Noise pollution & local government

October 30, 2005 3:55 PM

Where in my local government (U.S.) should I be applying pressure to enforce noise ordinance laws?

I live in a town of 20,000 and the noise, specifically from car stereos seems to be out of control. A little noise, I don't mind, but what I'm hearing in my house, esp. on weekends and in the evening, is a near-constant barrage of vague distant bass from unseen car stereos around the area neighborhood, punctuated by "superblasters" thundering down the street. Since you can't really call the cops on any one person, it seem to me that the lackadaisical enforcement is the problem. I hear it at the traffic intersections all the time. The cops seem to not care.

Unfortunately I'm not sure where in the local government hierarchy I need to be applying pressure. I tried writing the mayor... we had a great conversation over the phone and she expressed to me her annoyance with it too, but said that the city manager oversaw the police department and she'd talk to him about it but couldn't promise anything.

I figure I'd try at least one other "pressure point" in our local government, and if that doesn't work, I'd write a letter to the editor with an encouraging letter to readers letting them know the ordinances and they don't have to stand for it. I figure the complaints would rack up and might cause changes from the bottom up. The local paper is widely read, especially by older folks, and is good about printing letters, so I know this would work to some extent.

I'm in my 30s and hate to be an old geezer, but I work from home and it sucks having stuff like this break my concentration. Again, the little noise doesn't bother me -- it's the window rattling that is definitely not cool.

posted by rolypolyman to law & government (15 comments total)

Call the bylaw enforcement officer for your town every time you have a complaint. Include all relevant details, including time, license plate, car description, driver, etc.

If you town doesn't have a bylaw enforcement officer (or calling gets you nowhere), call the police and make a complaint there.

You might want to check your noise ordinance to make sure these people are actually violating a bylaw. And you can Google for examples of noise so that you can compare the stereos to other decibels. (I used one of these sites to emphasize to my officer that a power generator was making more noise than a leafblower.)

I also work from home and have made many complaints to City Hall over the years. They usually respond, although noise is always a tricky issue.
posted by acoutu at 4:02 PM on October 30, 2005

I guess I didn't make myself clear:
- It's not one or two people but it's dozens. It's all over the town. IMHO everyone with a stereo seems to assume they have carte blanche to crank it up... and they probably do from what I can tell.
- I can't get license plates for drive-bys as it all happens in the space of 30 seconds.
posted by rolypolyman at 4:27 PM on October 30, 2005

Look it up, see what the laws say. You might have to push for a bylaw to be passed.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 4:43 PM on October 30, 2005

Perhaps you could advertise a meeting in your paper of people in your community with similar concerns? From there, you could gather ideas from these people that are specific to your community and more likely to work.
posted by odinsdream at 4:45 PM on October 30, 2005

You may think the mayor was being nice, but she was actually giving you the total brush-off. The City Manager works for the Mayor and the City Council, and on quality of life matters the City Manager will hop to it and do what he's told.

Find another City Councilmember to complain to, one who supports the middle class and not the degenerates.
posted by MattD at 4:58 PM on October 30, 2005

I may not understand this. Is there a reason you haven't called your P.D.? I live in a very urban area and our Police are pretty awesome about dealing with like issues. I can't understand why it would be difficult to enforce in your community.

Call your Cops and apprise them of the situation.
posted by snsranch at 5:32 PM on October 30, 2005

Thanks.

(1) There is an ordinance here on car stereos audible more than 30 ft away. It's just not enforced.

(2) Again, regarding the P.D. issue, any boomcar is 1000 ft down the street by the time I'm even in a position to read any license plates. How am I supposed to complain about that? They want stationary targets, like a house number. The idea is to put the responsibility on officers who happen to pass by a boom car, not on me.

(3) MattD - thanks, I this fuels my suspicions that I did get a brushoff... or maybe the mayor has no backbone. BUT she was really good about calling... she called me the week after to make sure I got her message and to tell me she had talked to the city manager (though of course not with my intended results).
posted by rolypolyman at 5:56 PM on October 30, 2005

The scourge of our time.

No answer, just a comment: I remember one of the early, ominous moves of the Reagan administration was to reject any and all efforts at limiting noise pollution. (Although I have heard of certain PDs cracking down on this, but it's easy to imagine enforcement getting a real low priority.)
posted by Rash at 6:40 PM on October 30, 2005

You don't need a license plate to complain about any particular pattern of behavior on the street -- you just need to complain regularly about the behavior. The police might then station someone to catch one particular scofflaw -- as they would for any other pattern of moving violations (consider a street where residents might complain of habitual speeding by passing vehicles).

But say they ticket one car -- then what? Will word get around? Will there be a net effect?

I have great sympathy for your problem but short of signs on the street or edge of town noting that a noise ordinance is actively enforced, what can one really do? Even then will anyone turn down a stereo if they see the sign? Will weekend motorcyclists re-tune their exhausts to not rumble your gut? Will leaf blowers be banished? Speeding can be controlled to some degree by changes in the physical structure of a road -- but noise?
posted by Dick Paris at 2:38 AM on October 31, 2005

I feel your pain, rolypolyman. My only consolation is that many of that damned youngsters are doing irreparable damage to their hearing.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 5:40 AM on October 31, 2005

(consider a street where residents might complain of habitual speeding by passing vehicles).

I know my parents complained to the police about this kind of generic thing, and they sent a cruiser out for a week or so. So it does work.
posted by smackfu at 6:45 AM on October 31, 2005

Not sure why local governments aren't willing to deal with this. It seems that the revenue from fines - fines which should increase with each infraction - would be quite welcome in this tight-budget era. Maybe they think 'kids' don't have money to pay fines? (Yet, they have the money to build rolling superblasters...)
posted by sageleaf at 7:21 AM on October 31, 2005

Complain, complain, complain. The more you complain, the more likely the police will do something. Call the cops. Call the mayor again .. and again .. and again.

If you can get your neighbors to do it, that will help too.
posted by lester at 7:39 AM on October 31, 2005

they sent a cruiser out for a week or so. So it does work.

For a week or so.
And Dick Paris, concerning those loathsome leaf blowers -- here in California certain über-rich enclaves like Beverly Hills and Palo Alto have managed to ban them, but the hue and cry from the workers whose livelihoods supposedly depend on the infernal devices is incredible. They have to back to using rakes -- an outrage!
posted by Rash at 10:22 AM on October 31, 2005

And brooms! Oh, the humanity!
posted by Dick Paris at 2:53 PM on October 31, 2005