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Also, We Don't Like Those Hubcaps
Buffalo's city council is mulling a ban on after-market car stereos because some drivers play their music too loud. Never mind that you can do that even with sound systems that come pre-installed, or that car owners control their own volume knobs and do not necessarily turn them all the way up, any more than they drive at maximum speed everywhere they go. Or that Buffalo already has legal limits on noise, regardless of whether it comes from a standard or customized stereo. The proposed ordinance also raises some practical issues. "What are you going to do?" asks the head of a car modification trade association that promises to challenge the ban if it's adopted. "Post large signs at all entrances to the city saying, 'Don't come here if you have a certain kind of stereo in your car?'"
[via Nobody's Business]
|6.29.06 @ 2:29PM|#
"What are you going to do?" asks the head of a car
modification trade association that promises to challenge the ban
if it's adopted. "Post large signs at all entrances to the city
saying, 'Don't come here if you have a certain kind of stereo in
your car?'"
::shrug:: Why not, seems to work for guns in most people's
minds.....
Jennifer|6.29.06 @ 2:44PM|#
I hope this passes just so I can enjoy the inevitable news articles that will be written about a guy who goes to jail because his stereo broke and he tried to buy a new one.
|6.29.06 @ 2:48PM|#
I have just gotten old. I wouldn't want to ban these stereos. I just want that device that allows me to remotely change the music to Hank Williams or Lawrence Welk or anything completely anathema to the little homey driving the vehicle. Just let me push a button and blast Strong of Pearls through the dazed little bastard's stereo as long as he is within 100 feet of me. It would be great.
|6.29.06 @ 2:55PM|#
I'll bet that more likely than being a deterrent for noise, this
will be another excuse for police to search vehicles. At minimum,
they'll be able to add an illegal audio equipment fine and maybe
they'll find some drugs too.
I wonder if these cretins have bothered to "grandfather in "
after-market stereos already installed, of if people will be
expected to switch back to the factory standard.
|6.29.06 @ 2:56PM|#
John:
I have the same fantasy, except in mine, my device is a gun and I
use it to murder them.
...Come to think of it, my fantasy isn't quite the same as
yours.
|6.29.06 @ 2:56PM|#
Hell, I thought the last hangers-on moved out of Buffalo a decade ago. That was definitely one of those towns Eliot Spitzer was referring to when he said much of upstate NY looked like Appalachia (which, as it turns out, is gaining population, whereas - quite the opposite of the upstate/western NY trend).
|6.29.06 @ 3:04PM|#
I would be satisfied with a simple shoot-to-kill policy of enforcement against the obnoxious rolling boom boxes. And as a bonus, the median IQ level would increase with each trophy, serving to brighten Buffalo's tarnished image.
|6.29.06 @ 3:06PM|#
buffalo has just admitted that it's too old.
i love reading the letters from the oldsters in the sound off
section of my local paper where they denounce the "hoods" that play
their bass too loudly - as if the hoods are reading the fogey sound
off section of the sunday paper.
hilarious!
Douglas Westerman|6.29.06 @ 3:08PM|#
If that is all the Buffalo City Council has to discuss in
Buffalo, might be good to just make them unpaid
volunteers............
Most of the time, the loud stereos here in L.A. are only heard
momentarily as the person drives by. If the person does stay put,
99 times out of a 100 he will turn it down if asked to do so.
|6.29.06 @ 3:23PM|#
I just want that device that allows me to remotely change
the music to Hank Williams or Lawrence Welk or anything completely
anathema to the little homey driving the vehicle. Just let me push
a button and blast Strong of Pearls through the dazed little
bastard's stereo as long as he is within 100 feet of me.
-John
You're going to need a iPod and some accessories. But it looks
pretty easy to do just what you're thinking. Assuming that they're
listening to a broadcast radio station and not a CD, satellite
radio, etc.
http://www.engadget.com/2004/06/15/how-to-tuesday-make-your-own-pirate-radio-station-with-an-ipod/
|6.29.06 @ 3:24PM|#
I've got an easier solution. On each block, find one responsible, upstanding citizen. Equip him or her with an RPG and instructions to eliminate loud cars.
grylliade|6.29.06 @ 3:43PM|#
On each block, find one responsible, upstanding citizen.
Equip him or her with an RPG and instructions to eliminate loud
cars.
How is a roleplaying game going to convince someone to turn down
their stereo? "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to turn it down,
or I'm going to play Dungeons and Dragons with you." ;-)
. . . Actually, now that I think about it, that threat might
work.
|6.29.06 @ 3:45PM|#
Mkae certain the sign's in Spanish and French too, so the furriners can read it.
|6.29.06 @ 4:09PM|#
Laws and ordinances are like prayers. They make the authors feel better, but inevitably cause a little pain to everyone else.
Jennifer|6.29.06 @ 4:16PM|#
Even if this law were passed, would it actually be legal for Buffalo to arrest or fine out-of-towners with after-market stereos who happen to be driving through the city, say on their way to Niagara Falls?
|6.29.06 @ 4:22PM|#
Probably, and ignorance of the law will be no excuse. I wonder if they'll have checkpoints?
wingnutx|6.29.06 @ 5:11PM|#
I wonder if you can get around this law by keeping a gigantic boombox in the back seat.
|6.29.06 @ 5:21PM|#
Even if this law were passed, would it actually be legal for
Buffalo to arrest or fine out-of-towners with after-market stereos
who happen to be driving through the city, say on their way to
Niagara Falls?
Only if they are transporting a woman from South Dakota to obtain
an abortion.
|6.29.06 @ 5:23PM|#
No, you get around this law by staying the hell out of Buffalo, which is pretty much a good idea anyway... the last time I was there, I found it to be a postindustrial hellhole on the Detroit model. Not as bad as Detroit, but working hard to get there.
|6.29.06 @ 6:11PM|#
Sorry, but playing your distorted bass-heavy car stereo so loud
that the reflection in my rear view mirror shudders even though you
are three cars back on the other side of the intersection, you are
officially disturbing the peace.
More importantly, you are disturbing my peace.
Since I cannot match you in decibals, I'll have to urinate on your
car. Sorry, it's just me
expressing my nature...
Seriously, if a house was pumping out the punishing sound levels I
hear an increasing number of cars emitting, there would be police
there in no time.
|6.29.06 @ 6:37PM|#
...or that car owners control their own volume knobs and do
not necessarily turn them all the way up, any more than they drive
at maximum speed everywhere they go.
*taking notes*
don't...have...to...drive...maximum...speed...all...the...time.
Good to know; thanks.
See, now there's your solution, right there. Make special car
stereos just for Buffalo that don't have volume knobs. They can
have special factory-preset-only chips in their car stereos, and
call them...wait for it...
"Buffalo Chips."
|6.29.06 @ 6:38PM|#
One wonders if the majority population of Buffalo is in
retirement.
What follows the "Turn down that racket!" law? Prune juice quality
standardization? Municipal shuffle-board leagues? Legislation to
ensure a pre 7pm bedtime?
What a pile of crap the Buffalo city counsel must be. What an
absolute pile of useless crap.
|6.29.06 @ 7:24PM|#
Between this, the zero tolerance parking enforcement, and the "Shock and Awe" drug raid campaign, Buffalo is making Rochester look like a veritable libertopia by comparison!
|6.29.06 @ 7:42PM|#
Of course, Rochester too has a stereo noise ordinance, but that is defensible in view of the your-right-to-play-your-music-as-loud-as-you-want-ends-at-my-ear principle. Then again, it also has a curfew law, which is not as defensible.
|6.29.06 @ 8:39PM|#
So, if someone from Buffalo buys an aftermarket stereo in, say,
Albany, will he be arrested?
In something resembling seriousness, I really understand the
motivation behind this law, even if I have no sympathy for the law
itself at all. I've spent way too many nights dealing with a baby
waked by some gangbanger wannabe blasting rap or heavy metal in my
quiet neighborhood at 2 a.m. And I live ain a really nice
neighborhood, too. I can imagine what other people endure.
Obnoxiousness needs to be stopped, but generally not by the cops.
If someone develops that machine that will change the song from rap
to, oh, "Canon in D," or "In the Mood" or "The Beer Barrel Polka"
or whatever makes the faux thugs choke, I'll buy three or four.
|6.30.06 @ 12:09AM|#
Help me out here, in case I ever get lost and accidently drive
through Buffalo.
I have three cars. The first is an '87 Saab that came from the
factory with a 160 watt stereo. The factory stereo died and has
been replaced with a 140 watt aftermarket unit. So I'm in trouble,
right? The second car is a '96 Saab that also came with a 160 watt
stereo. I was able to find a stereo out of a diffent Saab that was
200 watts. So I upgraded. Since I increased the the wattage with an
"OEM" stereo, I should be fine, correct? The third car would be a
blatant violation of this law. Aftermarket head unit, upgraded
speakers, multiple amplifiers, big honkin' sub-woofer. Absolutely
one of the cars this law is aimed at. If I drive through Buffalo
with car number three and the stereo turned off, can I still get a
ticket? One of the features of all three radios is a method for
adjusting the output level. The volume is adjusted with a rotary
control that is very simple to understand and use.
Meanwhile, the Harley next to me in traffic is perfectly legal.
Even though it couldn't be made quiet unless you launched it into
outer space.
|6.30.06 @ 1:43AM|#
I have a factory casette deck. That could be remedied with a visit to Buffalo for their next police auction.
|6.30.06 @ 9:39AM|#
If ever anyone doubted that the northeast's best days are behind it, here is proof positive.
|6.30.06 @ 9:52AM|#
So if someone steals your stero in Buffalo, you will only be
allowed to replace it with an OEM model? Or else, if you can't find
one, you will have to do without a radio?
This will essentially encourage theft of car radios in Buffalo,
because there will be an enhanced market for OEM models after the
theft.
Also, does this mean that you won't be able to bring a long a
boom-box that is not permanently installed and play it in the
car?
The more the nannies try to micromanage people's lives, the more
absurd becomes the society they are trying to create.
|6.30.06 @ 9:53AM|#
One wonders if the majority population of Buffalo is in
retirement.
One also wonders if youth and vigor equates to annoying the shit
out of everyone around you as you seek more status among the
pubescent herd.
The law is stupid. Nearly as stupid as boom car drivers.
|6.30.06 @ 10:20AM|#
I am surprised it has taken H&R so long to discover Buffalo as a rich source of raw material. In addition to bazaar legislated solutions to social problems they regularly put forth bazaar ideas to revitalize the city. Recently it was proposed that the vacant former State Lunatic Asylum be used to house presidential libraries for Millard Fillmore, William McKinley, and Grover Cleveland. If one half, nay one quarter, of the Fillmore scholars and Clevelandphiles were to visit then Buffalo will become a major tourist destination. I exclude McKinley because it was his curse on the city that is responsible for Buffalo?s problems and decline.
|6.30.06 @ 10:22AM|#
One also wonders if youth and vigor equates to annoying the
shit out of everyone around you as you seek more status among the
pubescent herd.
The answer is... yes.
If ever anyone doubted that the northeast's best days are
behind it, here is proof positive.
Overgeneralize much?
|6.30.06 @ 10:33AM|#
Recently it was proposed that the vacant former State
Lunatic Asylum be used to house presidential libraries for Millard
Fillmore, William McKinley, and Grover Cleveland.
Why not? It's a gorgeous landmark worth saving somehow. Wandering
around the grounds at night while tripping on acid is an experience
not to be missed (or so I've heard...). The State College next door
has also proposed taking it over.
|6.30.06 @ 10:39AM|#
Next thing you know they will outlaw laying the smack down on
bitches if they are all up in your shit.
Racist pigs.
|6.30.06 @ 10:40AM|#
The question has to be asked:
Can I get combat boots and a digital camera if I promise to install
a new stereo in my car?
|6.30.06 @ 11:35AM|#
"How is a roleplaying game going to convince someone to turn
down their stereo? "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to turn it
down, or I'm going to play Dungeons and Dragons with you."
;-)"
Saving throw vs. Directional HERF Gun!
|6.30.06 @ 1:00PM|#
John Said:
I have just gotten old. I wouldn't want to ban these stereos. I
just want that device that allows me to remotely change the music
to Hank Williams or Lawrence Welk or anything completely anathema
to the little homey driving the vehicle. Just let me push a button
and blast Strong of Pearls through the dazed little bastard's
stereo as long as he is within 100 feet of me. It would be
great.
I want one of those. I will, depending on the mood I am in
a) use to make him play classical music. Nothing like Bach or
Mozart to cher up your day.
b) "I love you, you love me, we are a big happy famil" ad nauseam
to convince him to play so low as to be undetectable to Barney
pipers...
Jennifer|6.30.06 @ 1:14PM|#
Would a city law like "no after-market stereos" apply to the section of Interstate that runs through Buffalo, or would that be under Federal or state jurisdiction? I ask because the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is a fine place to have a wonderfully tacky good time, but from where I live if you have to drive around Buffalo you'll add at LEAST an hour to your trip.
|6.30.06 @ 3:01PM|#
Rhywur
Your right it is a very nice setting - as a kid we use to cut
through the place to get to Delaware Park - and that was when the
place was populated with real live lunatics. The problem is that
Buffalo wants someone else (federal and/or state government) to
fund and maintain the project. Just as they expect a Seneca Indian
casino and the Bass Pro bait-n-tackle shop to bring in millions and
millions of tourist dollars to the waterfront area. How many people
are going to choose Buffalo over Las Vegas as a vacation
destination, especially in winter (which runs from November through
April in a warm year)? Money for nothing .....
|6.30.06 @ 7:08PM|#
from where I live if you have to drive around Buffalo you'll
add at LEAST an hour to your trip
You don't have to go thru Buffalo to get to Niagara Falls. From the
east you would take the Youngmann which swings around the suburbs
but doesn't enter the city.
The problem is that Buffalo wants someone else (federal and/or
state government) to fund and maintain the project.
Well, the city is broke and it can't compete with sunny,
easy-motoring "edge city" for private enterprise - not for that
site, at least - so what's left?
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