Inflexible rules for events on the common are tone-deaf
Waltham citizens volunteer hundreds of hours running and promoting public events like the Steampunk Festival. These events strengthen Waltham’s community, draw hundreds of paying customers to Waltham businesses, and augment Waltham’s reputation as a desirable place to live and work.
This new limit discourages those voluntary efforts and may force those events, and the benefits they bring, to go elsewhere.
Problems with noise pollution would be managed more appropriately through the setting of clear decibel limits and ending times for amplified sound.
Furthermore, a thoughtful permitting process could vastly mitigate noise pollution and improve the overall sound experience for everyone at our public events, and their neighbors. It could require permit seekers to submit sound management plans that utilize more sophisticated controls like distributed sound systems, directional speakers, and temporary sound barriers, and to appoint sound captains, and to publicize their noise response plans.
Inflexible rulings like this one run counter to community building and to thoughtful governance. They are tone-deaf and needlessly punitive.
Waltham deserves better.
Trish Wesley Umbrell & Mike Umbrell
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Thank you for this letter and starting an important conversation that will hopefully lead to the Mayor rescinding her January 15th memorandum. The Mayor claims that her reasons for requiring permits and a lengthy, multi-department endeavor, which she might not even approve, for events held on the Waltham Common are for noise control and public safety. These are unfounded reasons. The Common is obviously never going to be completely quiet given its placement on the cross-country Route 20, on the bus route, across from the train station, and in a densely populated area. I have not seen any concerns regarding public safety on the Waltham Common in the police report. The Mayor has refused permits and delayed permits to groups looking to protest peacefully on the Common, which suggests that her main aim with this memorandum is to shut up democracy.
The many wonderful festivals on the Common are one of the great attractions of living in Waltham. I was shocked to learn the Mayor has decided to end them—for that’s what a four-hour time limit will almost certainly do. To argue otherwise is disingenuous. This new rule addresses the noise problem, but only by letting the baby out with the bathwater.
Thanks for writing this letter and really appreciate all the problem solving options presented for things like noise management. I also found the order had so many restrictions that will discourage community building, traffic to local businesses, and is too much of a one size fits all approach.
Great letter! Urban living requires places for residents to gather safely and equitably. The noise for old school concerts on the common often reaches me on Caughey Streets. It’s not my music but I love that the performers play it and others gather to enjoy it. Waltham isnt a sleepy backwater anymore, if it ever was.
The new rules don’t foster fun, cultural diversity or inclusion. They also inhibit change. If maintenance costs are an issue, ceeate a small fee for big companies operating in the city. It will be a drop in the bucket for them to collectively support a community benefit. I like the sound management recommendation, too. Something that tech firms could easily fund to get us up to speed here. C’mon City of Waltham, be creative, not restrictive in addressing challenges. Jeez.