Last month, Ted Leonsis reached a handshake agreement with Virginia officials to move the Capitals and Wizards teams downtown Washington to Potomac Yard. If the deal goes through, the teams’ majority owner will get a new arena in a “world-class Entertainment District,” offices for his Monumental Sports & Entertainment and other goodies. He’d also get another perk often sought by folks who exit the District: a little peace and quiet.

For the past several years, Leonsis and his associates have been tormented by a sidewalk show at the mouth of Gallery Place Alley off 7th Street NW, alongside Capital One Arena. People who’ve frequented this bustling zone are familiar with the act, which consists of a man named David Halmon queuing up beats and singing along with his sidekicks, two boys who front the operation. All of this happens at earsplitting volume, courtesy of a pair of loudspeakers and an amplifier. The noise radiates into local homes, businesses and offices, including Monumental’s.

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Monica Dixon, president of external affairs and chief administrative officer for Monumental, says the noise “never factored” into Monumental’s decision to explore a move to Virginia. But the conflict with Halmon’s act has earned mention in the coverage of Leonsis’s possible move, with The Post reporting that he was “particularly bothered by buskers, who played loud music outside his office.” Monumental’s objections are focused solely on Halmon’s performances, the company says, and are shared by neighbors, including residents of a condo building and a Clyde’s restaurant on the alley.

Tight quarters lend themselves to noise disputes. In 2019, for instance, complaints about the go-go beats blaring from an electronics store in Shaw ignited a successful counterprotest from #DontMuteDC, a group that sprang up to preserve the city’s go-go heritage. And as The Post has documented, street performers around Gallery Place, where the arena has anchored the neighborhood since 1997, have generated complaints from residents for years.

But what the Leonsis case shows is how much the city’s approach to noise issues leaves residents to fight things out among themselves, essentially abdicating the responsibility to referee disputes among squabbling parties in a mixed-use neighborhood. Here, one act so dominates public space — in a way that frustrates local business owners and residents — that it merits inclusion in deliberations over the future of downtown. “Despite all of the common understanding of the harm it’s doing, the city has not been able to put any restriction whatsoever or compromise whatsoever on the musical performance of these individuals. They are holding this corner hostage,” says John McDonnell, president of Clyde’s Restaurant Group.

All the havoc has an adorable public face: Eleven-year-old J-Money, to use his stage name, has been rapping and singing for passersby on big nights for seven years, according to Halmon, who heads up the act. On a recent night, J-Money declined to give me his legal name, but he has appeared on local news since he was as young as 6.

On big nights around Capital One Arena, J-Money and his group perform for hours. “The kid is very talented, and he can just go all day, all night,” says Kelvin Nwosu, former general manager of Clyde’s. The throngs respond by assembling in half-moon formations and taking video of the performances. A good number dig into their wallets and drop bills into the group’s white tip bucket.

The thing about those charmed fans, however, is that they eventually retire to their presumably more placid roosts elsewhere in D.C., the suburbs or beyond. Others hear the Halmon crew on repeat mode. Howard Marks, who lives in a condo building on 7th Street, says he paid more than $6,000 to soundproof his unit. Before taking that step, he says, “we could hardly watch TV or could hardly talk to each other without raising our voices.” Clyde’s management says it can’t use portions of its dining area on certain nights and that patrons on numerous occasions have asked for discounted meals because of the din. A Monumental official........

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