Mark Washburn must not get out much. At least not much besides in Uptown. That’s probably the best takeaway from the UPoR columnist’s piece on the noise ordinance dispute. And as such it offers some fascinating insights into how the powers that be in this town think. Or at least what they think about.
And what the Uptown crowd does not think about or place much value on is a vibrant local arts scene.
Some supporters of Charlotte’s burgeoning music scene say this could kill the city’s band business. This is nonsense, of course. Charlotte is as liberally infested with starving vocalists as any other city its size, and tinkering with the noise rules won’t run them off.
So, the arts are apparently like kudzu, something that just is and you can’t kill it off even if you tried. That Charlotte is somehow on an equal footing with other cities its size is news to those in Charlotte’s music scene, who pretty much all think that the CLT is just not a good town for music. And those musicians would point out that the most musical significant talents this town has produced recently (see Hughes, Benji and Atkins, Nicole) have moved elsewhere exactly because of Charlotte’s poor musical environment.
Charlotte hopes to plow hundreds of millions into light rail, heavy rail, and street car lines to redevelop portions of the city and beyond. The idea is to attract the “creative class”, young professionals that would live in condos in mixed-use developments along those rail lines. Nothing says this community values the creative pursuits like arts in general and music specifically like an ordinance that says that music is not to be heard outdoors.
Offering NoDa up as an exception shows little understanding of economic development. NoDa isn’t what it once was. Gentrification, you know. The starving artists can’t afford to live there anymore. In time, the people with more talent than income may tend to settle in another area and create another, more affordable (for a time) artsy area. Except that the new noise ordinance would makes that much more difficult.
