Between the lawsuit filed for discrimination last fall, allegations of hate speech against Muslims and a tiff with City Council about the name itself, there’s more reasons to not set foot in The Pickle than any reasonable person needs.
At the expense of sounding like a grumpy elderly man, let me add another: The place is just too dang loud.
I’m not talking about inside — though maybe it is; I’ve never actually been inside. But I’m talking about from the street. Or the next street. Or five blocks away.
No matter where you are on Water Street or in the Randall Park neighborhood you can clearly hear the thump of LMFAO and the DJ screaming about $1 ‘Brett Favres.’
And to tell the truth, I don’t need anyone else in my life to be telling me to get my butt on the dance floor because it’s Friday.
The fact is that Water Street isn’t just a place for UW-Eau Claire students to drunkenly make fools of themselves. It’s a place where people live, where people work and where people shouldn’t be subjected to the wash of noise leaking, though more like streaming, out of The Pickle.
It’s annoying, inconsiderate and against the law.
According to the Eau Claire city ordinances — 9.56.070 — “No person shall make or assist in making any noise tending to unreasonably disturb the peace and quiet of persons in the vicinity thereof.” I would consider being able to hear the bar from Niagara Street unreasonable.
In my time at Eau Claire I’ve been at house shows that have been shut down by this statute that have had an equal, if not smaller, amount of sound bleed to the street. So why is The Pickle exempt? Breaking the law is never OK, but I’d have to think it’d be better to break the law supporting local music than by encouraging binge drinking and making money.
So here’s what I want.
To The Pickle: Just turn it down or close the door. I know you feel like you’re thriving on being polarizing, but you’re losing more customers than gaining them by being the bully of Water Street. People drink at The Pickle because it’s cheap, so drop off 10 percent and 10 decibels and everyone will be happy.
To the city: Please enforce the laws you have in place, no matter whether it’s a group of students hosting a house show or a bar with a blaring DJ — not to mention, I think you’d be surprised which one has more underage drinkers.
To you: If you can’t stand how loud The Pickle is, do something about it. Call the Eau Claire Police Department or talk to an officer on Water Street to file a complaint.
It’s bad enough being heckled by Pickle patrons while walking on the bike path (but that’s for another day), I’d rather not have to deal with the noise level, too.
Thom Fountain is a senior liberal studies major and Editor-in-Chief at The Spectator.
