Pull the Plug On Outdoor Music
One of the solutions that has been floated regarding Montauk’s too-much, too-wild party scene is eliminating outdoor music altogether. At an East Hampton Town Board meeting in the besieged easternmost hamlet this month, however, the general sense among the hundreds who attended was that doing so would be going a step too far. Those sharing that view, who nevertheless are outraged about all the mayhem, should recognize that amplified music can be blamed for much of the plague that has upended the community they know and love.
We believe that the problems with Montauk’s overly festive crowds — noise, litter, and public urination — should be attacked head-on. This means pulling the plug on amplified music outside any commercial establishment. This would squarely address a large portion of the attraction for the hordes who amass on weekends at such places as Solé East, Navy Beach, Swallow East, the Montauk Beach House, Sloppy Tuna, the Surf Lodge, Ruschmeyer’s, and (of all places!) at Gurney’s.
The town’s regulations on outdoor events and noise are contradictory and difficult to enforce, with the tool that is potentially most effective, the mass gathering law, little used. Forcing the party indoors would give enforcement the upper hand, as fire safety maximum occupancy numbers are easier to quantify. Consider the example of Harbor, a bar and restaurant rated for 68 patrons near the Montauk docks, which was recently told by a judge that it had to keep to that figure, not the 300-plus guests recently counted by town officials.
The Surf Lodge has a similarly restrictive indoor occupancy maximum, but it routinely packs hundreds of people onto its open-air decks and (quote-unquote) lawn, for headliners like last weekend’s Leon Bridges. As enjoyable as that show may have been, Edgemere Road, where the town could soon put in place new parking restrictions, was a nearly impassible mess. End the shows under the stars, pack up the outdoor D.J.s, and much of the problem will drift away. Want music to dine by? Hire an acoustic combo or move the thumping inside.
Until the town and the public are willing to admit that one of the main causes of undesirable crowding is impossible-to-regulate outdoor music, the party will simply go on and on and on — much like the beats residents have had to endure. If officials and Montauk residents are serious about taking back the hamlet from the hordes, they have to act that way.
A couple of weeks ago, a Montauk resident in a letter to the editor in this newspaper described how sweet it once was to fall asleep listening to the sounds of the ocean and the crickets. But now, she wrote, she has to close her windows and turn up the air-conditioning to drown out the noise and get a good night’s sleep. Let’s not allow that to be this beloved hamlet’s epitaph.