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This rant has been lightly edited for style and space and is not endorsed by Raleigh Magazine.
If you live in DTR and complain about noise, grow up. Or don’t live Downtown—period. I am tired of constantly reading about new noise ordinances among all the chatter of breathing new life into Downtown. Clearly some locals are all about revitalizing our city’s core until they are minorly inconvenienced. And it’s getting old.
We should want our city to grow and flourish. And living in a bustling city means not every neighborhood is going to cater to your exact sleep schedule. Stop whining and let Glenwood South stay fun. It’s an *entertainment* district—and no one is forcing you to live there.
A little extra noise means people are buying drinks, tipping our bartenders and getting food from vendors at night—and enjoying our restaurants, streets and small businesses during the day. We should be welcoming them with open arms and encouraging this support for our service and retail industries. And the “noise” under scrutiny is, most of the time, from our local bands, DJs and musicians. If we want to be taken seriously as a great city to live in and visit—on par with New Orleans and Nashville—then why are we threatening businesses and smothering culture? Glenwood South is nowhere close to Bourbon Street or Broadway—yet here we are silencing it.
Reviving Downtown and ensuring the area thrives means supporting all businesses and ventures, not just ones you feel cater to your individual lifestyle. Keep complaining and DTR will go back to being a ghost town—and then you killjoys will probably complain about that too.
So, to City Council: It’s time to stop pandering to a select few at the peril of many. Just let them be mad—or, better, let them leave. Noise is part of living in a cool city. If you want to “keep Raleigh boring,” please go to a neighborhood that is already boring and keep your complaints to yourselves.
–A fellow Glenwood resident
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While I agree, some noise is expected in a downtown city. The LOUD muffler/engines vehicles/motorcycles rampaging through the streets needs to be stopped. I do NOT want to be at a venue downtown trying to enjoy a nice beverage or meal spending my hard-earned money (tip your tenders!) while an overly loud vehicle goes by cracking its muffler or revving its engine. Like I get it, it’s a “nice car” but stop demanding attention. I do not live downtown, but I am there almost every weekend!
Completely agree 100%!!! Somebody has GOT to do something! It’s absolutely out of control!!!
Actually, you must have never been to New York City, because Glenwood South is far louder than Broadway, and NYC understands that there’s a balance between active nightlife and livable noise levels. Your definition of “cool” is at about the 10th grade level if you think it means revving engines at 3am – you’re the one who needs to grow up. Take a visit to NYC and enjoy a really cool city, where you’ll be ticketed by cops for unnecessarily beeping your horn.