Noise

I know I’m not alone in this. Noise is ugly and intrusive. Clashing, banging, or booming, most of it is unwanted. Worse, it is unexpected. Surprising and utterly discombobulating.

I know there are noise ordinances in local areas. Municipalities have heralded such for decades. Loud and disturbing noise is simply not legal. In hospital and school areas, especially. Over the years, it was illegal to allow your car to drive with a bad muffler. Now it seems manufacturers are building in noise, rumbles and roars of exhaust systems to simulate or magnify horsepower and sexy, macho cars. It is a form of macho announcement that the driver has a manhood of delight. See me, hear me, sleep with me. Really?

And then there are the motorcycles roaring at all times and places. Drivers evidently think their noise is proof of their manliness and sex appeal. Again, really? Must noise be proof of such nonsense?

Then again, where are the police in such happenings? Don’t they respect their own laws enough to enforce them? If they say they are unaware of such violations, come sit in front of my condo building. By the way, it is across the railway tracks from your headquarters. Surely you can hear the noise from your own building.

And if it is police policy not to uphold the noise ordinances, why not remove the ordinances entirely?

There is a reason why uncontrolled and uncomfortable noise is illegal. It is upsetting, interrupts activity and concentration, disturbs sleep, and covers sounds of conversations, sound systems and other electronics. If those sounds are legal and preferred, why then is loud noise allowed, even when it is legislated as illegal?

If there is a law, enforce it. If unenforced, remove the specific law.

Makes sense to me. Meanwhile I will continue to grit my teeth and close my windows and doors. Fresh air isn’t everything. Quiet is. [My community is West Chicago, Illinois]

December 13, 2024

 

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