This week, Q-line asked: “Should the noise laws in Santa Monica be more restrictive? Is it already too loud here?”
Here are your responses: ■ “They want to make another ordinance, this time for noise laws? The city can’t even enforce the ordinances they just recently made. For instance, sleeping in doorways, smoking on the parks, eating in the parks, etc., etc. They need to start enforcing the ordinances that they already have in the books instead of making another new ordinance. It seems to me that the City Council has nothing better to do with their time. They need to get the police department out here and enforce the laws. I was down in the Palisades Park recently and a guy was smoking a crack pipe. They saw me looking at him so I guess they put the pipe away and then they started smoking cigarettes. I thought there was an ordinance against smoking cigarettes. All you have to do is go into the Palisades Park and there’s all kinds of cigarette butts lying around and wouldn’t you know it, there wasn’t any park enforcement or a policeman around. I’d like to know where the police hang out. That’s a big mystery.” ■ “Yes, it is already too noisy in Santa Monica. I frequently make a mental evaluation that it is like living in the back ward of an insane asylum. It’s actually worse. Lately there are more and more loud motorcycles in Santa Monica on our residential streets, especially on weekends. And they always seem to ride around in noisy packs. Another pesky annoyance are these new city pick-up trucks with their back-up beepers always on full throttle. And it seems like they back up more than they go forward in residential areas once again, early in the morning and late at night. These complaints are only two of the many noise assaults on our citizens. There are many. I’ll defer to others to fill in the gaps.” ■ “I believe that you’ve hammered those poor people over at the airports too much already. I think if you check, you’ll find that most of the people who are complaining about the noise bought their property well after the airport was in effect. They knew that they were buying into a noisy atmosphere. Nobody forced them to do it. It’s been cut back an awful lot in the past few years and they just won’t be satisfied. I think you’ve beat that thing to death.” ■ “Yes, I think noise pollution is one of the worse types of pollution there is. This goes from the drunkard standing outside of your door at 2:30 on a Saturday morning yelling or screaming, to people having parties like what happened to me last weekend. They were partying until 3:20 in the morning and the only reason that the cops came is that after the third phone call to the police department, I said I’d go over there and take care of it myself. The police were there within two minutes. I think this is something that should be looked into and the City Council should be investigating this instead of spending all that crap on the traffic calming on Wilshire Boulevard.” ■ “Yes, I think the laws should be more restrictive. Noise, particularly from cars, trucks, buses, etc., is more than an irritant, it’s dangerous. Loud menacing automobile noises foster a confused and hostile environment that invokes cruelty and crime rather than community and kindness. The most pleasant thing about the Promenade is its almost complete absence of gasoline powered engines and their attendant noises and pollutants. Why not make other streets car-free? Places to escape menacing traffic noise and vibrations in the city are few. While sitting on the beach the other day just north of the pier, there were only brief moments of silence punctuated by longer intervals of frequent and loud engine noise from low-flying aircraft. Noise is more than an inconvenience, it’s an insult and robs us of something that, in many other cultures and traditions, is considered sacred: Silence.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 4, 2003. Read the original PDF.