Dear Leanne,
I'm not surprised that the restaurant is indifferent, but it seems your
condo board should be involved since it's likely other residents are having
the same problem. So, my first piece of advice is to recruit other residents
to your efforts so you don't sound like uniquely difficult, uptight people
when you complain. (Which I say in total sympathy, I know this is how some
neighbors think of me!)
My second piece of advice is to contact your DC Council member (the
regulatory agency and law enforcement are just too overburdened to be
helpful, in my experience). I had good luck after mine intervened on my
behalf with a noise problem.* Also, the Council should hear more often from
their constituents about noise problems in the city in general so that
whenever legislation or enforcement comes up, they will be more likely to
take noise issues seriously* -- even if they can't help with specific ones.
One problem you might run into is that, as far as city regulations are
concerned, noise is measured at a certain distance from the property line
(if I remember right), so if it's coming up through your own building, I am
not sure what laws apply. If you were in a rental unit, it would be the
landlord's job to ensure a habitable environment for you, which is why I
think it might be the developer's problem to solve, and some pressure from
your Council member could help make that happen.
Good luck!
Annie Singer

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Leanne <Frenchita23@...> wrote:

>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm dealing with a problem that I need help on. We live in a mixed use
> building and a new restaurant moved in right below us. We are now treated to
> live jazz concerts from down below 3-5 times per week. it's loud enough to
> require us to increase the volume of our radio/TV so we don't hear it, but
> might not be loud enough to reach the decibel level. It's beginning to
> impact our lives - we don't have friends over, etc. We've tried working with
> the developer and the restaurant owner but it is getting ridiculous. our
> condo board is dragging their feet.
>
> Does anyone have any advice? we would greatly appreciate it.
>
> Thank you,
> Leanne
>