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Providence Noise Project News
“Noise is the new Smoking”
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Thank you for your interest in the Providence Noise Project, and for subscribing to our e-mail list. It's been a busy end of 2022 and early 2023, and as an all-volunteer organization our resources are often constrained. To support the Project by donating your time or funds to our activities, contact us.
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An Early Test for Providence’s New City Council
Will it fulfill its oversight role by correcting the mayor's mistake?
Not much has changed since then. For Providence residents concerned about the unhealthy levels of excessive noise in the city, the Board of Licenses is a key agency that has consistently failed to ensure that sound levels generated by bars, clubs, and restaurants are kept within the legal limits enacted by the City Council — in other words, that those businesses simply follow city law.
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Not licensed to ill
One of their major impacts is what’s known as “public entertainment,” which includes playing amplified music. Doing so requires a separate license, granted by the city, and comes with strict conditions — among which is complying with city ordinances regulating sound levels.
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This means that even a commercial venue that has been granted a public-entertainment license by the Board of Licenses must still adhere to Providence municipal law limiting sound levels to no more than 75 decibels from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. (Chapter 16, Article III, Sec. 16-105), or not so loud as to be audible at a distance of two hundred (200) feet from its source.
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To be clear: There's no such thing under Providence law as a “license” (or any other kind of permit or waiver) that allows a commercial establishment to generate noise louder than the limits that city ordinances have established. The mayor has no legal authority to issue such a permit, nor does the director of public safety, chief of police, or any city official or agency — including the License Board.
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Executive branch agencies don't make city laws
Yet under Dylan Conley, while the Board of Licenses has faithfully issued and renewed public-entertainment licenses to commercial venues, it has only sporadically and inconsistently enforced their noise-related conditions, despite having no discretion to deviate from or make exceptions to those requirements. If you've experienced, read, or heard about noise issues related to commercial venues in the city — or resident complaints about them — the Board of Licenses is not doing its job.
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One explanation may be that Conley is on record as deriding the very idea that noise levels should be regulated as legally required, and referring to residents who ask the city government to enforce its noise laws as “NIMBYs” — a term often used by commercial property developers who dismiss residents' objections to potentially disruptive projects or land uses near their homes. Conley may get paid to contest land-use laws in his other jobs, but it’s not in the Board of Licenses purview to do so.
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Similarly, Conley has publicly stated that he wants to “grow the night-time economy" — implying that that's his job, and that city noise limits impinge on it. But the Board of Licenses is expressly required to operate in the public interest, not the private commercial interests of one sector of small-business owners that Conley favors. If he feels strongly about fostering economic opportunities, there are city agencies that do that, and he can work for one of them. But that's not his or the License Board's job.
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Tell the Finance Committee to reject Dylan Conley's re-appointment
It is the responsibility of the Providence City Council's Committee on Finance to consider mayoral nominations for various city offices, and either confirm or reject candidates based on their actions, qualifications, and for their proposed positions. The mayor cannot install them unilaterally, and the Finance Committee and Council have a duty to vet the mayor's appointees and ensure that his administration and its agencies follow the laws that the Council is solely empowered to create. City boards cannot simply ignore certain laws based on the personal views of their chair or members.
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The Providence Noise Project and numerous city residents oppose the re-appointment of Dylan Conley's to serve as chair of the Board of Licenses for three more years, based on the myriad demonstrable and adverse circumstances and ongoing issues surrounding licensed commercial establishments in the city, among which are the recurring levels of excessive, unhealthy, and illegal noise that too many of them generate on a regular basis. Their conduct points to a systemic issue, which is the failure of the Board of Licenses to properly fulfill its legal responsibility to apply city law.
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We urge Providence residents who want the city government to demonstrate its concern for their well-being and follow its own laws to attend the Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and tell the members of the Committee — Chair Helen Anthony (Ward 2), Sue AnderBois (Ward 3), Miguel Sanchez (Ward 6), James Taylor (Ward 8), and former Board of Licenses chair Juan Pichardo (Ward 9) — to reject Dylan Conley's re-appointment as chair of the Board of Licenses. If you cannot attend but wish to provide written comments about Conley's re-appointment, please contact the Noise Project by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24.
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Commercial Noise Committee
If you know of commercial venues that seem to generate sound levels above the legal limits for the times and places in which they operate, please contact the Noise Project and tell us the name and address, the type(s) of noise it emits, and when you hear it most often, as well as any other details you think are important for us to know. We support small business, but not the view that doing so requires subjecting residents to ongoing and systemic violations of city and / or state laws.
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The Noise Project's Commercial Noise Committee seeks to investigate violations of Providence noise ordinances by for-profit entities, as well as the city government's responses to them. If you have suggestions about ways to do that, or want to volunteer to support our efforts, please contact us at info@providencenoiseproject.org and put “commercial noise” in the subject line.
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Coming in 2023: A new program to tackle noise from illegal vehicle exhausts, and
and other efforts to bring the amount of noise in Providence down to healthier levels.
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Three Ways YOU Can Help Support the Providence Noise Project
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Send us your thoughts and ideas on noise issues or the Project itself via the Contact form on our website
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To donate or volunteer your time and / or expertise to help address noise in the city, please contact us
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