4 ms·

Day laborers protest noise machines installed at Home Depot

65 points by geox 11mo ago

goda90 11mo ago
Two times this week I biked past a parked car and it emitted a horrible high pitched buzzing at me. I'm guessing it's supposed to be an anti-theft mechanism(entirely unnecessary in a Midwest suburb). I of course had no intention of stealing the car, but the noise triggers a desire to do other things to the car. I guess the owner is lucky I'm not an angsty teenager. There's so much unnecessary noise pollution in our society, it makes me really sad.
- Animats 11mo ago
  I've noticed that car alarms that go off for no good reason seem to be back. Those used to be a thing, but they'd mostly disappeared. But I keep hearing them in parking lots, with nobody anywhere near the car. At least they shut off after a while. That was legislated back in the 1980s.
  - Zancarius 11mo ago
    Sometimes it can be a genuine mistake. I was in my garage with my keys in my back pocket, checking the tire pressure on my truck, when it started honking at me. My butt triggered the panic button. I have acute hearing. That was painful and hardly deliberate!
  - kamaal 11mo ago
    >>I've noticed that car alarms that go off for no good reason seem to be back. So in the 2000s, this was fairly common in India. Then one day a installation mechanic told me the sensor had various calibration settings. You could get the trigger to be as sensitive as you wanted. At times a rodent or a crow could trigger the alarm.
- culi 11mo ago
  Not sure if it's the same thing but many stores will put noise emitting machines in their parking lots to make it hostile for people who wanna sleep in their cars there Once you first notice it you'll realize these machines are kinda everywhere
charcircuit 11mo ago
>The noise is in earshot of IDEPSCA’s day laborer center I find it misleading to add this line in the article without mentioning if the decibels exceed the applicable noise ordinances, or situation this is just people on HD's property complaining about the noise they are making on their own property. In that case people are free not to visit.
- tremon 11mo ago
  So if it's below the legal limit, people are not allowed to protest and/or complain about it?
  - charcircuit 11mo ago
    It's their property so they should be able to do what they want with it. Stopping people from complaining is impossible. If you were to smash an iPhone someone would complain about how you wasted it or something, but ultimately it's up to the owner on how they want to handle their property.
    - JKCalhoun 11mo ago
      I agree and believe we should boycott a company if we object to the choices they make with their property.
- Hizonner 11mo ago
  > In that case people are free not to visit. That sounds like an excellent plan. It's nice to find an article containing information that lets one make that decision, eh? The free market in action.
  - charcircuit 11mo ago
    Yes, the free market will help decide the optimal volume to avoid bothering legitimate customers.
JKCalhoun 11mo ago
Yeah, well I won't be going to Home Despot any longer. I'd love to know the tech (and company) that provided the devices.
- nikkwong 11mo ago
  What should Home Depot be doing? They don’t control the administration or the ICE raids. Forcing day laborers off the property ensures less raids happen on the property—I haven’t really understood the boycotts.
  - mylifeandtimes 11mo ago
    They don't have to set up Flock cameras and share the data with people who plan the ICE raids. Home Depot's hands aren't totally clean here.
    - nostrebored 11mo ago
      Why not? It is really no different than having drug dealers set up shop on your corner and sharing footage with police. You have people who are likely committing criminal activity (multiple crimes in the day laborer case) and are sharing footage with the relevant authorities. The politicization of enforcement doesn’t change that as a business owner I would not want to own the location people facilitate illegal transactions.
      - aftbit 11mo ago
        I always thought having day laborers chilling in Home Depot parking lots was a net positive thing for the store and a bit of an untapped potential. Companies pay a lot of money to insert themselves in the hiring stream, and here is Home Depot as the defacto meeting point for a substantial amount of economic activity. Surely a more intelligent and less frightened company could make something positive out of this. But that's what you get with a fear-based political leadership. ICE targets day laborers not because of the horrible damage they do to the US economy, but because they have been selected as the scapegoats du jour.
untech 11mo ago
I am confused about the situation. Can someone with more context please explain? Is HomeDepot forcing their own workers off the parking lot? Or are there some other workers there? What do they do on a parking lot? Are they in cars or on foot? Why do they stay on the parking lot the whole day, if they are not HomeDepot employees?
- SoftTalker 11mo ago
  They are "day laborers." People who hang around there hoping to find work helping with your home repairs, painting, appliance installation, landscaping, or other projects etc.
  - untech 11mo ago
    Huh, and that works? Sounds a bit… old-fashioned? I’d think people are looking for these services online or in some gig work app. Interesting. Sounds unpleasant both for workers that have to hang around on the street, and customers that are approached (at least that’s how I imagine it) by people offering services even when they don’t need it. (Or do customers approach workers themselves?) From the outside, sounds weird. I wonder what in the US caused it.
    - lalaland1125 11mo ago
      > wonder what in the US caused it Lots of illegal immigrants desperate for work
    - weberer 11mo ago
      >I’d think people are looking for these services online or in some gig work app. Then you'd need to prove your identity and pay taxes on what you earn. This is for illegal immigrants working under the table.
      - SoftTalker 11mo ago
        It's also only in some areas. None of the big home improvement centers where I live have anyone hanging around looking for work.
blell 11mo ago
[flagged]
- AlotOfReading 11mo ago
  Home Depot isn't democratically elected, but you should sign up for survivor if you want to vote people out. Functioning democracies don't work that way.
  - blell 11mo ago
    Immigration policy is one of the most important things that are voted on in functioning democracies.
  - vorpalhex 11mo ago
    All societies eject people who enter illegally. Go cross illegally into Mexico and you can experience this.
    - AlotOfReading 11mo ago
      The mundane activity of voting on rules to outline a formal legal process isn't what I'm talking about. What I'm rejecting is the idea in the parent comment that democracies can vote directly on expelling entire classes of people. There's a long history of such political expulsions and none of them are periods to look back on fondly. The expulsion of Germans from the Sudetenland killed tens of thousands, and the expulsions of native americans speak for themselves, as does the legacy of operation wetback. And for what it's worth, I've had the distinct pleasure of being interrogated by the Mexican military at gunpoint while hiking because they thought I was a coyote. I've also been held in the small rooms on the US side. I'm extremely familiar with both sides of that particular border.
      - vorpalhex 11mo ago
        It's very clear there is a large contingent of people who are here illegally. That isn't exclusively Central/South Americans, but they make up a very large portion. You can't say "Well enforcing the rules doesn't impact everyone equally so you can't enforce them!" If you entered illegally, you need to be sent home. End of logic. Any other variation allows the system to be gamed trivially. Most of the people who have entered illegally did so because they are prohibited - due to criminal record - for entering legally. They also harm the legal immigrants in their community too. You can not allow asylum cases and also permit the criminals who created those conditions those legal immigrants fled. You are damning everyone when you do.
randycupertino 11mo ago
https://archive.ph/g16NX https://archive.ph/g16NX
drivebyhooting 11mo ago
I hired day laborers loitering outside HD before and got scammed.
- mothballed 11mo ago
  This is why I don't hire them. I have nothing against their business model, but I'd expect I'd be the guy who gets unlucky and an illegal "gets hurt" (on purpose) then the court actually awards them a gazillion dollars when they claim I'm the evil unregulated employer smashing down the poor man with my lack of liability insurance and whatever long list of other things you need to hand someone else a dollar for a job.
spqr212 11mo ago
I've been battling noise at the workplace and in my neighborhood for decades. Some useful resources: Noise Pollution Clearinghouse - https://nonoise.org/ https://nonoise.org/ Acoustilog Incorporated - https://acoustilog.com/ https://acoustilog.com/ Of special note are the legal caveats one must consider to prevail in a lawsuit. (https://acoustilog.com/daniel.html https://acoustilog.com/daniel.html) Consistent documentation is key. Maine Code of Rules - Control of Noise https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/maine/06-096-C-M-R-ch-375-SS-10 https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/maine/06-096-C-M-R-c... Note document search terms "tonal" and "one-third octave".
altairprime 11mo ago
Someone installed one of these at a shop in SFbay a couple years ago and I tracked it down, took an SPL recording snapshot, and emailed the city to report a violation of noise laws with the proof. The noisemaker was physically uninstalled after a few weeks and did not return. So, presumably Home Depot is violating LA Noise Ordinance, and could reasonably be expected to accrue fines or even forced to cease operating their retail business on that property, given a properly filed code violation report; and, since any persistent sound levels necessary to cause discomfort are almost certainly an OSHA violation, a side copy to the relevant Home Depot worker unions in LA/Cali/US might produce a rather significant result as well.
- readthenotes1 11mo ago
  I guess the question is what the noise level is once off Home Depot property and whether the area is prohibited for their own workers
  - altairprime 11mo ago
    Doesn’t necessarily matter, unless Home Depot closes their property to the public and posts hearing safety devices warnings.
Brian_K_White 11mo ago
Home Depot making themselves less useful for their own customers. Galaxy brain. For the apparenly many people who are baffled by this, it's not like this is some unrelated activity that Home Depot doesn't benefit from. It's super convenient to go pick up both the paint and the painters from the same place at the same time without even any planning. No emails or phone calles or coordinating schedules.
Hizonner 11mo ago
I've been trying to use Home Depot less, and other hardware stores about whom I don't know as many obnoxious facts more. I guess I'll step that up.

65 points by geox 11mo ago

goda90 11mo ago

Two times this week I biked past a parked car and it emitted a horrible high pitched buzzing at me. I'm guessing it's supposed to be an anti-theft mechanism(entirely unnecessary in a Midwest suburb). I of course had no intention of stealing the car, but the noise triggers a desire to do other things to the car. I guess the owner is lucky I'm not an angsty teenager. There's so much unnecessary noise pollution in our society, it makes me really sad.

Animats 11mo ago
I've noticed that car alarms that go off for no good reason seem to be back. Those used to be a thing, but they'd mostly disappeared. But I keep hearing them in parking lots, with nobody anywhere near the car. At least they shut off after a while. That was legislated back in the 1980s.
- Zancarius 11mo ago
  Sometimes it can be a genuine mistake. I was in my garage with my keys in my back pocket, checking the tire pressure on my truck, when it started honking at me. My butt triggered the panic button. I have acute hearing. That was painful and hardly deliberate!
- kamaal 11mo ago
  >>I've noticed that car alarms that go off for no good reason seem to be back. So in the 2000s, this was fairly common in India. Then one day a installation mechanic told me the sensor had various calibration settings. You could get the trigger to be as sensitive as you wanted. At times a rodent or a crow could trigger the alarm.
culi 11mo ago
Not sure if it's the same thing but many stores will put noise emitting machines in their parking lots to make it hostile for people who wanna sleep in their cars there Once you first notice it you'll realize these machines are kinda everywhere

charcircuit 11mo ago

>The noise is in earshot of IDEPSCA’s day laborer center I find it misleading to add this line in the article without mentioning if the decibels exceed the applicable noise ordinances, or situation this is just people on HD's property complaining about the noise they are making on their own property. In that case people are free not to visit.

tremon 11mo ago
So if it's below the legal limit, people are not allowed to protest and/or complain about it?
- charcircuit 11mo ago
  It's their property so they should be able to do what they want with it. Stopping people from complaining is impossible. If you were to smash an iPhone someone would complain about how you wasted it or something, but ultimately it's up to the owner on how they want to handle their property.
  - JKCalhoun 11mo ago
    I agree and believe we should boycott a company if we object to the choices they make with their property.
Hizonner 11mo ago
> In that case people are free not to visit. That sounds like an excellent plan. It's nice to find an article containing information that lets one make that decision, eh? The free market in action.
- charcircuit 11mo ago
  Yes, the free market will help decide the optimal volume to avoid bothering legitimate customers.

JKCalhoun 11mo ago

Yeah, well I won't be going to Home Despot any longer. I'd love to know the tech (and company) that provided the devices.

nikkwong 11mo ago
What should Home Depot be doing? They don’t control the administration or the ICE raids. Forcing day laborers off the property ensures less raids happen on the property—I haven’t really understood the boycotts.
- mylifeandtimes 11mo ago
  They don't have to set up Flock cameras and share the data with people who plan the ICE raids. Home Depot's hands aren't totally clean here.
  - nostrebored 11mo ago
    Why not? It is really no different than having drug dealers set up shop on your corner and sharing footage with police. You have people who are likely committing criminal activity (multiple crimes in the day laborer case) and are sharing footage with the relevant authorities. The politicization of enforcement doesn’t change that as a business owner I would not want to own the location people facilitate illegal transactions.
    - aftbit 11mo ago
      I always thought having day laborers chilling in Home Depot parking lots was a net positive thing for the store and a bit of an untapped potential. Companies pay a lot of money to insert themselves in the hiring stream, and here is Home Depot as the defacto meeting point for a substantial amount of economic activity. Surely a more intelligent and less frightened company could make something positive out of this. But that's what you get with a fear-based political leadership. ICE targets day laborers not because of the horrible damage they do to the US economy, but because they have been selected as the scapegoats du jour.

untech 11mo ago

I am confused about the situation. Can someone with more context please explain? Is HomeDepot forcing their own workers off the parking lot? Or are there some other workers there? What do they do on a parking lot? Are they in cars or on foot? Why do they stay on the parking lot the whole day, if they are not HomeDepot employees?

SoftTalker 11mo ago
They are "day laborers." People who hang around there hoping to find work helping with your home repairs, painting, appliance installation, landscaping, or other projects etc.
- untech 11mo ago
  Huh, and that works? Sounds a bit… old-fashioned? I’d think people are looking for these services online or in some gig work app. Interesting. Sounds unpleasant both for workers that have to hang around on the street, and customers that are approached (at least that’s how I imagine it) by people offering services even when they don’t need it. (Or do customers approach workers themselves?) From the outside, sounds weird. I wonder what in the US caused it.
  - lalaland1125 11mo ago
    > wonder what in the US caused it Lots of illegal immigrants desperate for work
  - weberer 11mo ago
    >I’d think people are looking for these services online or in some gig work app. Then you'd need to prove your identity and pay taxes on what you earn. This is for illegal immigrants working under the table.
    - SoftTalker 11mo ago
      It's also only in some areas. None of the big home improvement centers where I live have anyone hanging around looking for work.

blell 11mo ago

[flagged]

AlotOfReading 11mo ago
Home Depot isn't democratically elected, but you should sign up for survivor if you want to vote people out. Functioning democracies don't work that way.
- blell 11mo ago
  Immigration policy is one of the most important things that are voted on in functioning democracies.
- vorpalhex 11mo ago
  All societies eject people who enter illegally. Go cross illegally into Mexico and you can experience this.
  - AlotOfReading 11mo ago
    The mundane activity of voting on rules to outline a formal legal process isn't what I'm talking about. What I'm rejecting is the idea in the parent comment that democracies can vote directly on expelling entire classes of people. There's a long history of such political expulsions and none of them are periods to look back on fondly. The expulsion of Germans from the Sudetenland killed tens of thousands, and the expulsions of native americans speak for themselves, as does the legacy of operation wetback. And for what it's worth, I've had the distinct pleasure of being interrogated by the Mexican military at gunpoint while hiking because they thought I was a coyote. I've also been held in the small rooms on the US side. I'm extremely familiar with both sides of that particular border.
    - vorpalhex 11mo ago
      It's very clear there is a large contingent of people who are here illegally. That isn't exclusively Central/South Americans, but they make up a very large portion. You can't say "Well enforcing the rules doesn't impact everyone equally so you can't enforce them!" If you entered illegally, you need to be sent home. End of logic. Any other variation allows the system to be gamed trivially. Most of the people who have entered illegally did so because they are prohibited - due to criminal record - for entering legally. They also harm the legal immigrants in their community too. You can not allow asylum cases and also permit the criminals who created those conditions those legal immigrants fled. You are damning everyone when you do.

randycupertino 11mo ago

https://archive.ph/g16NX https://archive.ph/g16NX

drivebyhooting 11mo ago

I hired day laborers loitering outside HD before and got scammed.

mothballed 11mo ago
This is why I don't hire them. I have nothing against their business model, but I'd expect I'd be the guy who gets unlucky and an illegal "gets hurt" (on purpose) then the court actually awards them a gazillion dollars when they claim I'm the evil unregulated employer smashing down the poor man with my lack of liability insurance and whatever long list of other things you need to hand someone else a dollar for a job.

spqr212 11mo ago

I've been battling noise at the workplace and in my neighborhood for decades. Some useful resources: Noise Pollution Clearinghouse - https://nonoise.org/ https://nonoise.org/ Acoustilog Incorporated - https://acoustilog.com/ https://acoustilog.com/ Of special note are the legal caveats one must consider to prevail in a lawsuit. (https://acoustilog.com/daniel.html https://acoustilog.com/daniel.html) Consistent documentation is key. Maine Code of Rules - Control of Noise https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/maine/06-096-C-M-R-ch-375-SS-10 https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/maine/06-096-C-M-R-c... Note document search terms "tonal" and "one-third octave".

altairprime 11mo ago

Someone installed one of these at a shop in SFbay a couple years ago and I tracked it down, took an SPL recording snapshot, and emailed the city to report a violation of noise laws with the proof. The noisemaker was physically uninstalled after a few weeks and did not return. So, presumably Home Depot is violating LA Noise Ordinance, and could reasonably be expected to accrue fines or even forced to cease operating their retail business on that property, given a properly filed code violation report; and, since any persistent sound levels necessary to cause discomfort are almost certainly an OSHA violation, a side copy to the relevant Home Depot worker unions in LA/Cali/US might produce a rather significant result as well.

readthenotes1 11mo ago
I guess the question is what the noise level is once off Home Depot property and whether the area is prohibited for their own workers
- altairprime 11mo ago
  Doesn’t necessarily matter, unless Home Depot closes their property to the public and posts hearing safety devices warnings.

Brian_K_White 11mo ago

Home Depot making themselves less useful for their own customers. Galaxy brain. For the apparenly many people who are baffled by this, it's not like this is some unrelated activity that Home Depot doesn't benefit from. It's super convenient to go pick up both the paint and the painters from the same place at the same time without even any planning. No emails or phone calles or coordinating schedules.

Hizonner 11mo ago

I've been trying to use Home Depot less, and other hardware stores about whom I don't know as many obnoxious facts more. I guess I'll step that up.