City Will Begin Citing Last Thursday Street Musicians for Playing Too Loud

REGULATORY NIGHTMARE: This may look wholesome, but some Alberta Street locals say Last Thursday gets out of hand after dark.
By AARON MESH

Turn down the banjo and put a muffler on that didgeridoo: Mayor Charlie Hales' office will this week begin citing street musicians for noise violations at Last Thursday.

"We're going to start enforcing the noise this month," says Hales spokesman Dana Haynes. "We're going start having [noise officer] Paul Van Orden going out and telling people, 'Here's how loud your music can be.' If we come back and you're too loud, we'll cite you."

Hales' office began cracking down last summer on the famously bohemian 15-block party on Northeast Alberta Street, seizing control of a party that had long annoyed neighbors.

City officials enforced a curfew, compiled statistics on public drunkenness and urination, and tried—unsuccessfully—to get the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to cite bars for over-serving revelers.

This year, the city debuted a 9 pm curfew for Last Thursday, and started citing people for drinking or smoking pot in the right-of-way.

This Thursday, city noise officer Van Orden will begin issuing citations to street musicians who can be heard more than 100 feet away.

"The neighbors have two issues: the lateness of the noise and the loudness of the noise," Haynes says. "We're hoping the music community says, 'That makes sense.' Honestly, we don't think we're going to get that much tsuris on this one."

Here's one act that will have to mind the volume:

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