In 1930 the first Noise Abatement Commission in the United States, appointed by the New York City Health Department, filed a report that has become a classic. It could be republished today with only a few minor changes, like substituting jets and air conditioners for street cars and ice deliveries. Its description of the problem and suggested solutions are just as timely today as they were four decades ago, proof that commissions are just paper tigers without government commitment backing them up.
An anti-noise committee established by New York's Mayor Robert F. Wagner in 1955, and sponsored by the NYC Department of Commerce and Public Events, conducted its own noise poll (see Table 2). Comparing its results with those of 1930, the 1955 Committee concluded: "In three decades little has changed except the order of priority." Today in 1970 the public still complains about virtually the same noises. We still have acoustic laissez-faire.
| 1956* | 1926** |
|---|---|
| 1. Refuse collection | 1. Trucks |
| 2. Hornblowing | 2. Automobile horns |
| 3. Acceleration of motors | 3. Radios |
| 4. Blaring of radio and TV sets | 4. Elevated trains |
| 5. Aircraft noise | 5. Automobile brakes and cutouts |
| 6. Unmuffled exhausts | 6. Garbage collections |
| 7. Street repairs | 7. Street cars |
| 8. Sound trucks | 8. Fire Department sirens |
| 9. Construction riveting | 9. Noisy parties and entertainment |
| 10. Doormen's whistles | 10. Milk and ice deliveries |
| * Conducted in cooperation with the New York World Telegram and Sun. The list was printed as a coupon in the newspaper. Categories for the list were taken from letters and telephone calls received by the Committee.
** Adapted to conform to the categories used by the Committee for a Quiet City, Inc. Other noises voted most annoying in 1926 included riveting, dogs and cats, horse-drawn trucks, pneumatic drills, and traffic whistles. Source: Final Report and Recommendations of the Committee for a Quiet City, Inc., July 7, 1960. | |
The Constitution sets safeguards for the sanctity of a man's home from unlawful invasion. These safeguards do not apply to noise, and the right to privacy is one of the sacrifices we make for the benefits of speed and convenience.
When it comes to noise assault the city dweller is disenfranchised. Judges consistently have ruled that when one agrees to live in a city he agrees to accept any and all noise that goes with city living. This makes a joke of the Quiet Enjoyment clause found in apartment house leases, "...the Tenant shall quietly enjoy the leased premises." Today's noises have deleted this clause as effectively as if it were xx'd out and initialed by landlord and tenant.
In most cases, you can't sue. You don't even have the right to stop the overhead neighbor's son from pounding away with a full complement of drums and amplified rock'n'roll instruments. When his $400-a-month tenants threatened to move out, one Manhattan landlord tried to evict a young drummer's family. The judge ruled: "While the court can sympathize with the neighbors who may be annoyed by the sound of the drums, that is the price they must pay to live in a city apartment." He referred to children learning to make music as some of the more civilized sounds of life.
The Industrial Revolution gave business and industry great power—including the right to pollute, the right of the machine to be as noisy as it is today. This state of things typically means that the maker of machines is free to choose his design goals, and must not be pressured by laws or ordinances to spend time or money for quiet.
Society seems to look upon any degree of excessive noise as it now regards pornography—if it contains a modicum of social value, it is not obscene.
For example, most cities do not regulate the noise levels of air conditioners. As long as the apparatus is operating properly, judges will not recognize a noisy air conditioner as a nuisance. In a precedent-setting case, one court ruled that an air conditioner is a product of man's search for improved comfort and enjoyment, and the fact that it may cause some annoyance to others does not justify denouncing its use as criminal.
Certain magic words can ward off any meaningful regulation. These words are: socially useful, temporary, and mobile. Many communities have adopted the model anti-noise code recommended by the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers. Written to cover "unnecessary and unreasonable" noise, it is a license to pollute. Here is part of the "preamble" to New York City's "model" anti-noise ordinance:
"Unnecessary noises: Prohibited. a. Subject to the provisions of this section, the creation of any unreasonably loud, disturbing, and unnecessary noise is prohibited..."
That word unnecessary is the fly in the ointment. It is not interpreted as meaning capable of being designed to make less noise, or capable of being muffled. An unnecessary noise is a noise without social utility. Dog barking and promiscuous use of the auto horn are deemed to be without social utility. Construction noise is the result of a socially useful activity, and therefore free from restraint.
Daytime construction noise is specifically exempt from regulation. All municipalities that have adopted the model code contain a clause similar to this one, found in the New York City Administrative Code, prohibiting "the erection, including excavating, demolition, alteration or repair of any building other than between seven ante meridian and six post meridian on weekdays, except in case of urgent necessity in the interest of public safety and then only with a permit from the commissioner of buildings, which permit may be renewed for a period of three days or less while the emergency continues."
This is acoustic anarchy with a vengeance. Any degree of construction noise can be legally maintained from 7:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. (and through the night with an easily obtained permit), six days a week (and Sunday by permit), week in and week out for many months and years. It is noise legally defined as temporary and necessary and thus excluded from the laws of nuisance.
It is, for example, the intense noise generated by giant portable air compressors that force-feed the jackhammers with enough pressure to enable them to slug away with 1,100 80-pounds-per-square-inch blows per minute, while exuding waste energy to the tune of 105 or more decibels. It is noise made by the giraffe-like pneumatic rock drills employed to drill holes for dynamite charges. It is the incredible noise made by another pneumatic tool, the tamper or compactor used to beat down the soil or for subsurfacing. One model, the "Jumping-Jack," delivers a 1,000-pound sock at the rate of 350 to 700 blows per minute. Its cousin, heavyweight "Wallopin' Whale," delivers 3,400- to 6,000-pound blows at the rate of 1,500 to 2,000 per minute. Construction equipment is not designed for human compatibility.
Not only do the air compressors and jackhammers not have to be muffled, neither do the cranes, bulldozers, or transit cement mixers.
Existing ordinances permit daytime mayhem, and do little to protect sleep. If a businessman or a contractor makes a good case for nighttime work, claiming inconvenience or loss of money if he must restrict his operation to daytime hours, city officials can permit such extended activities.
The city has the authority to permit highway and building demolition and construction work at any hour of the night. This permission is granted in Memphis, supposedly the most noise-conscious city in the United States, if the contractor claims he will suffer "loss or inconvenience" if restricted to the daylight hours of 7:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., and if the chief building inspector determines that "the public health and safety will not be impaired."
Municipal governments could protect their citizens via their licensing power. Private garbage carters are licensed by the cities in which they operate. Silenced operations could be a licensing prerequisite, or at least, unsilenced garbage trucks could be issued licenses that deny them the right to operate after 11:00 P.M. But instead of requiring silenced garbage trucks and quiet garbage receptacles, the New York City Department of Licenses sent out this ineffective regulation:
NOTICE TO THE CARTING INDUSTRY
Numerous noise complaints are received daily by this Department with regard to carting activities between the hours of 11:00 P.M. and 7:00 AM.
We are aware of the problems involved in restricting carting service to the daytime hours. You are, therefore, directed to eliminate all disturbing noise during the hours of 11:00 P.M. and 7:00 A.M. This includes:
- Loud and boisterous discussion
- Banging of pails and covers
- Grinding of noisy compaction machinery
The health and welfare of the residents of this City are the prime consideration of this department at all times.
Failure to heed this directive will result in an order for all cartmen not to operate during these restricted hours.
The Department knows full well that today's garbage trucks are 100-decibel noisemakers. This type of regulation is nothing but window dressing.
Since there are no protective ordinances or regulations allowing at least an extra hour of sleep, let us say to 8:00 A.M., political influence is helpful. When a Cambridge student was awakened at 7:00 A.M. by the grinding of an English "dust lorry" plus the dustman's off-key rendition of "0, Come All Ye Faithful," he got corrective action. The dustman was instructed not to pick up until 8:00 A.M. The student happened to be Prince Charles.
New York's Greenwich Village residents, who have fought coffeehouse noise unsuccessfully will appreciate Miami's answer to similar noise emissions. Its city code prohibits "between the hours of 11:00 P.M. and 7:00 A.M. music, singing or other forms of entertainment in any room where beer, wine, liquor or alcoholic beverages are sold or offered for sale, indoors or outdoors, unless such room is soundproofed in order that the noise therefrom may not disrupt the peace and quiet of the neighborhood..."
This requirement—that a place of amusement keep its noise to itself—is so sensible, yet few communities avail themselves of it.