http://www.livingstonenterprise.com/news/index.php#591
Livingston man has ‘boom car’ blues
Jim Sullivan spent years trying to ignore the chest pounding noise of “boom cars” — vehicles with deep bass subwoofer speakers that can literally shake windows of nearby homes.
He assumed it was a fad that wouldn’t be long tolerated.
“The first time I heard one was around 1993 in Laramie (Wyo.),” recalled Sullivan, 51, a Livingston resident who used to live in Laramie. “I was in traffic and it hurt my ears. It made things in my car buzz.
“I thought, ‘That’s not very nice, but it won’t last long.’” Sullivan said, believing the police would soon crack down on the intrusive noise.
But after seven years of being affected by the sound, which Sullivan likens to a physical assault, he realized the Laramie police weren’t going to stop the noise, despite a city ordinance banning the sound 24 hours a day.
“They had a good law but bad law enforcement. In Livingston we have good law enforcement but no law,” Sullivan said during an interview in his North Second Street home.
Sullivan left Laramie because of the boom cars and moved to Bozeman, where he ran into the same problem. In the fall of 2002 he moved to Livingston to try to avoid boom cars.
“I thought in a smaller community it wouldn’t be as much of a problem,” Sullivan said of his decision to move to Livingston.
But he discovered he couldn’t escape the noise, and Livingston laws didn’t help much.
“The ordinance in Livingston against unnecessary noise from cars is only from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. We need it to be 24 hours a day,” said Sullivan, who has taken his request to the Livingston City Commission.
Not only does Sullivan physically feel the booms, which cause pain in his ears and tightening of his chest, but it causes him considerable anxiety.
“It must be like the people in London felt during the war when they were anticipating the next bomb to drop,” Sullivan said.
In the fall of 2002, shortly after moving here, Sullivan requested the 24-hour ban. A similar request had been made to the city six months earlier by Livingston resident Gene Moore. The then-city commissioners responded by changing the 11 p.m.-7 a.m. ban to 10 p.m.-7 a.m.
That extra hour at night did help, and Sullivan is rarely disturbed at night because Livingston police enforce the ban, he said. But the booming still goes on during daylight hours.
Since September, Sullivan has kept a log citing more than 13 different vehicles that boom through Livingston.
“I’ve followed some of them and spoken to them, asking them to turn it down or turn it off. They say they will, then they drive by again with it blasting,” Sullivan said.
Last week the City Commission voted 3-2 to consider a 24-hour ban on car stereo noise that can be heard more than 50 feet from a vehicle. Sullivan was disappointed in the two commissioners who voted against the proposed ordinance, Vicki Blakeman and Patricia Grabow.
Both women said they were reluctant to set up a 24-hour noise ban that primarily targeted teenagers.
“It doesn’t make sense for them to think we’re targeting a small segment. The key word in the ordinance is ‘unnecessary.’ The car stereo ads say, ‘Get this to annoy people over 40,’” Sullivan said.
A Web site dedicated to stopping noise pollution — www.noiseoff.org — includes copies of advertisements for powerful car stereo subwoofers. The slogans include, “Shake the living. Wake the dead,” and “Shake seats and annoy neighbors.”
A 24-hour boom car ban is the only defense available, Sullivan said.
“If someone busted into my house, slapped my ears and pounded me in the chest, they could be charged with assault,” Sullivan said.
Loud car stereos and the noise of nearby trains doesn’t bother Sullivan.
“It’s that boom boom boomboomboom of the low subwoofer bass. That’s an assault,” Sullivan said.
The Livingston City Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m., June 20 on extending the ban against vehicle stereo systems to 24 hours.