How to stop listenin to a street musician?

July 25, 2006 5:12 PM

How can I stop listening to an annoying street musician?

I work 12 stories up in an office building above one of San Francisco's noisiest intersections. Even though my office is 12 stories about the ground, several days a week, a street musician-across the street-plays his trumpet so that I can hear every note of every cheesy melody he plays for passerby. Even with the blinds down and a fan on, I still hear him. Is there any way to get him to move elsewhere, at least some of the time? How can I file a complaint against him? Is there any permit needed to perform street music in SF? His playing is irritating all 4 people in this office. I'm sick of him interrupting my work on a regular basis.

posted by pantufla to society & culture (22 comments total)

Buy him a trumpet mute, give it to him with pointed remarks about using it. All the time.
posted by paulsc at 5:22 PM on July 25, 2006

I used to just call the cops on this shitty, shitty saxophone-player who'd wail incompetently on State street in Madison, Wisconsin. They'd come and make the person go away. Just call and say "I'd like to make a noise complaint". It's pretty easy.
posted by interrobang at 5:25 PM on July 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

I looked on the SF Gov site to see if there was a permit process. Couldn't find one (although I was looking quickly).

I did find this diatribe, so it appears that there has been police action on street performers. The last bit of the diatribe:

"As street performers, we have routinely been issued dozens of tickets in the past year, which are routinely dismissed . The issuance of “Harassment tickets” by the SFPD forces the performers to appear 3 separate times at 850 Bryant Street only to have each ticket dismissed. We have attended numerous meetings and discussions with the San Francisco Police, The Permit Bureau of the SFPD. The Port Authority, the Planning Department, the Street Artist Program, the Arts Commission, and members of the Mayor’s office.

"Our goal is a simple one. We want to decriminalize playing music and selling CD's on the streets of San Francisco. Most people agree everyone wins when we perform: Merchants, tourists, locals and most important The City of San Francisco. We'd love to turn this website into a celebration of our achieving this goal instead of a chronicle of our failure to do so."
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 5:30 PM on July 25, 2006

Buy him a trumpet mute, give it to him with pointed remarks about using it.

Or just give him a copy of The Crying of Lot 49 and hope he's really clever.

But if you can't make any progress with the performer himself, maybe some noise-cancelling headphones?
posted by staggernation at 5:37 PM on July 25, 2006

Think you can hit him with an egg or a rotten tomato? That's the traditional remedy if the cops aren't interested.
posted by klangklangston at 6:06 PM on July 25, 2006

Or you could always try talking to him...
posted by klangklangston at 6:06 PM on July 25, 2006

Definitely call the cops and file a noise complaint.
posted by cellphone at 6:20 PM on July 25, 2006

Noise complaints to the police go a long way, at least here in Asheville. Even if they have a permit to perform, they have to abide by noise laws if someone complains.
posted by willc at 8:20 PM on July 25, 2006

Politely ask him to move?

It's SF, so I'd imagine there are plenty of those guys, so you'll probably just have to get used to it. I'd also bet the police have better things to do.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 8:27 PM on July 25, 2006

Which intersection are you talking about? I used to work near the Embarcadero and would frequently see street musicians, but we never heard them 12 stories up. You're going to be fighting an uphill battle.

I'd start with talking to the guy and explaining your situation. Ask him if he'd be willing to try out another block. It might work to your favor. It seems that if the cops shoo them away, they return as an "in your face" to the SFPD.

There's that, and then the fact that a lot of people in the area might like the music. :) I used to think that some of the guys in the Embarcadero BART station were pretty decent musicians.
posted by drstein at 8:32 PM on July 25, 2006

Interrobang: "I used to just call the cops on this shitty, shitty saxophone-player who'd wail incompetently on State street in Madison, Wisconsin. They'd come and make the person go away."

Tom Ryan, the orange-clad piccolo player on State Street, actually went to court (and won) over his right to play on the same street, after a police officer tried to make him stop.
"Ryan was found not guilty of violating Madison’s noise ordinance that states unreasonably loud noise is prohibited for his public piccolo playing."
You'll still find him playing the same three songs on the corner of State and Lake every afternoon. (I think it adds to the atmosphere, but then again, I don't have to hear it every day. I think some of the food vendors on the street are especially fed up with him.)
posted by imposster at 8:45 PM on July 25, 2006

Yeah, I remember him, imposster. Luckily, he was always down on Library Mall, so I didn't have to hear him while I was working. I lived at State and Lake for a couple of years, but for some reason, I could never hear him from inside my apartment.

Also, you could always lie, pantufla. You don't call the cops and tell them that there's a baby crying really loud next door, and it's driving you nuts. You call them and say that the people next door are killing a baby.
posted by interrobang at 8:49 PM on July 25, 2006

"Hello Police? There's a man killing a saxophone at 3rd and Market!" :) I'm at 3rd & Market. Well today we took 2 approaches. First, I called the police, who said they'd check it out. However, they didn't show up. Then, my boss went down and asked him to move on and gave him $10 for his trouble. And he left. Ah, sweet quiet. For now. Thanks for all your comments.
posted by pantufla at 9:01 PM on July 25, 2006

No, I meant: "Hello, Police? There's a man playing the trumpet and muttering obscenities as passersby at 3rd and Market".

Anyway, congratulations.
posted by interrobang at 9:05 PM on July 25, 2006

There was something in the Ethicist in the New York Times about a year and a half ago dealing with a busker with a shitty voice who had been bribed by a business to keep away from their store and was now demanding a similar bribe from the place he was now annoying. Randy Cohen's advice was to tell the police about the extortion.
posted by brujita at 9:51 PM on July 25, 2006

"...maybe some noise-cancelling headphones?"

FWIW, those will be totally useless in this scenario. Noise cancelling headphones block out background nose -- the humming, whirring, buzzing, and murmuring that fills every moment whether you realize it or not -- which allows things like conversation and wind instruments to be heard more easily.

So, really, they'd just make the problem worse by un-doing all his attempts at drowning the guy out with white noise.
posted by CrayDrygu at 9:58 PM on July 25, 2006

I have found that a combination of earplugs and noise-canceling headphones work well to drown out a lot of sounds, including "smaller" ones.
posted by anjamu at 10:54 PM on July 25, 2006

I was going to recommend bribery, and I see that worked for you. I think the poor vendors on Library Mall should have tried that with Tom Ryan first, instead of pressing the noise complaint. 5 vendors paying $5 a piece would have solved the problem. He's still there while a couple of the vendors have packed up and moved elsewhere for lunch.
posted by Floydd at 6:43 AM on July 26, 2006

Water bombs? (Fire hose every now and then?)
posted by DrtyBlvd at 7:17 AM on July 26, 2006

Interrobang: I used to just call the cops on this shitty, shitty saxophone-player who'd wail incompetently on State street in Madison, Wisconsin.
I HEART YOU.
posted by mimi at 8:25 AM on July 26, 2006

Water bombs? (Fire hose every now and then?)

Yeah, really -- being on the 12th floor, you're perfectly positioned for this (but since you're at work, I'm guessing you can't open the window). I'm reminded of an anecdote in one of Jerzy Kosinkski's books, either Cockpit or Blind Date -- from the balcony of his Manhattan high-rise, he'd use a garden hose to direct short bursts up, out and over the intersection below. With practice he developed the ability to hit anything, and the delay was such, none of his victims could determine the source.
posted by Rash at 9:30 AM on July 26, 2006

Kosinkski Kosinski
(sorry, Jerzy)
posted by Rash at 9:31 AM on July 26, 2006