Pass
Posted on 04/22/2022 5:34:39 PM PDT by algore
Chris Anderson, a street jazz drummer often performing at Pike Place Market, is facing the wrath of nearby residents who want him and his music gone after years of bringing entertainment to the area.
“There’s possibly a residential complaint,” Anderson told Gee and Ursula on KIRO Newsradio. “And I just find that odd because you bought your luxury condo downtown to be a part of the downtown experience — the hustle and bustle of street life. You got it right at the No. 1 tourist attraction in Seattle, which is Pike Place Market, you kind of have to go with where you’re living.”
The Department of Transportation Code Officer, alongside another individual in the department, six downtown city ambassadors, and a police officer, told the musician he can no longer perform at the corner he was currently operating on, according to Anderson. He stated that the department requested a permit from him in order to play where he was located, a location where he believes no permits are required.
“I think that I was just disappointed and hurt yesterday,” Anderson said. “Because I’m literally looking at the homeless and drug infestation problem, and the lady is telling me she’s the head of code enforcement. How am I at the top of your to-do list, for Thursday morning at 9 a.m.?”
Anderson, known as the Pike Street Drummer, cites that nearby businesses have no issues with his music and performances.
“I’m right under the Seattle Hospitality Group and the guy that runs that loves me,” said Anderson. “I play right smack dab in front of Starbucks and the district manager, who was at the incident yesterday, apologized on behalf of the city and gave me a Frappuccino.”
It’s from residents, Anderson reiterates.
A lifelong musician, Anderson has toured across the country for two decades, playing alongside A-listers including Mos Def, Maxwell, Ghostface Killah, and 50 Cent. He currently has a partnership with the Seattle Mariners to play in the pit area.
“We felt that music can break down barriers,” said Anderson. “Once you break down those barriers, you can start the process of healing. And I wanted to do that in Seattle.”
The snowflakes at MNW pulled their comments section because their tender feeling were hurt by negative posts by conservatives.
A trombone player.
So typical of a certain group. They find a vibrant and exciting area, move in, then complain about the very thing that MAKES that area unique.
Or, it’s like those folks that move in next to an airport, or a railyard, or a concert venue, then complain about the noise.
Some folks just live to make others as miserable as themselves.
“There’s possibly a residential complaint”
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I don’t understand residents not wanting to have someone going all Gene Krupa in their hood. Real puzzler, there.
code enforcement? Well, what is the law, if any, regulating street performers?
He’s certainly less objectionable than the homeless he mentions. But code enforcement doesn’t go after homeless.
I agree with that, but…isn’t this kind of like buying a house near an airport, gun range, or sewage plant knowing full well in advance what exists, then complaining about the noise or the smell?
Pass
A bunch of Seattle liberal tight ass types.
> years of bringing entertainment to the area <
As they say in the real estate game, it’s all about location. This guy is pleasant city entertainment if you don’t live within earshot of him. He’s a damn nuisance if you do.
When it’s at its best, which it hasn’t been for the past couple of years, of course, Pike Place is a very lively spot, an entertaining scene, and a good drummer showing his stuff fits right in with the fishmongers yelling and the general hubbub of tourists and locals. Anderson’s rignt, the authorities should be concentrating on the homeless and the druggies, not the people who make the place fun and memorable.
He should declare himself a mobile autonomous zone and they will leave him alone.
“isn’t this kind of like buying a house near an airport, gun range, or sewage plant knowing full well in advance what exists, then complaining about the noise or the smell”
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I see your point, the “you knew I was a snake” thing. But this is a different matter from the examples you raised, which are in a fixed building and of more or less permanent nature (and all regulated and licensed).
Here we’re talking about some guy pulling up tossing out some drums and pounding away, then when done, throwing ‘em back in the car/truck and going off to his own home for some peace & quiet.
It’s not as if he can’t go elsewhere. I’m all for busking, but when they tell you to move along, ya gotta move along.
Aside from that, I can’t see him providing the tax base the residents do.
“This guy is pleasant city entertainment if you don’t live within earshot of him. He’s a damn nuisance if you do.”
There has been a law in effect for busking since 1987. If he’s been performing for many years after that he’s been lucky not to be removed before. And that’s the fault of the cops not doing their job.
To perform at Pikes Place you submit a permit application, are interviewed, then awarded any of the open locations approved by the market and the police. If a slot isn’t open, you get in line. When it is your turn, you are awarded the location of the slot. Cost for the annual permit is $30.
If he is not where he is allowed to perform, and is disturbing the residence that are protected by the location of the slots according to the law, then he is in violation and should not have been there to begin with. And, like previously mentioned, the cops are just as wrong as he is for not previously stopping him.
We are a society of laws. Don’t like them, get them changed. Otherwise adhere to them. It’s no different than someone going to Pikes and parking on your drive way if you are a resident there. It’s the law. If he had adhered to it to begin with, paid his permit, and got his slot, the residents would have no complaint. Right now they do on the disregard of a thirty-five year old law that is legal and enforceable.
wy69
What would tubaman say?
Yep.
Before my husband and I married, he was going to buy a lot in an airpark- a private neighborhood that had an airstrip down the middle. He ended up buying a home already built in another neighborhood but others who moved in that airpark complained about the planes/noise and filed lawsuits. I mean, why?????
“ I don’t understand residents not wanting to have someone going all Gene Krupa in their hood. Real puzzler, there.”
I don’t understand someone moving next to a busy noisy tourist attraction like PPM and complaining about it. Kind of like Muslims moving to France and complaining about topless women.
Take up bagpipes in the same spot.
With Scottish bagpipes, he could walk about instead of being accused of setting up camp in the same spot.
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