Arcane Beacon, NY law against pinball shuts down business.

[Aragorn]

The story that CNN first reported:

BEACON, N.Y. (CNN) - A trip to an arcade filled with classic pinball machines and other games might sound like a fun way to spend a hot, summer day. But in one New York town, arcades are illegal, and one small business owner has been told to close his doors.

Sixty miles north of New York City, Beacon prohibits any type of pinball or video arcade, even the vintage kind from the '50s and '60s. Fred Bobrow is the owner of Retro Arcade Museum. Eighteen months after opening his doors, he says he was ordered to shut them.

"It turns out that they were able to prevent me from operating by enforcing an arcane law that bans pinballs in the town of in the towns of Beacon. Pinball arcades. And the fine is a thousand dollars a day or jail," Bobrow explained.

.....

"Arcades in the '70s may have represented something, you know, maybe, that a community wouldn't want on their main street, or that it would attract a bad, you know, kids or whatever," said George Mansfield, Beacon, N.Y. City Council.

.....

"Uh, the legislative process really does take its time and council's really looked very closely at all of the letters of the law, and look ahead to the future. It's a process that usually can't be done very quickly because we want to do it right, rather than do it right away," said Steve Gold, Beacon mayor.

.....


What I found on the Beacon Citizen:

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.​

Drove by this morning. He is gone. Place is empty. Steve could you explain this noise law better. I thought the Arcade closed at 9 pm. I thought there was a cut off for noise at 10pm.

Btw, i have put up with constant drug dealing next door to my house for years as have a lot of residents. And my complaints amounted to nothing being done. I don't expect the city council to spend time protecting someone from some pinging noise. There are more important quality of life issues. The city and the police need to their priorities straight.​

CNN did make Beacon look pretty bad, seeing as how the business had been closed for quite some time while the local politicians were providing lip service by "looking into the issue." But I'm not sure what spin the politicians could put on it now if it's true that the museum has gone out of business. What I want to know is who specifically dusted off this law to enforce.
​

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It doesn't sound like they necessarily needed to dust off an old law, it was just easier than trying to enforce something as subjective and arbitrary as a noise ordinance. The place might have been noisy without being quite noisy enough to trip the ordinance.

I don't see how the noise would be an insurmountable issue, though. Can't you install soundproofing material or something? I realize pinball machines can be pretty noisy but it shouldn't be that hard to insulate and block the noise.

Other than the noise factor, it seems like a pretty ridiculous thing to enforce.

 

[trekkiedane]

"Arcades in the '70s may have represented something, you know, maybe, that a community wouldn't want on their main street, or that it would attract a bad, you know, kids or whatever," said George Mansfield, Beacon, N.Y. City Council.

Is that even English?

 

[RJDiogenes]

There's trouble in Beacon City, with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pinball.

 

[scotpens]

Won't let the kids play pinball, eh? This looks like a job for . . . Pinball Wizard!

 

[StarshipDefiant]

This sounds pretty messed up, some old, archaic law gets a business, in this day and age, shut down, but the drug dealers keep on dealing...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You mean there's still rinky-dink little burgs that are so stuck in the past that they don't let people play PINBALL? The Taliban would be laughing their asses off at this.

 

[Sephiroth]

in 7 days I shall appear over Beacon, NY, and it will be as if a great hand came down from the sky and plucked it's residents from this planet

 

[SmoothieX]

If it wasn't for Beacon, how would you get to Newburgh?