posted October 6, 2008
I am certain it is against the law to blast loud bass thumping music while driving or even parking a car. I am speaking about the loud bass thumping music where the bass is turned as high as possible. The kind of loud bass thumping music that can be heard inside your home. The kind of loud bass thumping music that rattles all your windows. The kind of loud bass thumping music that you can feel thumping inside your chest. It is so loud that you have to turn your TV or other device up in order to overcome that loud bass thumping music.
Calling it music is being generous too. It's mainly just a repeating thumping noise with no singing. I'm all for some occasional loud music. I used to play loud music when I was younger. But this is far, far more offensive. No one should have the right to play loud bass thumping music all hours of the day and night. Some of these people just park their car and play loud bass thumping music.
Is this what it is all about now? Isn't this supposed to be against the law? I remember when Judge Walter Williams would confiscate the equipment of the sound violators in his court. This confiscation by Judge Williams was featured on the local TV news on many different occasions. The TV reporter told us we have noise control ordinances. The law is supposed to fine violators and order them to court when they produce decibels over a defined limit. Why isn't this happening now?
I'm not a doctor but that constant dose of loud bass thumping music as a bystander cannot be healthy for your hearing. You can easily see a connection between hearing that roaring noise for hours per day and possible damage to the hearing of bystanders. I don't really care if it harms the hearing of the person producing that loud bass thumping music, they are taking a risk but should I also pay the price to my hearing?
My family and friends have all agreed we would be more than willing to have our taxes raised if the police would agree to focus on noise pollution laws in Chattanooga.
Chattanooga used to be a city where you could at least know you were safe from loud noise inside your own home. At least in the past you could escape from these types of noises. I'm also convinced that the loud bass thumping music is being played for the very effect of making people around them offended and angry. It's not an accident that the cars with the loud bass thumping music are driving down the road at 15 MPH so that the noise is heard by everyone as long as possible.
As I've said, we have noise pollution laws on the books, most were passed long before the current rash of loud bass thumping music from cars.
Doesn't this bother any of you? Am I the only one who is this upset? Do any of you want our existing noise pollution laws enforced? I'd be happy to see just a 10% increase in noise pollution law enforcement.
Bobby Bonine Jr.
Chattanooga
* * *
Thank you, Bobby Bonine. I too stay quite annoyed by this loud thumping. No, there is no way this stuff can be called music.
My next door neighbor comes home and takes her sweet time parking her car and all the time the loud thumping is going on. There have been times when my head would actually throb having to endure this ghastly noise.
And, you know, it's not just the loud thumping noise, how about the horn blowing? That is a problem in my neighborhood as well.
Alas, there will really be no solution. The police cannot sit on our streets until all hours of the night. Say, 2 a.m. for instance. And the culprits will not know about these opinion pieces because, I would venture to say, they cannot read.
Brenda Williams
Chattanooga
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How about writing some tickets to those motorcyclists who insist upon having loud pipes? Loud pipes do not save lives, but they sure do annoy civilized people.
If I took the muffler off my car, I would certainly get a ticket, so why do these miscreants get a pass?
Fredo Benton
* * *
Yes, Bobby Bonine Jr., there is an ordinance against noise pollution. However, the city can't be picky, which it has been, on what constitutes loud noise. Like, you can't enforce a law against loud music unless you're willing to enforce that same law against loud motorcycles driving through the city.
That loud noise hurts my ears and vibrate my house too on the "rare" occasion someone drives down my usually "quiet" street in my "quiet" neighborhood. However, it should be disturbing to us all when and if the law becomes selective in deciding what is/what isn't considered noise pollution.
Oh, yeah. Did you know they would have to enforce that law against neighbors with barking dogs too? Yep. Barking dogs fall under that "noise ordinance" law as well.
I'm glad I only have a cat who "quietly" meows from time to time. And even she can get pretty testy, rowdy and demanding when I buy the wrong cat food for her.
Brenda Manghane-Washington
* * *
Mr. Bonine, I also am annoyed by bass thumping on the street or in my house. I would suggest the next time Bambi or Thumper treats you to her music, raise her education level by treating her to opera. Mozart's Magic Flute has a wonderful shrieking soprano called the Queen of the Night who sings a glass shattering aria or you may prefer I Pagliacci where the melancholy clown blasts the sound barrier in the opening number.
If the lessons need to continue, let her hear the entire Wagner Ring especially where the legendary "fat lady in the horned hat," Brunnhilde, sings the closer.
I have spent my entire life educating the public in music and there's no time like the present to promote opera.
Ralph Miller
* * *
Fifteen or more years ago I rented a duplex, and my neighbors would do
nitrous and play "Dark Side of the Moon" so loud the doo-dads would fall
from da doo-dad shelves.
I broke out an old vinyl of Stravinksi's "Rite
of Spring" and paid them back with interest. They went crying to their
grandmother, our common landlady.
I explained it all to her, and, since I
paid my rent on the first religiously, and since her grandsons did not
ever do so (drugs are expensive), she kicked her grandkids out. As a
bonus, an attractive young brunette moved in who sunbathed in the back
yard.
Ralph Miller, I like the way you think.
John R. Smickle
Chattanooga
jsbottomfeeder@juno.com
Chattanooga
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