Every day Moe Rodriguez goes to work, he worries a police officer will be the first person through the door.
The men in uniform aren’t there to break up a drunken brawl. They come to say the three words every bar and club owner dreads: “Turn it down.”
Double Down Live, a live music venue and bar in downtown Gainesville, has been getting noise complaints as many as five times a week since January.
Rodriguez, who owns and manages the business at 210 SW Second Ave, said police will sometimes show up during soundcheck around 5 p.m., before he opens the doors.
GPD Officer Ernest Graham said officers don’t measure noise levels until the complaints start to pile up. They usually let businesses off with warnings.
Which is why Rodriguez said he is worried. If he is violating the city’s noise ordinance, he will get a warning for the first violation, be fined $250 for the second violation and be fined $500 for the third violation, if all occur within one year. After the first three documented violations, the owner can be criminally charged, according to GPD.
“I don’t want to be a criminal,” Rodriguez said. “I just want to run my business and put on good shows.”
The venue, a rectangular, white cinder-block building, has been an epicenter for live music in Gainesville. For the last eight years, it was the home of Common Grounds, which brought in both local and national acts, including Less Than Jake, Against Me! and Kenny Chesney.
Before that, the venue was called The Covered Dish, a live music club that opened around 1992, according to the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations.
Double Down Live opened in July and continues to put on concerts of various genres.
In 2008, The Palms Condominiums was built about 200 feet from the concert venue.
Rodriguez, his staff and some downtown business owners said they are baffled as to why people move to an area that is known for its entertainment if they are irritated by noise.
“This is a place that has been known for its concerts for decades,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t understand why people move down here and expect it not to be noisy.”
Lauren Sollaccio moved into a ground-floor condo facing the venue in July. The 26-year-old said she couldn’t stand the loud music when she first moved in, but she never called in a complaint.
“It was pretty hellish getting used to it,” she said. “But we’ve only got a year here, so we’ll make it through.”
The Gainesville noise ordinance states that a noise disturbance must disturb a “reasonable person,” exceed 60 decibels — roughly the volume of a casual conversation — at night and 66 during the day and must be clearly heard at least 200 feet from the “real property line” of the source of the sound.
Usually, GPD will just tell Rodriguez to turn down the music. But the owner has gotten two written warnings.
The first was in October during an alternative rock concert by Helmet, and the second was at the beginning of March during a concert by folk artist Amy Ray, Rodriguez said.
Officer Graham said people who continually called in complaints about Common Grounds a few years ago were living in The Palms, but he did not know if the complaints about Double Down Live were from there as well because the callers chose to remain anonymous.
Sollaccio said when she moved in, the realtor told her the next-door venue, then vacant, used to be a bar that played music, but it was closed down and not reopening.
The leasing agents for the condominium complex were not at the office and did not return phone calls.
The only other nearby residential area is two streets south of the building on Southwest Second Place.
Jessica Gilbert, a resident who lives on Southwest Second Place, said she can hear the music from the club late at night, but it doesn’t irritate her.
“We moved here to be close to downtown,” said the 23-year-old plant molecular breeding graduate student. “We expected the noise.”
Rodriguez said he hopes the city will change its noise requirements to ease up on the downtown area.
Commissioner Jeanna Mastrodicasa said she understood Rodriguez’s concern.
She said the city will look into amending the ordinance, but a change could anger downtown residents.
“Someone loses either way,” she said.
Contact Adrianna Paidas at apaidas@alligator.org.
Local band Janna Pelle and the Half-Steps perform at Double Down Live in September 2011. Since January, the music venue has been receiving noise complaints up to five times a week from neighbors.
