By now, those living along the perimeter of Cal Anderson Park on
Capitol Hill have probably come to accept late-night noise as a fact of
life. After all, the park is two blocks from the bar-filled Pike/Pine
area, the hangout of Seattle’s most rollicking hipsters. What they
haven’t gotten used to, some neighbors say, is the loud drumming
emanating from the park.
According to an elderly couple living adjacent to the park, strange
noises, including those produced by drums, have been an issue since the
park was renovated in 2006.
According to records compiled by the Seattle Police Department (and
used, in part, as justification for placing four surveillance cameras
around the park), Cal Anderson Park was the source of 514 calls to SPD
for “premises checks” in 2007, and 40 public-disturbance calls. The
report gives no indication of how many of the disturbances were drum
related.
One woman who lives a block away from the park said she’d heard
about the noise, but recommended I talk to neighbors living on the
park’s opposite side. “Go talk to the carpenter,” she said. “He hears
everything.”
“The carpenter” is Mitch Allen, whose work-in-progress home faces
the playground portion of the park. He said noise always keeps him up,
but that drumming hasn’t been an issue in the last year or so. That is,
until a couple of weeks ago, when two drummers and a dance crew showed
up on a Sunday morning.
Allen said the two drummers were “of African descent” and that their
drumming skills were “great.” Allen’s wife, who he says “doesn’t know
the difference between music and noise,” wasn’t so receptive. “We
walked over there, but it bothered my wife so much she had tears in her
eyes.”
Royal Alley-Barnes, a parks
department manager who has spoken
with Allen about the drumming issue, said the department comes across
groups of drummers at Cal Anderson Park fairly frequently during park
checks, which gives them the chance to respond to complaints. Most of
these grievances, Alley-Barnes said, are rooted in “people’s tolerance
and preference for different types of sound.”
Alley-Barnes and parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter said they would
remind the drummers to be more respectful, even if their drumming takes
place during park hours. “We just tell people that we have to be
considerate,” Alley-Barnes said. “It’s an education thing.” 