Hi, all.
I despise spending my evenings calling in noise complaints about Bowstring
and waiting to speak to cops but wanted to do more of my part (and the
music was inescapable both inside and outside of my house) so I spent two
nights this week texting with Lt. Borneo and Corey Branch and spoke with
three responding officers last night.
The result is that Corey Branch is going to try to set up a meeting with us
and Bowstring's owner. He has also spoken to both the City Manager and City
Atty this week. Lt. Borneo as well as the three responding officers
empathized with the fact that neighbors are getting tired of calling in
complaints and don't want to spend our time this way but that their ability
to respond is increased if they are acting on the complaints of citizens. I
have also been emailing with Maylor Cowell and the person in her office who
is responsible for the research behind the new ordinance that is going to
be proposed in October.
I am going to be gone tonight so* I am looking for a couple of people who
are willing to call in a complaint when you hear them tonight. It would be
best if you asked that they come to your home BEFORE going to Bowstring so
that they know what it sounds like before Bowstring is asked to turn it
down. Take them to wherever you hear it the loudest. Make sure you point
out that you are way further than 300 feet away from the venue. *
*For those of you who have done this before, thank you! For those of you
who have yet to take the time to do this, could you please take a turn
tonight? *
We can slowly educate enough people so that the actual issue will be better
understood by the time the City Council meets in October. Stay tuned for a
plan to go speak to them ahead of that meeting.
Krista
Midwood and Dennis
City Council Members,
Please know that Susan Evans who started this email thread is far from
alone in her asking for your help. *There have been 63 noise complaints
about Bowstring between October of last year and the beginning of August
and it seems that RPD in general is not understanding the issue we are
raising* (though a few officers like Lt. Borneo, copied, have really worked
hard to understand what the problem is). Thus we are asking for your help!
In short, *we should absolutely not be hearing music at 4,488 feet from
Bowstring's location when the City's ordinance allows for 300 feet.* We
created this map
<https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/anonymous-edit/1208110:Ipy-LnauBejiqQL…>based
on feedback from our neighbors and presented it to Councilman Branch. You
can see that *homes in our neighborhood are regularly hearing music from
Bowstring at up to 15 times the allowable distance.* We seem to be in the
path of sound from Bowstring that will likely not be solved by moving to a
decibel-based ordinance as the Mayor indicates a desire to do.
*A sufficiently sized sound barrier is needed and the "volunteer
compliance" approach is not working *-- some of our neighbors are hearing
it inside our homes up to 5 nights a week. On the worst nights I can hear
the singer take a breath. This is maddening, especially when we've been
told by RPD to just keep calling it in. No one wants to have to complain
that much. *We want to be able to have live music AND quiet neighborhoods
which the City's ordinance of 300 feet should make possible when venues
manage volume and sound barriers well (or are required to when they don't
do so voluntarily). *
When we call the police, which they have consistently encouraged us to do,
we have repeatedly gotten reports back from officers who go to Bowstring
saying that "nothing nefarious is going on there" or that "without a
decibel meter, there is nothing we can do". Neither of these responses get
to the issue about the distance at which we are able to hear the music on a
regular basis.
None of us wants RPD officers to have to come to our homes so we can prove
to them the level of noise we are tolerating. So when we're asked, "don't
you want officers to be able to focus on other things", the answer is
ABSOLUTELY but thus far the only solution we've been given is to just keep
complaining which is not good for us, the business or the officers caught
in the middle.
Krista Padgett
Belvidere Park & Woodcrest Neighborhoods
On Wed, Sep 10, 2025 at 9:10 AM Lauren Markley via BPW <bpw(a)eastraleigh.org>
wrote:
> I get that it is not a big deal for some people, but we have a real
> problem at our house. The sound is simply inescapable. We?ve been in our
> house for a decade or so and used to regularly spend evenings out on the
> deck enjoying the natural sounds of birds and insects as well as the very
> minimal human-made noise.
>
> Bowstring?s noise is now a constant presence. We hear EVERY NOTE of every
> concert (even Tuesdays now) and now we hear the MC from the Wednesday night
> trivia. We get roughly one night a week without hearing them. My outdoor
> space is just as important as my indoor space, and I should be able to
> enjoy it without this intrusion almost every evening for hours on end.
>
> Lauren
> Dennis Ave.
>
>
> Sent from the Oort Cloud
>
> On Sep 10, 2025, at 5:39?AM, Sarah England May via BPW <
> bpw(a)eastraleigh.org> wrote:
>
> ?
> ?Hey Jenn,
>
> I hear that you don?t mind it. I like energy in the neighborhood too. One
> of the weird things about it is that the sound is way louder in some places
> than others. In my house it?s so loud sometimes that my children can?t fall
> asleep. It?s been so loud that I can?t fall asleep before in early morning
> ER shift. My husband has been unable to work at times. I am guessing it?s
> not that loud at your house? But it really is a problem at ours. I don?t
> love hearing it outside but I accept it. It?s when we can?t escape it in
> our own home that?s an issue.
>
> Sarah
>
> < div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Sep 9, 2025, at 9:24?PM, Jenn Warren via BPW <bpw @eastraleigh.org>
> wrote:
>
> ?
> I kind of enjoy it every now and then. Brings a little life to our
> neighborhood. I have lived in this neighborhood for most of my 30+ years in
> Raleigh and there have been only a couple of times where I thought they
> could tune it down a notch.
> Being so close to down town plus living in an area where you also have a
> yard is one of the things I love about our hood(just my opinion)
>
> JK
> Rankin St.
>
> On Tue, Sep 9, 2025, 4:16?PM Eric Hill via BPW <bpw(a)eastraleigh.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for writing that Susan. Have you heard back from anyone yet?
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 8, 2025 at 7:22?PM Susan Evans via BPW <bpw(a)eastraleigh.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear City Council Members,
>>>
>>> I first want to express my gratitude for your service to the
>>> citizens of Raleigh, but I also need to ask for your help with a problem
>>> that is unnecessarily and unfairly making life difficult for me and other
>>> citizens you represent. Complaints have gone to the Raleigh Police
>>> Department but they seem unsure and unable to help because of the city's
>>> policies/standards/laws/ordinances , or whatever the problem is.
>>>
>>> It's clear to all citizens of Raleigh that if someone came to my
>>> house, uninvited and unwanted, and threw their pizza & beer into my house
>>> the police would be able to stop that kind of assault. Why, then, is
>>> Bowstrings Pizza & Brewery at 1930 Wake Forest Road
>>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/1930+Wake+Forest+Road?entry=gmail&source…>
>>> continuously allowed, uninvited and unwanted, to force their music INTO my
>>> house without the police being able to stop them from this kind of audible
>>> home invasion. On both this past Saturday and Sunday I was not able to use
>>> my back yard, my patio, or even my *living room* *INSIDE MY HOUSE*
>>> because of the excessively LOUD music coming from this business, now called
>>> Bowstrings Brewyard!!!
>>>
>>> I have complained to police way too many times for this problem to
>>> persist. I have had Raleigh police officers in my back yard, on my patio,
>>> and even inside my house, hearing for themselves the music I am assaulted
>>> with regularly, and yet they, and the City of Raleigh, have not stopped
>>> this madness!
>>>
>>> I don't choose to visit Bowstrings Pizza because I don't want to
>>> listen to their music, which is my right, of course. But, the management
>>> at Bowstrings are literally inserting their music INTO my house and my yard
>>> against my will and I am, apparently, powerless to stop this audible
>>> assault. What can you, as a city council do to protect me and others in my
>>> neighborhood whose lives are being disrupted by this music from a business
>>> that started up long after our homes were built and occupied??
>>>
>>> I have lived on Dennis Ave, off Capital Blvd in the Belvidere Park/Wo
>>> odcrest neighborhood for 38 years and I have never experienced the kind of
>>> problem that is going on, and on, and on, and on with Bowstrings blasting
>>> their music into my yard & my house!!! You know this isn't right, and you
>>> are the ones who must protect my right to live in peace in my house (and on
>>> my patio) in Raleigh, without being forced to listen to music that I choose
>>> not to hear. I'm not able to sit and read a book, watch TV, or talk on the
>>> phone in my living room because someone I don't even know is attacking me
>>> with their music which I choose not to hear. Please protect my rights!
>>>
>>> The citizens of Raleigh always have been, and are now entitled to
>>> peace and quiet inside our homes. No business should be allowed to take
>>> priority over the rights of the citizens. *PLEASE HELP YOUR CITIZENS*
>>> !!!!!!!!!!
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Susan Riddle Evans
>>> Dennis Ave, Raleigh NC 27604
>>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/Dennis+Ave,%C2%A0+Raleigh+NC%C2%A0+27604…>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> BPW mailing list -- bpw(a)eastraleigh.org
>>> To unsubscribe send an email to bpw-leave(a)eastraleigh.org
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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>
Hi, neighbors.
As you continue to call in the noise from Bowstring, it is good if you tell
the dispatcher that you want someone to come to your address to hear for
themselves. They may or may not do it but when they do it will help us
educate the department about what we are experiencing.
As you talk to anyone about the issue, here are some facts that will help
us all be as consistent as possible:
- *There have been 63 noise complaints about Bowstring between October
of last year and the beginning of August and it seems that RPD in general
is not understanding the issue we are raising* (though a few officers
like Lt. Borneo have really worked hard to understand what the problem is).
- In some cases we are hearing *music at 4,488 feet from Bowstring's
location (15 times the allowable distance) when the City's ordinance allows
for 300 feet.* We created this map
<https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/anonymous-edit/1208110:Ipy-LnauBejiqQL…>based
on feedback from neighbors and presented it to Councilman Branch. We
seem to be in the path of sound from Bowstring that will likely not be
solved by moving to a decibel-based ordinance as the Mayor indicates a
desire to do.
- Bowstring does have a sound barrier but a *sound engineer hired by the
City indicated that their speakers are pointed at the side of a building,
so the sound is bouncing off a big wall and up into our neighborhood*.
Also, the *stage is above the soundproofing wall they installed. *
- RPD relies first on voluntary compliance. *Bowstring was cited in July
and August but is appealing. *
A few updates about Bowstring. Last month the city hired a sound engineer to check them and a few other places out. They should be giving a report to the city at some point. Call and ask City Council about this as it directly impacts us.
The sound guy said that they are pointing their speakers at the side of a building, so the sound is bouncing off a big wall and up into our neighborhood. Also, the stage is above the soundproofing wall they installed. This needs to change. Again, call City Council.
Bowstring has appealed their July citation. I know the appeals process is different now, so who knows how that will go.
On Aug. 23rd, the music was really loud again, so I called it in. I got a call back from Sgt. Rattelade who threw everything he had at me to stop complaining, including comparing them to Red Hat Amphitheater and telling me since the number of calls to RPD has dropped, it’s not that big a deal. I’ve since received an apology for the disinformation.
They received another citation on Aug. 29th, which they will of course appeal.
Bowstring is obviously operating as if their appeals will be upheld and the citations dismissed. Why?
Public pressure is the only way this will get resolved, and it needs to be ramped way up again. I’m exhausted and out of other ideas.
Feel free to message me off-list at laurenmarkleyjewelry(a)gmail.com.
Lauren
Sent from the Oort Cloud
Anyone else calling in the egregious noise from Bowstring? Feel free to call 911 or the non-emergency number. Feel free to also call Lt. Borneo directly at +1 (919) 291-2573.
Lauren
Dennis Ave.
Sent from the Oort Cloud
