Scott Satchfield / Eyewitness News
Email: ssatchfield@wwltv.com | Twitter: @satchfield
NEW ORLEANS -- The battle continues over noise in the French Quarter, specifically music that's blasting from inside many clubs along Bourbon Street.
One resident, who didn't want to be identified, said the excessive volume has been a constant concern.
"It disrupts your sleep. It disrupts your ability to go to work the next day refreshed," she said. "It's mostly the speakers that have a very loud reverberation that goes up into and beyond the courtyard, especially into balconies."
In April, the City Council made it illegal for businesses in the French Quarter and CBD to point loudspeakers out of windows and doorways, but there were questions over how to handle speakers in courtyards.
The council decided to delay a decision on that section of the ordinance for 90 days, in hopes of better defining which types of courtyards would be included and how to enforce the plan.
With no answers yet, and as the deadline expires Wednesday night, they're now extending it another 90 days.
"We want to do this in a thoughtful manner. We want to do this so that's going to be fair and equitable, when we do enforce it," said Councilwoman Kristin Palmer, who represents the French Quarter. "There are already many places where you have speakers within courtyards. Some of them are very much under the radar and they're absolutely appropriate, and some aren't."
Palmer said the doorway and window restrictions have already made a difference.
While some residents agree, they also said as long as the courtyard issue is left unsettled, problems will persist.
"They might as well go all the way with speakers in courtyards, because all that's gonna do is enhance the loudness for people that live nearby and the noise is gonna carry up to the balcony and the places that really would like to sleep at night," one resident said.
A spokesman for the mayor said a new extension seems appropriate. He also said the current measure doesn't address existing courtyards, as well as how best to measure maximum speaker output.
Palmer said if an agreement over those issues is reached, the council could enact that part of the ordinance any time before the new 90-day extension expires.
