HoustonChron

Oct. 17, 2001, 9:51PM

City muffles loud noise

New law targets previously exempt bass sound blasts

Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Houston City Council unanimously passed a law Wednesday designed to crack down on window-rattling bass from passing cars and other loud noises.

The new law allows police to ticket people playing music loud enough to be heard or felt 50 feet away, regardless of how many decibels are registered on a sound meter.

The previous sound ordinance only covered noise that could be registered on a meter. But low-frequency sounds, like thumping bass music, do not register on sound meters. The Houston Police Department received 75,000 complaints about noise in the past year. Three percent of the complaints generated tickets.

"The people in our neighborhoods have been anxiously awaiting this," Mayor Lee Brown said at the council meeting.

The law also continues previous city limits on noise in residential areas at night, between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.; noisy vehicles, such as those without mufflers; and loud animals.

Permits are available for special events. They are limited to two per month, each for a period of 14 hours or less. The penalty for violating the law is a fine of up to $500.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Answers

Some of this music (and I've certainly been on the receiving end while driving) is, I think, just aggressive behavior. If they want to listen to this shit, they could at least do it with their car windows closed.

On a related note, I read some years ago that the Swedish armed forces were having difficulty finding personnel with unimpaired hearing, for jobs such as listening for Russian subs. The reason given was Swedish youth's exposure to very loud rock music.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

oddly, I rarely see one of those rolling boomboxes with the windows open.

And it isn't un-muffled cars, it's the cars with those noisy mufflers that are annoying.

What is the point of having a car that blocks outside noise if you are going to have all that noise inside?

We have a noisy neighbor that used to play music on the weekends very loud. I, of course, hadn't realized where that thumping was coming from. I thought it was my blood pressure in my head. Our next door neighbor called about it because she couldn't hear her tv in her own home with the windows closed. We both called the police and apologized for such an annoyance but could they do something? 30 minutes later, no music heard. Hadn't heard it for a couple weeks since, but I don't know if they've done it while were gone.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

We had neighbors playing rap so loud that it rattled dishes in our cabinets. We found an old alarm system loudspeaker and played the worst bagpipe dirges we could find. They turned their music down.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

sure glad I don't live too close to you! ROTFL

Good tactic!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001