Jeff Berding on Loud Car Stereos
Q. Police and officials in other cities recognize the connection and find that cracking down on boom cars reduces crime by getting illegal drugs, guns, and wanted felons off the streets, while in Cincinnati, boom car thugs have free rein to cruise the streets incessantly, day and night, destroying the quality of life, lowering property values, and subjecting residents to the stress of repeated loud thumping acoustic assaults. Will you put some teeth in City Ordinance 910-10 and demand that police stop coddling these audio terrorists and enforce the law with zero-tolerance? Walter Lynge, Northside
A. Yesterday, during Law & Public Safety committee, Councilwoman Ghiz introduced an ordinance amending the City's current laws on loud car stereos. The ordinance (based on legislation in Chicago) would both increase fines and authorize the police to confiscate the cars of repeat offenders. I support this ordinance and have suggested that the dollars collected from the increased fines could go toward funding the Safe and Clean Neighborhood Fund. Loud car stereos decrease civility in our neighborhoods, and decreased civility affects everyone’s quality of life.
posted by Mel at 9:46 AM
5 Comments:
at 12:24 PM, October 24, 2007 
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at 1:54 PM, October 24, 2007 
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at 2:11 PM, October 24, 2007 
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at 1:33 PM, October 25, 2007 
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at 2:23 PM, October 25, 2007 
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Post a Comment*Wow, Jeff, did this problem just develop in the 30 days before an election? If this is so important, why didn't you address it in the past 23 months of your term?
The Leslie Ghiz proposal for a new loud car stereo ordinance is an excellent first step. I hope it is passed by the council without being watered down. However, there are a couple of problems referred to by previous posters :
First, It is necessary that the police enforce the ordinance. I have brought the boom car issue up many times at Northside community council meetings and have been told by the police that they consider this a low priority matter and do not put much emphasis on it. Apparently they get this message from the top and use it as an excuse to ignore boom car violators most of the time. I have personally witnessed this on many occasions. The numbers also demonstrate it dramatically: In Madison, Wisconsin, a city which is cracking down on boom car violators, police are writing BOOM CAR citations at the rate of one every day per officer, while in Cincinnati, the comparable number is one NOISE citation every 671 days per officer (using Lelie Ghiz's figure of 575 noise violations last year and 1057 officers- from the police web site). Jeff Berding proposed that some of the increased revenue from the fines of the proposed ordinances should go to the Safe And Clean Neighborhoods Fund. Perhaps some of it could also be used for some kind of incentive program to get police to buy into enforcing the law with zero-tolerance.
Another problem is the following: A typical situation is that the police get a noise complaint about a loud stereo from a house, a barking dog, or a boom car. They drive by and report that they heard nothing and can therefore take no action. The reason is that the dog was tired and was taking a break, or the loud music offender was changing the CD during the 30 seconds that the officer drove by. Yet according to the language of the noise laws, a violation did take place. The sound emanating from the motor vehicle was " of such intensity and duration" as to "cause inconvenience and annoyance to persons of ordinary sensibilities." The dog owner was harboring an " animal of the dog kind which by a loud and frequent or persistent barking or yelping" did "cause serious annoyance or disturbance to the neighborhood." The law does not specify that the officer had to have heard the barking or loud music during the 30 seconds that he was driving by. These laws should be amended to specify that the criterion for deciding whether people were seriously annoyed or disturbed, and therefore a citation should be written, is that they called in a complaint to the police, or that the police received a certain number of complaints during a certain time period. That should be sufficient. W.L.
As a denizen of Over-the-Rhine, I want to know if this ordinance, if passed, will only be enforced in affluent neigborhoods such as Hyde Park, the Clifton Gaslight, and North Avondale.
Let's face it, there is a double standard in the enforcement of rules. Why is it that I see pit bulls on a regular basis in OTR? If I were a cop I'd have a field day ticketing pit bull owners, but I never see the police cracking down on these people walking their illegal dogs down Race, Vine, and Findlay.
Why is it that I get hit up for change in Over-the-Rhine and downtown regularly, but never when I go to Hyde Park Square? I'll tell you why. The panhandlers know that if they beg in Hyde Park they will be removed by the law.
I feel the loud car stereo ordinance would increase the quality of life in tony neighborhoods, but none at all in struggling or emerging neighborhoods like OTR. If passed, I it is my hope that it is enforced in all neighborhoods, not just where it is easiest to enforce.
Bill Stone, OTR
I think Bill makes a good point. What we are really dealing with is social engineering. It ain't middle-age white guys (like me)getting busted for loud car stereos in Hyde Park.
I am not sure if it says more about the candidates' detachment from the electorate that they think we won't notice that they puropose such an ordinace a few weeks before the election OR that they think the issue is really a hot button with the electorate. They are wron in either case.
When this Ordinance passes, please send District 3 Police around the neighborhoods to have them enforce the loud stereo problem. Here are some streets ... Harrison Avenue, Werk Road, Boudinot Avenue, Hildreth, Glenmore Avenue, Hanna Avenue (especially going in and out of Mayridge Apartments), Pickbury, etc. So yes, there is a definite problem and THANK YOU, Council Member Leslie Ghiz for attempting to fix it. We will be supporting and voting for you!
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