NIMBY raises its head as local landlord complains about Capitol Hill Block Party.

It’s not my personal favorite event of the year, (and, our Founder/Publisher Bill starts frothing at the mouth when discussing it) but the Capitol Hill Block Party IS important to the thousands of people who flock to it the last weekend of July every year. It’s hot, noisy, crowded and while it’s not gay UNfriendly, it’s really not an event that the LGBT community gets too excited about. But, there are a few people that have some serious issues with the event. Capitol Hill Blog has the story about a call for community involvement in the planning of the next Block Party, which comes up for review with the Seattle Special Events Committee on Wednesday, January 11. Michelle Cotton and Anne Michelson of Crescent Down Works and Anne Michelson Properties located at 1115 East Pike, a block east of the edge of the Block Party staging area, have sent out an email to area businesses urging them to get involved with the planning of the next event and to make their concerns known to organizers.

It will be important for the neighborhood to come together to discuss how this event impacts our lives and our livelihoods so that that information can be taken into account by the committee when making their decisions regarding the length and format of this huge event. We would like to encourage you to attend and be heard.

From Capitol Hill Blog: Cotton, who will speak at Wednesday’s meeting, could not reply to questions from CHS but Anne Michelson tells us she is eager for Pike/Pine businesses to have a say in shaping the Block Party — and that shaping should start with a move to the Bobby Morris playfield in Cal Anderson Park:

We are really glad that we are finally getting a say in this.  A lot of our small retail in the block party area are seriously hurt by this event.  we are hoping that it can happen on Pine and in the Bobby Morris playfield and that it is only Friday afternoon and Saturday, not Sunday.  But if somehow that can’t happen and it does happen on Pike, the affected retail needs to be reimbursed.  This is a for-profit event and our small alternative type businesses are getting clocked.  There is only 15 minutes allotted for us at this meeting, but we are hoping that Michelle can say her piece.

I have a few issues with this debate, and while I can see both sides of the issue, I have to say I have the more serious concerns with Ms Michelson’s complaints because I don’t really buy what she’s trying to sell here. For starters, the business in question, Crescent Down Works, is NOT a retail establishment but a manufacturing concern. They MAKE goods here, they do not sell them, so I’m not sure how that impacts their business. (Even if they did sell their goods at the site, how much business would they do on a hot July weekend when they sell down comforters and vests? It’s the rare time of the year in Seattle when we DON’T think about such goods…) And, yes, I understand that some other small retail stores in the area are probably affected by the crowds and closed off streets and that’s too bad, but I also understand that many, many restaurants, bars and other food/beverage outlets in the area do a BOOMING business that weekend from the thirsty/hungry crowds as they enter and exit the official staging area. Are they eager for Block Party to move elsewhere? I doubt it.

As for Ms Michelson’s suggestion that the event can move to Pine and Cal Anderson Park, what good would that do, moving the event ONE block over? It’s still going to allegedly inconvenience area businesses, (but not so directly on her OWN business) and it would also potentially cause issues for the hundreds of people who LIVE around Cal Anderson Park. It seems a bit obviously NIMBY on Ms Michelson’s part to move something one block and it also seems a bit odd…until you learn one, hard fact.

Anne Michelson, a long time Capitol Hill/Pike/Pine property owner, LIVES on Pike Street. One half block from the Block Party. And, she hates noise. She really, really hates noise of any kind and is NOT a big fan of urban night life. How do I know? I’ve heard her RANT about this topic to me personally a few years back and she’s very willing to try and make it seem she’s looking out for the good of “her” neighborhood, but it all boils down to the fact, she doesn’t like noisy things near her home. Let me tell you my story.

Years ago, I was a volunteer at the late, sort of lamented LGBT Center, which of course is the current site of Crescent Down Works and Ms Anne Michelson. I was curating an art show for QArts and had arranged a live band to perform at the opening reception for our latest show. The director of the Center gave the ok for this and told me she would inform Anne that there would be live music, and it would only be for a short set and would be over by 10pm.  The Saturday came for the show, and the band arrived in the afternoon to set up and do a sound check. Five minutes or so into the sound check, Ms Michelson stormed into the LGBT Center, in a rage, and demanded that the “noise” end immediately. It turns out the Director had NOT informed her of the live music, (typical of that Director to NOT actually perform her job competently) and even if she had, Ms Michelson would NOT allow it! Now, I understand her anger. If really loud music suddenly started blaring right under my office/home without sufficient cause or warning, I, too would be upset.  (And, it was REALLY loud; a large, high ceiling room with no sound proofing.) Eventually, we both calmed down and after I explained to her the situation, and apologized for the misunderstanding, and explained that it would not be that loud during the actual performance with a hundred people in the building acting as insulation, she agreed to letting the band perform, (though FAR earlier than originally planned), while she went out to dinner. It was annoying to have my plans for the evening changed, but that’s what compromise is all about.

A couple interesting points to make about that encounter. Originally, Ms Michelson tried to make it sound that she wasn’t so much concerned for herself, regarding the noise, but the neighbors around us. Now at that time, we were surrounded by construction on one side of us, (Agnes Lofts building) and a vacant lot, and in back the Stellina restaurant. The idea that the restaurant would be disturbed by the band was so ludicrous, that I went and asked them about it. “Did you hear a band playing a few minutes ago?” The restaurant employees just looked at me like I was crazy…”Dude, it’s a noisy restaurant and the only wall we share is the kitchen…we can’t hear anything in there anyway!”

But, eventually in that encounter, Ms Michelson did admit to me she was not a fan of street noise and night life and lamented that the neighborhood was getting very noisy, (this was at least four years ago; with the revival of that area since then and the increased traffic and night life, she must be going nuts…) Later I learned, from the manager of The Satellite Lounge across the street, that Ms Michelson was frequently calling the cops about noise from their bar, even complaining about live jazz music on Sunday afternoons.

I feel a little bit sorry for Ms Michelson…it sucks when your neighborhood changes and, to your eyes and ears, not for the better. But, I don’t have that much sympathy for her, or anyone else, who lives in a dense, largely commercial area that has established night life and noise. If you are sensitive to that kind of thing: DON’T LIVE THERE. MOVE. NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO STAY! Anne Michelson has resources; she is a large property owner; she has a buck or two and should be able to afford to live in a nice, quiet, strictly residential neighborhood. And, I’m sure she’d say, “I like my neighborhood! Why should I move?!?” and my response would be, “No, you like what your neighborhood WAS, 10, 15, 20 years ago when upper Pike Street was fairly quiet and rundown. It’s changed, for good or bad, but it was, and is, a commercial zone. It’s moved on, and so should you.”

Of course, the irony is, the gentrification and success of the neighborhood benefits Ms Michelson to a large degree, financially. As the neighborhood gets noisier and more prosperous, the value of her buildings grows along with it. And, more irony? Ms Michelson helped found the ORIGINAL Capitol Hill Block Party nearly 20 years ago, when it was a small, local, street fair. Karma can be a cruel mother when it wants to be.

Yet, on Friday and Saturday nights when the streets are full of obnoxious suburbanites swanning to all the new restaurants and clubs, and moronic teens gawk and snicker at gay culture, I, too, kind of wish that part of town was a bit quieter and less successful. But, I also realize, it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Life is cyclical and the noisy success of upper Pike and Pine is going to be around for a long time. Enjoy the good parts of that success and deal with the not so good parts. Could Block Party be improved? Sure, but moving it a block from your house isn’t improving anything. It’s just typical lazy NIMBY-ism.