SHHH! From motion sensors to car engines, Minneapolis noise pollution can be hard to ignore and harder to stop

When was the last time you heard noise? Not light music drifting through your window mid-morning, or kids laughing in the street after school, but some good, old-fashioned noise.

Your neighbor’s leaf blower powering up at 6 a.m.? That’s noise. A car revving its engine as it blasts down your street past midnight? That’s noise.

Most of us seethe silently at the invasion of our sound space. But what can you do when the noise gets too loud, too frequent, or both?

In Minneapolis, the options for frustrated residents are complex, time-constrained and evolving, as evidenced by a vote expected at City Hall this week about noises made by doorbell cameras. And even when rules are in place, whether they actually limit noise can be a coin toss.

Not all noise – even the really loud stuff  – is verboten. Construction noise in Minneapolis, for example, is allowed from 7 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and on weekends with an after-hour work permit. Homeowners have more leeway and can construct till 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on weekends.

There’s even more leniency for yardwork. Lawnmowers and leaf blowers can run from 7 a.m.-10 p.m.

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But say Rick next door is still running his circular saw at 11:30 p.m., or Martha across the street gets a 6 a.m. start at tearing down her shed? The city says you should call 311 – which, it’s worth noting, has stated hours of 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Now, noisy parties or loud music audible beyond 50 feet? Those are 911 calls, according to the city. And there’s a different channel for garbage hauler noise: If they’re operating outside of 6 a.m.-10 p.m., call Business Licenses & Consumer Services.

Some enforcement even falls under the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency – both because noise is treated as a form of pollution and because the agency is well-placed to enforce noise standards at facilities they already regulate, like the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center.

Enforcing noise limits prove difficult in Minneapolis

City officials admit that enforcement is a major challenge. Jess Olstad, the city’s media relations manager, told me that for a situation like overly-loud yardwork, the city would typically send a letter to the supposed noisemaker.

In the case of a loud party or music, an inspector from the city could take a 10-minute sound reading. But with a loud car, officials note they aren’t a continuous noise and are, obviously, moving.

And with the city’s ongoing shortage of sworn police officers – 656 compared to the judge-mandated minimum of 731 – noise complaints aren’t likely to be the highest priority on any given day.

“Generally, it is very difficult to enforce,” Olstad said.

Liz Charlson knows that well. She lives with her husband along East Bde Maka Ska Parkway, where she said she constantly hears cars and motorcycles ripping down the road. As a pianist, Charlson said she tries to avoid earplugs because she doesn’t want to train herself not to hear something.

The unrelenting noise, she said, “is the reason we’re leaving the Twin Cities” – or at least strongly considering it.

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Jackie Itzkowitz, a member of the East Bde Maka Ska Neighborhood Association, recently moved three blocks within the neighborhood, which was enough to go from little noise to hearing it most nights.

“I don’t want a quiet suburb life,” said the former New Yorker. And she has bigger concerns, like getting the city to paint more crosswalks. Still, she said, some nights the noise is too much.

And new kinds of noise are always emerging. The Minneapolis City Council will vote on Sept. 17 to amend the city’s noise ordinance to clarify that a motion sensor on private property – say, a Ring doorbell camera – cannot make a noise audible beyond that property.

Officials at a recent meeting said in some cases residents are complaining about hearing noises from such devices dozens or even hundreds of times a day, which led to a discussion among Council members questioning the neighborliness of surveilling passers-by at all.

But it also spun into arguments about noises from snow blowers, fire alarms, crosswalk signals and car alarms – how loud they should be, whether it’s good for others to hear them, and how often constituents are complaining about it all.

One thing seems certain: everyone’s tired of the noise unless they’re the one making it. Agreeing on what noises need to stop, and how? That discussion is ongoing.

The post SHHH! From motion sensors to car engines, Minneapolis noise pollution can be hard to ignore and harder to stop appeared first on MinnPost.

Originally reported by MinnPost by Trevor Mitchell. Read the full story at the source.