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Not soon enough, and even though I'm a parent frankly it's for my own sanity as much as for that of my kids. I have no sympathy, in fact negative sympathy shad

Not soon enough, and even though I'm a parent frankly it's for my own sanity as much as for that of my kids. I have no sympathy, in fact negative sympathy shading into election year issue territory, for the small but growing minority who feel entitled to make all us living in a quarter mile radius of their incredibly irrelevant presense get rudely disrupted by their deliberately obnoxious ear-splitting noise machine, _inside our own homes_ when trying to take a nap, have a conversation, read a story or do anything at a normal indoor volume. Why is society decided to accept this Behavior in a way that they would never accept, say, someone marching down the street tossing firecrackers into the air at all hours of the day? The answer is simply that it's too impractical to catch and penalize people who get a petty sadistic power thrill out of their consequence-free enshittification the ambient public space. I welcome the growing use of noise maps as evaluation layers in the real estate and rental markets, only by putting hard numbers on the degradation of value that this causes, particularly for homeowners, will any measures with actual teeth be implemented to push back on it.

stctw 2y ago
I am with you 100%. Imagine, if you would, that you lived in an apartment, and that you spent $2,000 on a stereo system, and that you turned up the volume so high that people in vehicles, driving by on the nearby street, could feel the sound waves inside their vehicles from a quarter-mile away. What would happen if you did that? Well, obviously, someone would call the police, and they would bang on your door, and they would warn or cite you, and you'd have to pay a fine or appear in court. On top of that, you'd probably get an angry call from your landlord, and if you ever did it again, you'd probably be evicted. It would be absurdly anti-social behavior that's prohibited by existing laws and ordinances. But, somehow, as you said, society tolerates the very same behavior when the source is inside a vehicle rolling around on wheels. And yet, if you think about it, as that vehicles rolls from one end of town to another, down busy streets, past residences and businesses and hospitals, the number of people needlessly antagonized and harmed by the noise must number in the thousands each day. "But it's only for a few seconds," the other side will say. And yet it happens over, and over, and over again, tens of times a day, day after day, waking people up too early in the morning, disturbing them while they live and work at home, and keeping them up at night. And the purpose of this noise? Is it a necessary by-product of the vehicle's natural purpose? Of course not. The purpose is solely, completely, 100%, and only, self-aggrandizement of the operator; to intentionally antagonize innocent strangers who can't even be seen by the antagonist. If anyone doubts this, one should look at a few advertisements offering these audio systems for sale. "DISTURB YOUR NEIGHBORS" is a common theme, even an explicit one. The noise is entirely artificial, with no reasonable, ethical, or moral purpose. To derive pleasure from the mere intuition that someone, somewhere is being antagonized by one's own actions is surely a sociopathic, anti-social, anti-societal behavior. We hear the cries to legalize some drugs because "they don't harm anyone but the user," but where are the cries to de-legalize this widely harmful behavior? Well, FWIW, I've been told by local cops that the behavior is already illegal in my area, but when they've cited offenders, their cases have been dismissed by local judges, so now they don't bother. Why? Who knows, but when I consider the local businesses that sell these stereo systems, I can only imagine their reaction to a campaign to "lower the boom" by ticketing offenders, and I wonder what influence they may have on local government. Put that together with increased violence in general, and the increased risk of a confrontation at any traffic stop, and I can imagine that cops consider carefully whether to initiate one for various behaviors. And we hear these cries to make people live closer together, in smaller dwellings. No, I want to be further apart, with more buffer. I am very careful not to impose my by-products on my neighbors, but not all of them are so considerate. /rant (I so rarely see like-minded people talking about this issue)
- nnf 2y ago
  I share your philosophy of wanting more of a buffer between my neighbors and me, and I'm also conscious of trying not to disturb them unnecessarily (mowing too early or too late, using a gas leaf blower when I could use an electric one, etc.). I'm lucky that my neighbors seem to appreciate the quite too, and I wish this kind of mutual respect for each other was more common.
davemp 2y ago
> The answer is simply that it's too impractical to catch and penalize people who get a petty sadistic power thrill out of their consequence-free enshittification the ambient public space. I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to hook up a phased array microphone / camera and require inspection for cars that trigger it. Gathering the political will otoh…

stctw 2y ago

I am with you 100%. Imagine, if you would, that you lived in an apartment, and that you spent $2,000 on a stereo system, and that you turned up the volume so high that people in vehicles, driving by on the nearby street, could feel the sound waves inside their vehicles from a quarter-mile away. What would happen if you did that? Well, obviously, someone would call the police, and they would bang on your door, and they would warn or cite you, and you'd have to pay a fine or appear in court. On top of that, you'd probably get an angry call from your landlord, and if you ever did it again, you'd probably be evicted. It would be absurdly anti-social behavior that's prohibited by existing laws and ordinances. But, somehow, as you said, society tolerates the very same behavior when the source is inside a vehicle rolling around on wheels. And yet, if you think about it, as that vehicles rolls from one end of town to another, down busy streets, past residences and businesses and hospitals, the number of people needlessly antagonized and harmed by the noise must number in the thousands each day. "But it's only for a few seconds," the other side will say. And yet it happens over, and over, and over again, tens of times a day, day after day, waking people up too early in the morning, disturbing them while they live and work at home, and keeping them up at night. And the purpose of this noise? Is it a necessary by-product of the vehicle's natural purpose? Of course not. The purpose is solely, completely, 100%, and only, self-aggrandizement of the operator; to intentionally antagonize innocent strangers who can't even be seen by the antagonist. If anyone doubts this, one should look at a few advertisements offering these audio systems for sale. "DISTURB YOUR NEIGHBORS" is a common theme, even an explicit one. The noise is entirely artificial, with no reasonable, ethical, or moral purpose. To derive pleasure from the mere intuition that someone, somewhere is being antagonized by one's own actions is surely a sociopathic, anti-social, anti-societal behavior. We hear the cries to legalize some drugs because "they don't harm anyone but the user," but where are the cries to de-legalize this widely harmful behavior? Well, FWIW, I've been told by local cops that the behavior is already illegal in my area, but when they've cited offenders, their cases have been dismissed by local judges, so now they don't bother. Why? Who knows, but when I consider the local businesses that sell these stereo systems, I can only imagine their reaction to a campaign to "lower the boom" by ticketing offenders, and I wonder what influence they may have on local government. Put that together with increased violence in general, and the increased risk of a confrontation at any traffic stop, and I can imagine that cops consider carefully whether to initiate one for various behaviors. And we hear these cries to make people live closer together, in smaller dwellings. No, I want to be further apart, with more buffer. I am very careful not to impose my by-products on my neighbors, but not all of them are so considerate. /rant (I so rarely see like-minded people talking about this issue)

nnf 2y ago
I share your philosophy of wanting more of a buffer between my neighbors and me, and I'm also conscious of trying not to disturb them unnecessarily (mowing too early or too late, using a gas leaf blower when I could use an electric one, etc.). I'm lucky that my neighbors seem to appreciate the quite too, and I wish this kind of mutual respect for each other was more common.

davemp 2y ago

> The answer is simply that it's too impractical to catch and penalize people who get a petty sadistic power thrill out of their consequence-free enshittification the ambient public space. I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to hook up a phased array microphone / camera and require inspection for cars that trigger it. Gathering the political will otoh…