BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | The debate over loud music in Washington Square Park can be seen like a chess match, as those who would rein in the noise carefully plot their next moves. However, it’s not chess, but rather Tic and Tac — as in the team of longtime busking twins — who are now the focus of critics of loud music in the park.
Local residents and park performers packed a June 3 meeting of the Community Board 2 Parks and Waterfront Committee to engage in what was billed as a “discussion about non-amplified instruments and music played at high volume in Washington Square Park.”
“Our Parks Committee decided to hold a hearing because of the continuing complaints we get from park users and neighbors [about loud music],” said Tobi Bergman, the board’s chairperson. “There was a very large turnout and people almost universally expressed frustration about noise. The objections do focus on Tic and Tac because of their dominance of the park for so many hours of the day. What people object to is not that they are earning a living through their talents and their hard work, but that they are making it hard for others, including musicians, to enjoy the park.”
On a late Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, the tumbling twins were performing their act, accompanied by their drummer, L.C., in the southwestern part of the park’s main plaza. Encircled by a good-sized crowd, they were doing their usual routine: Pull a diverse group of a half-dozen people out of the audience — calling them out as they go along, “a little kid…a diva…at least one Asian…a really tall, rich white guy…a black woman…” — and form them into a line. Then continue to crack jokes and collect donations before Tic (Tyheem Barnes) finally vaults over them.
They assured the folks who were about to be leaped over not to be afraid.
Keeping their comedy message positive, the pair quipped about things that really are scary, their voices in sync, “We’re afraid of cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, Miley Cyrus twerking… .”
Sitting right next to their drummer, L.C., and enjoying the show was Doris Diether, 86, a veteran of C.B. 2 and one of the city’s longest-serving community board members.
She was smiling at Tic and Tac’s wisecracks as Tic got ready for the act’s finale, the big jump over the line of people.
“They’re trying to get the music out of the park again,” Diether grumbled to The Villager. “They start with one instrument: They said the trumpet was too loud. Tobi even said the [Crazy Piano Guy’s] piano was too loud. The last time they tried to do that, I managed to kill it.”
Indeed, in May 2011, the Parks Department had started enforcing tough new rules on busking and art vending in the park, saying musicians and artists now could not operate within 5 feet of park benches or 50 feet of monuments, making it pretty much impossible to perform or vend anywhere in the park. Diether said it was she who got the musicians to turn out at a December 2011 speak-out on the issue hosted by C.B. 2, at which the sentiment against the new regulations was overwhelming. Then-C.B. 2 Chairperson Brad Hoylman said, back at that time, that he hoped Parks would reconsider the strict rules.
Returning to Tic and Tac’s performance…after Tic had successfully sprung over the line of tourists and other parkgoers, the pair paused between acts to talk with a reporter about the drumming issue.
Tic said there are simply more percussionists in the park nowadays, which is making it louder, so he gets why people may be complaining.
“I can understand it,” he said, “because it’s…a lot more drummers out there now than there used to be.”
N.Y.U. students are even getting into the drumming fad in the park, he said.
If Tic is the better people leaper, (Tac) Kareem Barnes tends to be their spokesperson. He said beating out rhythms is a form of cultural expression.
“The drums, it’s black and Puerto Rican music,” he said. “Just like with bagpipes — you don’t think a black guy would be playing it.
“Yeah, we can perform without the drums,” he offered. “But do you want to play folk music without the guitars?”
To go after drums but not guitars would be “selective policing,” they warned.
“Acoustic is acoustic,” Tac stated.
They added that they are only in the park two days a week, Saturdays and Sundays.
In 2011, during Parks’ enforcement crackdown, they said, they racked up $10,000 in tickets — but the city never followed through. That’s because, back then, Tic and Tac and other performers were ready to go to court and fight the new rules and fines, and the city backed off.
Tac charged that the community board’s current chairperson, Bergman, simply has a bias against buskers.
“Every two years, the community board gets a new chairperson, and he has a pet peeve against buskers,” Tac said of Bergman.
Told of Tac’s comments, Bergman responded, “I have never done anything to discourage music in the park. The Tic and Tac act does that. It was great that they came to the Parks Committee meeting, and I thought they expressed willingness to work with the community, but I think so far nothing has changed.”
Connecting the dots — or rather the “X” ’s — Tic and Tac say, in their view, it’s no mystery why they are the ones currently under the microscope.
“When you’re good, you’re always at the top of the food chain, where people want to attack you,” Tac said. “We have the longest tenure in the park…” Tac said, before Tic joined in and they simultaneously said, “…over 25 years.”
Their synchronized speaking is not just an act for when they perform; they also automatically flow into it in conversation when emphasizing key points.
“The water is loud,” Tac said, as the park’s fountain noisily sprayed nearby. “The traffic is loud…,” he said, before they both chimed in together, “…New York City is loud.”
Other top acts in the park from earlier years have moved on. Master Lee — who got his start in the park lying on his back as an assistant hacked a cucumber on his stomach with a machete — has gone on to perform on Conan and in sideshow-style reviews. Joey Joey, who used to do a sword-swallowing act, is also gone.
“Moved to Vegas,” Tac said. “We’re the last of the legends.”
They said Sarah Neilson, the park’s administrator, has insinuated that they, too, should move on.
“We’ve been told by Sarah we’re too famous to be in the park,” Tac said. “She told us, ‘Why are you still here?’ But everyone can’t afford Broadway tickets.”
Through a Parks spokesperson, Neilson denied having said those things to them.
They also accused Parks of turning on the Washington Square fountain a few weeks before the start of summer this year, which they said was earlier than usual. Most buskers’ favorite spot to perform is in the dry fountain, which is like a theater in the round, with spectators sitting on the fountain’s steps and along its edge.
“We would be in there today,” Tac said wistfully as the fountain’s jets sprayed arcing white plumes of water.
However, a Parks spokesperson said, “The fountain was turned on when it’s always been turned on, at the beginning of May. Last year due to weather, we turned it on a week later, in mid-May. The fountain is a popular attraction, so we do our best to make it available to parkgoers as early as possible.”
Tic and Tac have been performing since they were 12. They’re now 40. They grew up in the Bronx and now live in Astoria.
They said they love performing in Washington Square Park because of its “cultural diversity.” They do their act in the Village park seven to eight months each year, which gives them time to be with their family, they said. During the winter, they take their show on the road, to places like New Orleans and Los Angeles.
Between acts, a young drummer came and sat in with L.C., jamming along on a drum pad (which, coated with rubber, is designed for practicing without creating noise).
L.C.’s volume ratcheted up, however, when a youthful troupe from the National Dance Institute, who had just been performing at N.Y.U.’s Skirball Theater, suddenly came skipping up and launched into a high-energy African dance routine for about 10 or 15 minutes.
“Music connects us, it’s part of the community,” said one of the dancers, Isabella Pagano, afterward. Finding a public space like this in New York to dance to music is rare, she noted.
“It’s part of the Village,” she said. “To be a part of it is very special.”
During Tic and Tac’s act, the drumming is not nonstop, but sporadic, highlighting exciting moments — such as when Tac spins Tic on his head like a helicopter or for Tic’s jump over the line of people — along with scattered thumps and rim shots to accentuate jokes.
The Villager did a decibel reading with a Radio Shack sound meter of L.C.’s drumming right before Tic’s final pièce-de-résistance plunge over the selected tourists. It measured from around 88 to 92 decibels from about 10 to 15 away.
According to hearnet.com, 90 decibels is equivalent to a train whistle at 500 feet, while 95 decibels is as loud as a subway train at 200 feet. Regular, sustained exposure to 90 to 95 decibels may cause permanent ear damage, the site says.
But, standing there watching the show, it didn’t sound that loud. It seemed fun. But perhaps it wasn’t that fun to a person in their apartment in 1 or 2 Fifth Ave. who wasn’t on the ground taking it all in, but rather trying to concentrate on some task, or just hoping for some weekend quiet time.
Sitting on a granite bench in the plaza’s northwest quadrant, two acoustic guitar players were leading a group of men softly singing along to rock songs. Their volume peaked at 82 decibels as they howl-crooned the Warren Zevon chorus “Ahhh wooooo! Werewolves of London!”
According to hearnet.com, 80 decibels is as loud as a telephone dial tone in your ear, while 85 decibels is like hearing the sound of city traffic while inside a car — so, no, not as loud as Tic and Tac’s drumming.
The guitar group’s songs got noticeably louder — and more clearly audible — once twilight had fallen, Tic and Tac had trotted off and the park had cleared out, all diminishing the general din. The strings now had the stage.
“They’re very sweet guys but they totally dominate the space,” one woman, requesting anonymity, said of Tic and Tac as she listened to the guitar players.
Asked for his view, one strummer shook his head as he continued fingering his fretboard, but the other, Eric Benjamin Gordon, said the noise has gotten out of hand.
“The authorities come in and shut down amplified musicians,” he said, “but they allow these musicians to play that are very loud.”
A permit is needed to play amplified music in the park. Asked if there is a maximum permitted decibel limit for acoustic instruments in the park, a Parks spokesperson replied in general terms, stating, “New York City parks are the city’s living room, which is why we have a few rules in place to make sure all parks are safe and comfortable. Our rules, which are enforced by our PEP officers, prohibit unreasonable noise, defined as excessive or unusually loud sound that disturbs parkgoers’ peace, comfort or safety.”
As for what the upshot was from the June 3 C.B. 2 Parks Committee meeting, Rich Caccappolo, the committee’s chairperson, said, for the moment, there are no plans to write a resolution or create a task force to study the matter further.
“Our goal when we convened the discussion,” he said, “was that people with different opinions would have a chance to express their concern and frustration, while also hearing from others in our community, so that interested parties would see there are differences of opinion and different perspectives, and perhaps realize that a solution and improvement are not simple, but also not impossible.
“I think we achieved that objective,” Caccappolo said, “and we were able to communicate to the Parks Department that the issues should be addressed. There is consensus that some actions should be taken to restore a balance.
“We were very pleased that Manhattan Borough Parks Commissioner Bill Castro was able to attend,” he added, “because it allowed those in attendance to deliver this message, and he was able to convey that he heard the concerns and to agree to take some actions, especially now that Parks has been able to obtain funding to increase the number of Parks Enforcement Officers to six people until 10 p.m.
“We restarted the discussion that our community wanted to have — and we reiterated our message to the Parks Department that we delivered 11 months ago in our resolution of July 2014.”
That resolution from last year included calling for Parks to “review its current policies and consider changes that would limit noise and disturbance in the park.” Also, regarding the park’s midnight curfew, the resolution urged Parks to consider “ways to close the entrances that are more secure, effective and attractive.”
Gating the park at night with more daunting barriers is something Caccappolo favors.
“Personally, I think the park should be closed at night like every other park, but I have not discussed it with our committee and we have not discussed it at a committee meeting,” Caccappolo said. “I purposely separated that debate from this conversation of music and noise levels.”
Easily movable metal “French gates” have been used to close the park at night, but weren’t in place at the park’s entrances when The Villager went by around 1:30 a.m. on a recent early Monday morning. Except for a few souls, the park was empty. A young woman walked about in the darkness quietly talking on her cell phone not far from the Holley Monument. A man slept on the ground in front of the park building’s entrance. Nearby, another man was walking his mini-greyhound along a park path. He said he likes the park at night because he can really enjoy it then.
Asked about the drumming, he said he doesn’t mind it, but can understand those who complain that it’s driving them nuts.
“You have to be in the mood for it,” he said.
