From: Noise, Sovereignty, and Civility
by
Les Blomberg, Executive Director, Noise Pollution
Clearinghouse
Civility
Noise, more than most pollutants, is closely related to manners. Good neighbors keep their noise to themselves; bad neighbors don’t.
Noisy neighbors do not care about their impact on others. They are the bullies in the schoolyard. The Noise Pollution Clearinghouse receives more than 100 inquiries a week from people impacted by noise. The most common source of the noise is a business: a racetrack, grocery store with early morning garbage pickup, a building with very noisy refrigeration or air conditioning equipment, a bar, a gun range.
As director of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, it has become obvious to
me that the typical noise making bully in
The reason businesses are the worst offenders is that political power is on their side. Local governments are unwilling or unable to challenge them, while they do crack down on individuals. If the noise polluter were a teenager with a boom box playing half as loud as the noise of the business, the boom box would probably be confiscated. If the noise polluter were a college student hosting a late night party, the party would be shut down. But if the noise polluter is a business, nothing is done.
It is difficult to understand any justification for these differences, especially in the cases of the most egregious acts of incivility reported to the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse. It is not uncommon for people who call the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse to be kept awake for a couple hours at night, or to be awakened 3 times a night, 5 nights a week. The defining characteristic between the teen or college student who are dealt with swiftly and the business that is allowed to pollute is that the business is making money. It is absurd that just because someone is making money they can also make noise.
Businesses are not the only bullies in our communities. Sharing some of the claim to "worst noise polluter" is the average normal person. The two most common sources of noise pollution are highways and airports—places that most Americans use quite frequently¹. Normal people tend to noise pollute when they have some sense of anonymity and when they lack connection to their community—when they are literally zipping by. The same people who would never honk their horn at midnight in a residential community will fly over the same homes at midnight, to the very same effect: families can’t sleep.
Understanding just who the noise polluters are and that they include us is both enlightening and disturbing. It should not be surprising, however, that minorities and the poor are most often the noise polluted. Minorities and the poor have the highest exposure to many environmental pollutants, and this is clearly the case with noise. Low-income neighborhoods are much more likely than wealthier ones to suffer from excessive airport and aircraft noise. The U.S. Census reports that families who rent their homes are twice as likely to list noise as a major neighborhood problem as those who own their homes. Similarly, African Americans, Hispanics, and persons living below the poverty level are significantly more likely to list noise as a major neighborhood problem.
When some people choose not to be a good neighbor, laws must be passed to force neighborliness upon them. This is an unfortunate but all too common necessity in modern society. Laws forcing people to be good neighbors are much less desirable than people acting as good neighbors out of choice. The Noise Pollution Clearinghouse has developed a Good Neighbor Policy to use as a guideline for respect within a community. Obviously, it can be modified for different communities depending on their needs.