›
This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.

Beacon's Retro Arcade Museum shut down due to anti-pinball law

MattMatt
edited August 2010 in Everything Else
I remember this place being mentioned on a past podcast. Looks like the town has an acient law making pinball illegal, and the arcade is shut down until the town council can clear it up. Wonder if that's the whole story.

http://consumerist.com/2010/08/town-that-outlaws-pinball-shuts-down-arcade.html

Comments

  • AprecheApreche
    Wonder if that's the whole story.
    Yeah, that's pretty much the whole story.

    The question is, the place was operating for a very long time without any issues. The law definitely existed from back in the olden days when Beacon had a casino. The law might have been to keep out competition for the casino, or to rid the city of the bad elements after the casino burned down. Either way, what made them suddenly remember to enforce an old and forgotten law after the arcade had been operating for so long? Also, even if they are going to take their sweet time overturning the law, they could definitely make a quick temporary exception so that they do not enforce it. They could even just choose not to enforce it. This is what happens when you give old geezers all the political power.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    I would also not be surprised if there is a significantly sizable group working against removing said legislation; They're probably just the "Off Our Lawn Lobby."
  • JasonJason
    edited August 2010
    Or they could have chosen to regard it as deadwood and not enforce it, even after realizing it was on the books.
    Post edited by Jason on
  • GreatTeacherMacRossGreatTeacherMacRoss
    The mayor of beacon actually responded a few times on beaconcitizen.com. I'm not sure I can appreciate what he's saying. Residents who live ABOVE AN ARCADE complain about the noise? Really? Did you not know what you were moving above when you got the place? Do you go to sleep so early that a place closing at 9pm is a problem?
    My favorite posts are the ones complaining about the drug deals going on in plain sight and the cops never responding to calls about it.
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    From that, Beacon just sounds like a not pleasant place to live. >_>
  • gomidoggomidog
    It is a tiny building with no more than one apartment above it. It can't be louder than a bar, for crying out loud.

    CNN story
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Having actually been there, can R&S tell us how noisy machine made that long ago could actually be?
  • MattMatt
    Wonder if that's the whole story.
    Yeah, that's pretty much the whole story.

    The question is, the place was operating for a very long time without any issues. The law definitely existed from back in the olden days when Beacon had a casino. The law might have been to keep out competition for the casino, or to rid the city of the bad elements after the casino burned down. Either way, what made them suddenly remember to enforce an old and forgotten law after the arcade had been operating for so long?
    This is exactly why I started to wonder if there was more to the story. It is probably just a case of old people with power, but knowing that it is incredibly hard these days to turn a profit by running an arcade, and also knowing it existed in the town for a long stretch of time w/o issue, I could see this as a publicity stunt. "Oh no the town shut me down, what a bummer that I'll be on CNN, The Consumerist, etc." Packed house grand re-opening to follow and such. I also have a very active imagination and would feel bad if I'm just shit-talk speculating on a guy who is simply trying to run his business, but hey it's the internet.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited August 2010
    Just pulling this up to see what people think:
    I understand the frustration people are all feeling about the retro-arcade business but take a step back and think for one minute. The CNN story was bogus and misguided. It totally hyped the emotional side of the story and left out the real reasons for the closure and challenges in re-writing the law.

    The issue is noise and only noise. The business next to the arcade and the residents above it had a legitimate complaint about NOISE. The owner changed his business model from one that was legal to one that was not permitted. A complaint was filed with the building department. Should the City of Beacon ignore the complaints from its businesses and residents and allow an illegal operation to continue? Which laws do you suggest we enforce and which shall we ignore? There are always two sides to a story and two groups ready to complain.

    I am a huge supporter of the retro-arcade business. I think it is great for Beacon’s Main Street economy. I helped the owner to try to keep the business open but in the end when complaints are filed the law must be enforced. Meanwhile, according to the arcade owner, the landlord of the building took several actions and intended to deny a renewal of the lease – claiming that other tenants were disturbed by the noise.

    Knowing his business was at stake I tried to act quickly. My next step was to change the ordinance to allow a vintage arcade to operate without causing problems to adjacent businesses. I made phone calls to help him to relocate. I had the city planner rewrite the ordinance to allow the council to give it special permission to operate (a special use permit). The council worked to find a way to allow any vintage arcade business to operate without opening the door to other problems identified by other municipalities in their laws, and to protect the adjacent businesses and apartments from noise impacts. We also had to protect the arcade business owner from being closed down again a second time due to frivolous or malicious complaints. We rejected ides such as making the room sound proof and ended up leaving it to the business owner to reduce the noise in any way he wanted. Enforcement would be objectified by a decibel meter reading taken at adjacent unites.

    I am sure if you lived above a business that had constant pinging sounds you would want the city council to protect your quality of life. I am also sure if you owned a business you would want the municipality to write laws that would protect your right to stay in business (like the arcade owner). Well to get all of this right, it sometimes takes time.

    We all hope we can resolve this quickly so this very fascinating and beneficial business can open again.

    Steve Gold, mayor
    This is the kind of time when actual journalism would be handy if we still had it.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • GreatTeacherMacRossGreatTeacherMacRoss
    My beef with Gold's statement is that there is NO WAY anyone would move into that apartment and NOT know there was going to be noise below from a legitimate business that doesn't even go past 9 pm. This seems to be to be a case of one asshole upstairs deciding he wants to power trip and mess stuff up for everybody just because they can.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited August 2010
    People want to have their cake (Live in a commercial area.) and eat it (Live in a quiet area.) I suppose. I'd love to live above an arcade.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • AprecheApreche
    The arcade is a relatively recent development. We don't know if the people were living there before or after the arcade opened. If they were living there before the arcade was there, then they have held their complaint for quite awhile.
Sign In or Register to comment.