City Council Asks Street Musicians for Softer Sound

The music of live performers at Santa Monica’s popular Third Street Promenade shopping district has reached such noise levels that the City Council on Tuesday asked local business owners and musicians to keep it down.

A city law passed about two years ago restricts Promenade noise levels to 75 decibels during the day and 85 decibels at night. The city even appointed a special “artist liaison” to monitor performers with decibel meters.

But in recent months, some amplified musicians have been cranking their performances to the maximum level all the time.

“You get a cacophony of noise,” Councilman Paul Rosenstein said. “It gets very chaotic and confusing to a lot of people.”

On Tuesday night, the City Council killed a proposed ordinance that would have imposed a temporary ban on all amplification on the Promenade.

Most council members felt live amplified music creates a unique outdoor experience that draws thousands of visitors to the shopping district each weekend and should be better regulated, but not prohibited.

Instead, they asked a city-appointed advisory board to devise some solutions to the noise problem and report back within two months.

The board’s executive director, Kathleen Rawson, said possible solutions may be to restrict the areas and hours that amplification is allowed.

About 90 musicians perform along the three blocks of Third Street each night and rotate to new locations every two hours to give restaurant customers dining on outdoor patios some quiet time, Rawson said.