Noise

Cross Ocean Blvd. at Alamitos and it becomes Shore Line Drive. There are steps leading to the parking lot. Walk down the very narrow street sidewalk instead of using the steps, cross the driveway that leads down to same parking lot and you arrive at a grassy slope. The grass extends along Shoreline Drive all the way to Shoreline Village. Next to the grass, in front of the parking lot is a picnic area, the restrooms and Alfredo's snack shop. Cross the bike path and follow a sidewalk in the center of the sand to a helicopter landing concrete circle.

Standing at the edge of that grass where it meets Shoreline Drive and you might hear faint drum music. Only if no cars are whizzing by. The music is from the Phat Drum Circle that meets up on Sundays in the heli-port. Or used to meet up.

Seems someone has been calling the police to complain about the noise. The someone lives in one of the apartment/condo complexes along Ocean Blvd. Facing east, there is more sand to the left of the bike path. I can not guess at the distance, but almost as wide as the parking lot. If the drum music is only faint as described above, how can anyone living in those buildings even hear it?
Today, Sunday, July 19, 2009, I went to listen to the drummers. Did not know any of the guys playing. One man told me he grew up in Long Beach but now lives in Sacramento. He was in town for his high school reunion and his brother invited him to the beach to play "Congo's". The Phat Drum Circle organizer, Marcus arrived and spoke to the men. Seems the police have been by every week due to the complaint.

Marcus asked the guys to move onto the sand. The guys were told they needed to compromise and move further away from the building. The guys said "We have been playing, what, for three hours and police did not come around." Yet some of those guys moved along with Marcus and Dupree to a spot in the sand. Several young ladies joined the drum circle. Marcus did not bring his extra drums and other instruments, shakers, tambourines and the like. Thus when a gal asked to play she would be using someone else's drum and the person was not playing.
A few dancers hung 'round. One woman who seemed to be an experienced aerobics teacher got the onlookers up and dancing. Everyone had a lot of fun. Marcus announced "the end" and invited everyone to come again. People exchanged phone numbers, hand shakes and hugs. That is what the Phat Drum Circle is all about, drumming for love, peace and joy.

Two park rangers got out of the their mini-vans. "You are all detained," one cop announced. Huh? The person in the building complained again. And I ask again, how the (cuss word) could he possibly hear the music from that distance! Some of the people who had been playing the drums strolled away. Only the people who had drums were forced to stand there. One gentleman had a knee brace on. I am guessing his age at 65. More or less. He protested standing there and started to leave.

Did the cops see this particular guy playing? One of the rangers said he was parked "over there" and could hear the music, but his eyesight is not that good, so could not see who was playing drums. "Over there" was in front of Alfredos, to the side actually. That man was not playing at the time, a gal was using his instrument. I noticed the two patrol cars stop in the sand, close to the drummer circle, before the last tune ended. The young lady who started the set and played through out the song was not detained. The cop guys were close enough to be able to see her. If the guys eyesight is that bad, I worry about the quality of our law enforcement personnel.