THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 2, 1994 TAG: 9408020300
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MARC TIBBS
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
In the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a henpecked husband falls asleep and awakens 20 years later to find his whole life has changed.
That's how some residents of Portsmouth's Collinswood neighborhood must feel now that a black nightclub has opened in their midst.
Before the opening of the Ebony Showcase, the 31,000-square-foot building housed the Olympia Bowling Lanes. And, as in the Van Winkle tale, the thunder of crashing pins never stirred this sleeping community.
But now, residents have awakened. Music from the Airline Boulevard nightclub, they say, has turned their neighborhood into an MTV nightmare.
``You can always hear that `boom-boom' noise,'' said Elizabeth Holland, who has lived in the neighborhood for 32 years. She's one of more than a dozen people who filed formal complaints. ``It's like when you hear a car with a big stereo coming down the street, you hear that `boom-boom' before you ever see the car.
``They want that bass sound up, and you just can't tolerate it.''
Collinswood residents aren't your typical nightclub crowd. Generally speaking, retirees, grandparents and young families make up this tree-lined community of bungalows and fenced-in yards.
But Collinswood is not pastoral Suffolk, either. Part of it adjoins Airline Boulevard - a hectic throughfare with used car lots, gas stations and the occasional swoo-oo-sh of semi-trailers.
Residents began complaining in earnest about the nightclub noise in April, and police cited club manager Harry T. Bonner with 14 counts of loud and disturbing noise.
He was even threatened with jail. Since the club opened, officials have imposed a citywide noise ordinance, and a special grand jury has been empaneled to investigate the complaints.
Club owners say they've poured thousands into roof renovations and a privacy fence.
But where were the residents before the building permits were issued, the zoning board hearings were held and construction workers began making a million dollar's worth of improvements? That was early 1993.
Now, the club is on the verge of becoming a white elephant - a first-rate venue with little or no clientele. Owners say you can't fill up something the size of an old bowling alley with mellow music.
They blame race for the complaints, but some residents disagree.
``They told us it was going to be a dinner club, and then a dance (club),'' said Mary Creel, who also has lived in the area more than 30 years. ``We were kinda glad, because we thought it would be nice to have a buffet to go to over there.''
Creel says she was appalled when she learned a nightclub was moving in. She also complained in court.
``We didn't know it was going to be anything (besides a buffet) until that `Ebony' sign went up,'' she said. Now, the noise ``sounds like 15 bongo drums back there, or more.'' by CNB