideats, who returned to the scene of their clash with the police. Somebody had taped a protest message (pictured) to the plaza’s floor drawing a class lesson from the Saturday arrest.
Bill Saunders (pictured) himself was seen at the scene, in high spirits.
“I feel like [Saturday] night was the culmination of a 12-year art project,” he said. “It began when I ran for mayor against John DeStefano — in drag!”
Saunders ran as a cross-dressing character named “Little Miss Mess-Up.” DeStefano won the election.
Noise is an enormous problem in cities. If we want to make our cities livable, and places that attract investment, families, and jobs, we need to consider this when it comes to how much amplified music is permitted. But we also need to encourage more festivals, so there needs to be a balance.
The space behind City Hall doesn't have many residences - could that be a spot for all night concerts?