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I know that others have brought this issue up in this forum, but I have not seen any action from the city nor have I seen a lot of ideas of how to deal with the matter.
I live near Valencia and 22nd, and the number and volume of cars blasting their music seems to be increasing inexorably. There is one guy who drives up and down Valenica regularly playing the theme music from the X-Files at full blast!!
Even though my apartment is four buildings up from Valencia, my building and windows often shake because of the over-ampled base on some cars. And then there are people driving up and down the street with all of their windows rolled down unleashing their god-awful maxed out stereos without the slightest concern for anyone else. If you ever confront someone about it, they either ignore you, tell you to F-Off, or begin to act aggressively.
I spend a lot of time at my partner’s place on Clipper off Dolores. Here, too, people drive up and down (often speeding) with their stereos pounding.
And if you try to eat at one of the few restaurants in SF that has outdoor seating in front, invariably you are subjected to one acoustic onslaught after another by passing motorists.
What can be done? I tried to find municipal and state laws online without any luck. If there are any laws on the book, they need to be enforced. This is, of course, a revenue generator for the city so it should not be neglected by law enforcement officials.
A public service announcement campaign in the form of "we are all neighbors" or "we are all San Franciscans" or "Everyone knows San Francisco looks beautiful, please help make it sound beautiful too" or any such thing.
The PSA could also address the harmful affects to drivers, pedestrians, and residents of loud music playing.
The campaign could use TV, radio, internet, billboards, bus shelters or printed flyers. The flyers could be distributed to every house hold in the City. Or they could be handed out every time someone visits the DMV.
And signage could be posted at intersections on well-travelled streets. Either positive messages about respecting others or more cautionary messages about the unlawfulness of such behavior.
I am sure there are studies that show a correlation between excessively loud music and car crashes, pedestrian accidents, road rage altercations, etc.
But I think the anecdotal evidence found in this forum and others, as well as op-eds, etc. is more than enough to demonstrate that this is much more than just a "quality of life" issue.
Eric Politzer
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