NEIGHBORS OF
TRACE BREWING

Hello! We are an organized group of community members and neighbors who all live within a couple of blocks of Trace Brewing in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh! We’re overall supportive of Trace, excited about the diversity of events and audiences Trace brings to Bloomfield, and encourage folks to continue to frequent Trace events.

Many of us attend Trace events, however we want the public to know about a couple of our community concerns, and about Trace’s consistent lack of engagement with their neighbors.

We believe that if “Trace was built to be a part of the Bloomfield neighborhood”, then they are responsible for listening to, responding to, and respecting our families’ quality of life!

The Main Issue: Consistent, loud outdoor courtyard events
that affect neighbors’ quality of life.

BACKGROUND:

• Before they opened, Trace management attended a community meeting in 2019 to make agreements about their operations with their neighbors.
• At the meeting they promised the community that their new outdoor patio would only be for seating and that there would be NO outdoor amplification in their outdoor courtyard (read 2019 community meeting notes here).
• But, Trace broke our trust when they opened, and quickly began holding regular loud outdoor amplified events that many neighbors can hear inside our homes, often even with our windows closed!

COMMUNITY ACTION:

Neighbors (many of whom are Trace customers) tried to work with Trace management for over 2 years to address this issue, only to be gaslit and misdirected. In September 2023, nearly 50 households in Trace’s immediate community signed a letter asking them to respect our quality of life by moving amplified events from the outdoor courtyard to inside the brewery, and to keep the windows and garage door closed to contain sound.

We felt it was a simple request, but unfortunately since Trace received the letter they have not responded to neighbors or made any substantial changes to their outdoor courtyard events.

For context, the dedicated music and event venue which existed for years in Trace’s current building, The Shop, honored this exact arrangement with the neighborhood. The Shop valued neighbors' quality of life and shifted their operations to accommodate neighbors' request so that everyone in our community could feel comfortable at home. Kids have nap schedules, people have migraines, anxiety, ptsd, sound sensitivity, and other disabilities that are exacerbated by outdoor amplified events. Holding the events indoors was a simple solution for both respecting neighbors' daily lives and creating a welcoming space for people choosing to attend their events!

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

We hope you will join in by continuing to support Trace Brewing while also supporting us — the neighbors who live next to them!

It’s city life: we get that, and many of us have lived in Bloomfield for years, so we know what to expect from our neighbors. But a local brewery and an outdoor event venue are two very different businesses for the families living nearby. Thankfully, our requests are really simple!

• If you host an event at Trace and you plan to have amplified sound, please respect neighborhood consent: Ask Trace to keep the speakers and sound equipment indoors, and ask management to keep the windows and alleyside garage door closed during the event.
• If you're at an event at Trace, and feel comfortable doing so, please tell staff and management that you support holding events inside the brewery with the windows closed out of respect for their neighbors.
• If you have a friend who hosts events or DJs at Trace, please share this outreach letter with them!
• Parking a car in our neighborhood is difficult, we get it! When attending large Trace events, please consider parking in the metered commercial areas rather than residential streets whenever possible. Please note that the majority of Clement Way is a No Parking zone, and parking along the buildings on Clement restricts access to many neighbors’ home driveways.

That's it!

Our neighborhood is diverse and many of us remain excited and encouraged by the inclusive community events that Trace is open to hosting. We also believe that a popular brewery which claims to be a “neighborhood bar” and “community space” should do the work to address the problems they’ve created for the residential neighborhood that has otherwise welcomed them!