Woody Biggs describes himself: “As born and bred North Carolinian, I grew up in eastern NC and have lived in Raleigh for 30 years. I have seen the astronomical growth here and the good and the bad that comes with that. I love our city and want it to be the best it can be and a safe place for all residents.”
Woody delivered the following remarks at the May 13, 2025 City Council meeting:
I have complained about Glenwood South for years so tonight I would like to share two weekends ago Glenwood South residents had two great nights of sleep. Not because you as City Leaders did anything, not because RPD properly enforced the noise ordinance but because God brought us rain for two weekend nights. That shut down the live outdoor concerts and the DJs pumping music into the open air.
This past weekend it was business as usual. I was at a dinner party Saturday night and a couple who own a Paramount condo as a second home said how bad it was Friday night for them. The wife said she did not call in a noise complaint as she said RPD does nothing with the calls.
The consensus at the dinner was they should only come to Raleigh Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. But mind you they own and pay expenses and taxes on that condo 7 days a week.
With the revised ordinance the city has put RPD in a bad spot regarding judging reasonable level of noise. A couple of examples.
RPD has started wanting to come into our homes and that’s not in the ordinance. An officer came into my home and said it’s really loud in here but then said is it unreasonable. Officers went into a Paramount condo and told a couple it is loud in here but you can have a conversation over the level of the music pumped into your condo so he deemed it reasonable.
As ridiculous as this sounds this is what RPD is doing. Having officers come in residents’ homes and pull what I call this stunt is not a good idea. It is not building good will with Raleigh residents and it makes the responding officers look foolish.
Glenwood South is the epicenter for noise terrorism but noise is a citywide issue. I am aware of noise terrorism issues around the Five Points area with residents up to a half a mile away calling about a bar’s noise. We can’t get RPD to address noise issues 150-300 feet away in Glenwood South so the Five Points area residents don’t have a prayer.
There needs to be a moratorium on amplified sound from Raleigh businesses until you can come up with a solution to this never ending citywide problem.
In closing, the report the city commissioned from the Responsible Hospitality Institute was just released. In both of the Raleigh resident roundtable discussions the facilitator mentioned a lot of cities limit the number of a particular type of business in an area, wanting them spread out in their cities. She mentioned Glenwood South being many many bars. I found it odd that was not in the report.
You can read Mr. Biggs’ previous comments to City Council here:
Raleigh is Underreporting Noise Complaints
Glenwood South can control the noise and still thrive
Vibrancy kicking on the wrong door
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