World of Noise: It’s a given that bars, proximate neighborhoods and noise are nobody’s idea of a harmonious environment. And the SoHo bar district increasingly seems like ground decibel zero.
Right now the World of Beer, which has been fined three times so far this year for noise-ordinance violations, is in the legal cross hairs. It’s challenging Tampa’s deal with the Environmental Protection Commission giving the city broad powers to restrict noise within its limits.
It’s a matter of regulation, jurisdiction, societal compromise–and what truly is “plainly audible.” But it still seems a constitutional anomaly to hear First Amendment rationales invoked. Surely the Founding Fathers and early pamphleteers weren’t equating speech and noise. Surely.