Speaker 0: Motion carries.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We're going to take number 27 quickly. Congratulations, all. We're inside 27.
Speaker 0: Communication from Councilwoman Pierce. Recommendation to request city manager to study the impact of amplified sound from city permitted outdoor events in downtown Long Beach on adjacent residences and neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr.. Mrs. Councilman Pierce.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Vice Mayor. And thank you.
Speaker 0: Chair, for moving this item up. We have been working with Orca residents, ocean residents for a while on trying to get our hands around some of the impacts of noise and events in our downtown. One of the things that makes our downtown fantastic is that we do have events like the Grand Prix, which had a record year this year like Music Tastes Good and some of the events that happened at the Queen Mary. Last year we had more events than we've had in recent history. And so this obviously takes a toll on the residents. And looking at our entertainment district as a district that is thriving, that adds a vitality to our city and wanting to maintain.
Speaker 3: That vibrancy, but wanting to.
Speaker 0: Do that in a way that has a partnership and respect for the residents that also live in downtown.
Speaker 3: And so we have taken several months of sitting with special events, city managers, office.
Speaker 0: And residents that are impacted by these.
Speaker 3: They're going to craft some recommendations for staff to come back. And I want to highlight that. One of the things that I think is most important is doing the.
Speaker 0: The actual reading of some of the impacts in some of these buildings, which I know has been a topic of.
Speaker 3: Discussion before we hear from residents.
Speaker 0: That are here tonight. I want to make it.
Speaker 3: Clear for the record.
Speaker 0: That this.
Speaker 3: Item should also include Councilmember Linda Gonzales as a co-sponsor. And so we had.
Speaker 0: That was a mishap on our paper here. So making sure that that's.
Speaker 3: Reflected that Councilmember Gonzalez is a co-sponsor.
Speaker 0: On this. With that being said, I really am going to turn it over to the residents to talk about what it's like for you guys to live in downtown. I don't believe special events is here tonight, but we have a clear path to move forward with some recommendations to come back on. How do we have a thriving downtown with thriving residents as well. So thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So there's been a request to go straight to public comment and public comment on this item. Thank you. Now will be the time.
Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Pearce. I'm Margaret Mustafa and I'm with Orica and I support the recommendation and here's why. Imagine you go home tonight and a neighbor is playing amplified music so loud you can't hear the television, you can't talk on the phone and you can't sleep. Thankfully, when you call the police, they will come and they will enforce the noise ordinance. Now, imagine you live on East Ocean Boulevard downtown, and as hundreds of us do, and there is a city permitted event next to your home with amplified sounds so loud you can't hear the television talk on the phone or relax in your own home. Then when you call the police, they will politely tell you there's nothing they can do. Why? Because no ordinances are being violated. Why the unequal protection? Well, one in one area of the city are protected and the other you're not. Here's why. Long Beach Municipal Code eight 8280. The entertainment exemption allows exceptions from the city's newest ordinance for occasional city events, occasional city permitted events. However, the events are not occasional. There are city permit permitted events next to our homes almost every weekend, seven months, a year. Events often last 12 hours from ten a morning until ten at night and up to three days in a row. Sometimes there are events on weeknights. Decibel levels are typically five times the noise limit for the downtown district. Often they are higher. We have to leave our homes to protect ourselves from the relentless boom.
Speaker 5: Boom, boom.
Speaker 3: Of amplified bass sounds. California noise law. Excuse me? He asked me. How was it? So in short, we are being. Our health is at risk because of because of city permitted events. California noise law for 6000 says all California residents are entitled to a peaceful environment without the noise, without noise which may be hazardous to their health . The petition we gave you last week asks you to amend the entertainment exemption to ensure that by the time amplified sounds reach adjacent homes, decibel levels don't exceed the city's noise ordinances. This is doable, and it would ensure that all Long Beach residents have equal protection from excessive noise. The recommendation on the agenda today asks the city manager to recommend ways to address the effect of all Palisades sounds on residences. I appreciate what doctor what council member Pearce said about we need to respect the residents. If approved, this this recommendation would be a step towards the city being in compliance with California.
Speaker 1: But you might get 3 minutes. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 3: Hello.
Speaker 6: Vice Mayor and City Council members. My name is Dr. Linda.
Speaker 3: Shaw and I.
Speaker 6: Am in support of this recommendation for this.
Speaker 3: Study. My question is, how many of you have been angry when you're next to a car with loud bass amplifiers, which obviously the person's really enjoying and you want them to enjoy their music.
Speaker 1: But it's booming.
Speaker 3: Into your car and into your body. I'm sure you've all felt that before. Well, that's what it's like throughout much of the year at our homes when the outside events are being amplified to excessive levels. We're not opposed to events. We love events and we're not opposed to music. But we're being tortured in our homes by the amplified noise, by these events. And it's not environmentally friendly and it's not a green soundscape. If we're going to be a green city, we need to be green for the benefit of the hearing of all the residents who live here and find a way that's mutually beneficial to support events and businesses as well. The prolonged exposure to high levels of noise for continuous days and evenings without noise release is hazardous to our health and well-being. It affects many hundreds of residents who reside.
Speaker 6: Adjacent to these events.
Speaker 3: We measured the amplified noise last year from May to October. We have the photos, if decibel readings that show excessive noise, 41 of the 4140 days that we measured from May to October. I have some here and we charted it as well.
Speaker 6: So you could see where the noise just graphically is excessive.
Speaker 3: And from different buildings. We have different noise levels both the average, the max and the peak. The people who dismiss our complaints like we don't understand how the music becomes a weapon when it's amplified to excessive levels. Music is.
Speaker 6: Fine, but keep it to the levels that the health standards already say.
Speaker 3: Are healthy. And we don't know why all these events have to be allowed to.
Speaker 6: Be excessively loud.
Speaker 3: Residents often get in a sleep at night because at night the tear down and setup of the beeping trucks prevent people from sleeping. And this puts the public at risk when they must drive to work the next day without having sleep. So let me just read a few of the comments for you from the other people.
Speaker 2: Who took.
Speaker 3: The amplified sounds are so loud. I have to go into the hall to talk on the telephone. The bass sounds from amplified music are so disturbing I can't rest in my own bed when I am sick. Some people would like you to disregard this matter because of the faulty view that it is the price humans pay to live in cities. But you should all know excessive noise.
Speaker 6: Is not the price we.
Speaker 3: Pay. And it shouldn't be. Even the former mayor and city officials confirm the importance of preventing noise increases and the cacophony.
Speaker 6: Of sound in the city's own noise element.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor. City Council members. Staff. My name is Bob Kelton and I live in the Alcoa building on Ocean Boulevard. I've been here for 12 years. Love living downtown. The number of events that we had initially were about a third of what we have had last year. So the number of events has increased dramatically. I love the events, so that's great. I do support this item and I want to thank Janine and her staff for putting this together for us. I know that it was a lot of work. Last year we had 41 different days that had 70 decibels or above at my unit, which is actually very loud. We had 17 more that were above 80 decibels. And so what that means is that some of the events sort of 5 a.m. with amplified PA systems. It is an issue and it affects a lot of residents. And the what we're trying to do is not to actually stop the events, but try to find mitigation methods, try to PowerPoint speakers out to sea, or to try to find other ways to mitigate the sound levels. And there's a lot of different tactical ways that that can be done. And one of the best ways to find out what the actual impact is, is to actually get a study done by the city so we can get actual real measurements. And that's why I'm in support of this particular agenda item, and I encourage you all to vote for it. Thank you very much. Thank you. And next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor and city council members. I'm Robert Fox. I'm the executive director of the Council of Neighborhood Organizations. You may have met me before. The Council of Neighborhood Organizations has outreach to our leaders and find that we all agree that the noise level and continued lack of mitigation or abatement in the downtown sector is unacceptable. The impact on the health and well-being of citizens is severe, especially as our population ages. As a side note, I know when I was 22 I probably enjoyed louder music than I to as I've aged, and I think maybe my ears have changed, but I just, I don't know, I can't even go into a bar, you know , and it intolerable for me because I can't talk to people and you know, I love to talk. So we are concerned about the the municipalities laws as recently tweaked by staff because they seem to be in in contradiction to the laws of the state of California regarding noise. Just because a staff wants to change a word or rewrite a definition does not mean the issue has gone away. Ultimately, in a contest between the city and the state, the state will prevail. One cannot just define something as temporary and exist and exempt it, which is in our statute right now. One can't use the word occasional and exempt it occasional. Now, in real terms is every week in the city of Long Beach. It is time now to address noise as a continuing factor as a city develops its tourism and attraction businesses in the downtown and shoreline areas. Our Special Events Director. Our suggestion is should not be the point person in defining new noise ordinance suggestions. Perfect. However, there's a conflict of interest here between her position as an advocate for the role of tourism and business activity in the city and the possible negative report that may come out of this particular request. So we'd like to see some outside agency perhaps selected to be in charge of this process. This has been a difficult time for the citizens of Long Beach regarding the process. They've it's been a stop stop thing a long time. And we'd like to see it go forward. And we hope that, you know, Council Member Pearce's project is going to work very well, hopefully as quickly as possible. And we hope we don't get to a place where we're having to deal with that conflict between state law and our city's law. Thank you so much for your time tonight. Thank you. Seeing no further public comment. All right. Speaker's list is closed. This is our final speaker.
Speaker 3: You may not be able to see much of me, but I hope you can hear me. And I'll give us your name. I am begging you to please approve this recommendation. The noise level is.
Speaker 0: So bad.
Speaker 3: That it's very difficult to live with because it's frequent and it intrudes our homes. I put in earplugs. I use a sound canceling mops. And I've invested very heavily and I'm trying to get some form of soundproofing in my unit. I've bought heavy curtains that cost me a lot of money. I have now tripled paying windows to try to deaden sounds and the sounds still come through. It's mainly bass type vibration. There's nothing that seems to stop it.
Speaker 0: And I would like.
Speaker 3: Very much to have some peace or a peaceful environment in my home. And yes, I do believe the city should have a lot of events. I enjoy music and I also enjoy the, you know, going to events. But I will tell you, the sound level is so unreasonable and we need to address it. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. All right.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Well, I think I'm gonna keep mine.
Speaker 1: How many. How many additional speakers do we have on this item?
Speaker 3: You got to say something. Go ahead. Okay. One more after me.
Speaker 1: Okay. These are final two speakers. The speakers list is closed.
Speaker 3: Okay. Well, my name is Latoya marshall. I usually come about homeless issues.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it looks like there one additional person. So this gentleman. Oh, the last speaker.
Speaker 3: Well, these two.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 5: Please proceed.
Speaker 3: What I'm saying is, when you look at these new developments or whatever the case will be, you see that these gurneys are being.
Speaker 1: You know, built.
Speaker 3: Where you have residence at the top. But at the bottom you are turning them into retail stores in different commercial stores or whatever. They're making it inconvenient for you guys because is happening in your building or near your building where you can get away from this sale. Now, there's a difference when something else is going on across the street or around the corner. And the music in a base is not right there. You know, in your building, being housed or surrounded by. So sometimes it's just that, a, these are vets are placed in your buildings or in your communities where you guys, you know , don't have the option to be a quiet community.
Speaker 1: Like you want.
Speaker 3: To. They turn you guys into a live showroom or a stage and they're not understanding that you guys have to live there, but they are profiting when they're, you know, paying people or selling tickets or having these live events. So maybe sometimes you need to understand certain things that you guys.
Speaker 1: Let's address it to the chair.
Speaker 3: Because when you agree to them, they get the right to place them wherever they want. So sometimes you guys need to start really thinking about the people behind.
Speaker 1: The.
Speaker 3: Music or the events and think about the residents that suffer from you guys events. Have a good night.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Next speaker.
Speaker 5: Please. Oh.
Speaker 3: Hi, vice mayor, fellow councilors and staff. My name is people like I live on Ocean Boulevard International Tower for the past 23 years. My question is, why do you let allow the event to happen without checking the health impact of the noise, the smoke which affects Long Beach residents and animals like cats and dogs? We love events, but not the unacceptable noise and smoke which affects our health. Even the animals, like dogs and cats, get restless, disturbed. I have seen that myself. I understand what the health issue is because I am a registered nurse. Anesthetist means I put patients to sleep. It's not a one time issue. Several times throughout the years. It should be a must to control the noise in the hours, throughout the days. For example, if I drive very fast breaking the rules more than the limit, the police gives me ticket. What about you guys? Can't you control that? Do you prefer to have money? Or are you worried about the resident's health? We raised the issue several times. It has been presented in writing repeatedly by Marguerite Moustafa, Bob Kelton and Dr.. Show them that show. Can you hear us, whale? Or is your ear affected? And thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. And our final, final, final speaker on this item. Good evening. My name is Gregory Summers. I live in the International Tower also. And I urge you to vote yes and approve the study. I'm an aerospace engineer in the field of stress dynamics and acoustics, and I have worked all my life hard to achieve my dream , to have an ocean view. Unfortunately, now that I am retired and have the time to, I cannot do this most weekends from March until October. I feel I have been robbed. I can no longer use my balcony due to climate change. I can even no longer open the doors to get cool breeze during cold days, which is a big health hazard. Hundreds of residents are exposed to the elevated level and prolonged time to nice noise has become unbearable, especially the low frequency. I will not go into detail. I prepared a longer briefing, but I won't because most people covered most of the things. But I want to emphasize one thing, which is, I believe, very important what is harmful. We all agree to listen to music, we go to concerts and we spend an hour and a half or two and we enjoy music, all kinds of music. But there are three components. It's not. Its first one is the sound pressure level. Anything above 55 hertz but DB in most cases that we have been measuring, the noise can reach above 85 DB and that is harmful. That last weekend, for example, I measured from my balcony hundred and ten DB two days in a row, all day long. Prolonged exposure. This is the second thing. So it's not just the level we have to measure the time we are exposed to. If you're exposed to 65 DB for half an hour or an hour or two, you might be okay. But if you're exposed to all day long, you will have harm, will be oh, it will be close to you. So for example, all day events, usually concerts that last few days are usually conducted out of town. Coachella is one example when we go to concerts there, one and a half to 2 hours, why do they have to be 10 to 12 hours, two or three days in a row? And then the third thing is we have to control the frequency of occurrence, because that adds to the time of exposure. So. Study that shows that people that they're exposed to one day on the traffic noise at 85 DB in one day without noise, they suffer psychological blood pressure and both frequency increased and all kinds of biochemistry in balance and in blood and urine. I urge you to approve this study and definitely pay attention to it. Thank you, sir. To measure this, study the time. And thank you for your testimony. Thank you. We will take it back behind the whale. Councilwoman Gonzalez?
Speaker 0: Yes. I want to say thank you to the residents and to Councilmember Pearce for bringing this forward. Living in downtown for nearly a decade, I can absolutely understand, you know, what the impacts are and how we can do a better job of of ensuring that we're studying this and seeing what we can do. Other cities are doing it really well. They have information and educational fact sheets for event planners, so they are going to the tee on all of their noise levels and environmental impacts and health impacts to residents. But I'm glad she brought it forward because this has been a long going, as you mentioned, long going and long, long standing issue that I don't think we've ever really solidified. And so thank you to for bringing that forward. And I look forward to being in those discussions as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilwoman Price.
Speaker 0: Okay. So I'm glad that this item is here too. And I genuinely understand the concerns of the downtown residents because you deal with a whole host of nuisances and noise that you probably never envisioned when you invested in your home. So anything we can do as a council, individually and collectively to mitigate that, I believe we should. But I bring to this topic a different discussion, and that this discussion should not be limited just to the downtown area. I've mentioned this before, but last year at the Pride Festival they had amplified music and I love the Pride Pride Festival. I'm a huge supporter of it. But they had amplified music and art windows in Alamitos Heights. I live two miles away from the SEAL Beach border. That's how far east I am. Our windows were rattling in our neighborhood and our residents were. Nobody could sleep. It was on a Sunday night. Kids, you know, kids windows were shaking. And so we just. And if I could just make one request to the city manager. That should never happen. That should just never happen. Where a permit that we're allowing in one part of the city is impacting a part of the city that's two miles away from the next county. I mean, that that just just should never happen because my residents didn't have any notice whatsoever that that was going to happen. And I realize it was an unusual situation, and I'll probably mention this more than once as we approach Pride weekend, but that should just never happen. And if we can do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't get repeated, I'd really appreciate that. So that's it. And I support the item.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilwoman Pierce, where you queued up again? No. Okay, Members, please cast your vote.
Recommendation to request City Manager to study the impact of amplified sound from city-permitted outdoor events in Downtown Long Beach on adjacent residences and neighborhoods. Additionally, request City Manager to make recommendations which Long Beach may be able to implement to help address concerns associated with amplified volume on adjacent residences and nearby businesses by November 1st. Research should consider the regulation of amplified sound at Special Events in outdoor music venues in the downtown area.