The sound of music
A venerable spot vexed by anonymous complaints
Kevin Saftner, owner of the James Street Gastropub & Speakeasy, wanted to be a good neighbor. Unfortunately, anonymous complaints about live music at his North Side tavern and performance space have made that impossible. He’s planning to close the venue on Nov. 11. What a loss that would be.
After spending thousands of dollars last year installing sound proofing in the iconic establishment and even a new air-conditioning system that makes it possible to keep the windows shut during the summer, Mr. Saftner is still dealing with complaints about noise.
He wishes it were possible to address the complaint directly, but the state police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement cannot share info about who has filed complaints about being disturbed, even as it cites Mr. Saftner for violating the neighborhood peace. This is a situation Franz Kafka would immediately recognize and squeeze a good novel out of.
The James Street Gastropub & Speakeasy is not a nuisance bar. Mr. Saftner and his mother, Lisa, have run the business for six years. Long known simply as the James Street Tavern, it has been a reliable home for much of the city’s jazz life for decades. Young musicians have cut their teeth learning their craft at the feet of local masters in the tavern’s intimate performance space.
Pittsburgh rose to prominence as an incubator of jazz because many neighborhood clubs and bars became the training ground for the next generation of musicians. In turn, the public got to see icons and acolytes up close. Though most of the mid-century action in Pittsburgh’s clubs happened in the Hill District and East Liberty, James Street has become an oasis of jazz in recent decades.
As the number of performance spaces for jazz dwindles to less than a handful, the importance of places like the James Street take on added significance. To have such an important link to the city’s cultural past severed by something as banal as an anonymous noise complaint is outrageous and unfair.
A simple investigation by city or state inspectors over a reasonable period should be enough to determine whether the anonymous complaint has any merit. Mr. Saftner should be persuaded to stay.
Pittsburgh has pulled out all the stops to woo Amazon to the city, making the case that we have a vibrant cultural life to offer. It makes no sense to allow an institution — that any city would covet — to fail in a neighborhood it has helped stabilize for decades.
Anonymity for those complaining about clubs with liquor licenses was once necessary. Rough characters would routinely threaten those who raised a fuss about the noise they made. Mr. Saftner isn’t a gangster or an irresponsible neighbor. He’s a North Side businessman trying to do right by his neighbors by making his tavern as inoffensive as possible. The PLCB and those complaining about the noise have an obligation to be as reasonable as Mr. Saftner has proved to be.