It’s not surprising that Shreveport council woman Tabitha Taylor has criticized both the Shreveport city attorney and mayor over the veto of the councilman Alan Jackson's 85 decibel amendment to the proposed new noise ordinance that had max decibel limit of 70.

It’s no secret that Taylor and Jackson are buddies with the HAZE club owner. They both have defended the club at council meetings. In the process they ignored the fact that the roof top DJ had attracted on numerous occasions large unruly crowds to the downtown area that mingled on sidewalks, parking lots and streets. They seemingly were not concerned with the street violence, with property damage, and complaints by downtown residents. And never mind that the Shreveport Police had to use mace to disperse large crowds on a recent occasion.

Taylor now says a sound engineer needs to be involved, ignoring the diligent work of the city attorney's office that consulted numerous ordinances that have worked successfully in other cities. She now criticizes the ordinance for not having the proper guidance on how to handle concerns over excessive noise. She did NOT raise this concern when she voted to increase the maximum decibel level to 85, which would have greatly favored HAZE.

Taylor also throws Mayor Arceneaux under the sound truck for not negotiating with HAZE. Evidently Taylor thinks the mayor should deal individually with every club owner, especially if they owner/operator is an African American. Her argument against overlooks the many documented problems the loud roof top music caused on the downtown streets. And perhaps she has forgotten the comments of the club owner who acknowledged the large unruly street crowds, saying that they were the problems of the Shreveport Police and not her club.

The HAZE club is not in Taylor's council district. Nonetheless she should be concerned by the numerous fire code violations reported by this author (see below). One can only wonder why the club was allowed to stay open--and this is an issue that should be addressed by the council or at least the Public Safety Committee. Thankfully the removal of the fire escape stairway that substantially reduced the fire code maximum for the HAZE rooftop has helped the noise situation.

It’s unfortunate that Taylor and her council cronies continue to undermine the Arceneaux administration in various ways. Seemingly race dictates many of their political positions rather than good government.