We Stink!

[Aria]

I've heard of people who buy cheap houses next to major airports and then complain about the noise, but I never thought that same flawed thinking would ever be applied to us.... should have known better.

Given how heavily I sleep, once I get to sleep, I should get one of those. Might get a nice deal. Although falling asleep might be a problem...

[Argabarga]

Ironically, some of our MOST expensive housing adjoins the railroad tracks, the cemetary, or both.

On a related note, every now and then you hear about someone trying to pass laws under the guise of "noise ordinances" to prevent trains from blowing their whistles at grade crossings at 2am because it annoys people who bought properties next to the tracks without planning ahead who don't like being woken up/annoyed.

Too bad for them that the rules and regulations governing the movement of trains in this country make whistling for grade crossings MANDATORY and are furthermore FEDERAL level regulations i.e. - local law cannot trump them.

The air corridor around here sees a lot of interesting stuff out on maneuvers, aside from the Chinooks and other helicopters we get the occasional F-16, A-10 and C-130.

[MrSmiley]

From my neck of the woods...

Person buys land on the outskirts and builds truck stop (big area for truckers), operates fine for many years. People complain about the truck stop however as the city expands; and so due to traffic and other concerns, ask him to move further outside the city. Gets a decent price for the land (now a Home Depot), moves further out, to a better planned location in the middle of an open field with nothing around. Time goes by... 15-20 years or so... the city has expanded some more. And people start complaining again... City has asked him to move again, but so far he's sticking with his successful business and apparently has the documents/correspondence to back him up...

[Cia]

There are signs up advertising lots for sale for a townhome subdivision near our regional airport. I wonder how long it will be before the owners complain, that is if they ever build the subdivision.

People complain about rocks raining down on their homes near the gravel pit. Guess what was there first the houses in the woods or the gravel pit. Ding! Yep the gravel pit.

Same thing goes for the race track - it's noisy stop it! Whine, whine, whine, bitch, moan and etc.

[Jester]

I've heard of people who buy cheap houses next to major airports and then complain about the noise, but I never thought that same flawed thinking would ever be applied to us.... should have known better.

We've had something similar in Key West. Cliff Notes version:
Tourist comes to Key West. Tourist loves Key West. Tourist returns to Key West many times, enjoying his stay and partying his ass off on Duval Street. (Or if he doesn't, he is certainly aware of what Duval Street IS--the main drag and center hub of the partying.) Tourist falls in love with Key West. Tourist decides to move to Key West. Tourist moves into a place right on or near Duval Street. Tourist then starts complaining about the noise from, you guessed it, Duval Street.

As if they didn't know where they were moving? Idiots.

I was standing on my front doorstep taking video of the Flying Fortress on one of it's laps around the area when the person across the street came out and asked me if I was planning on joining her in filing a noise complaint against said aircraft.....

Key West is the location of a major U.S. Navy airbase. As such, we have Navy planes on maneuvers, well, a lot. And, of course, there are people who bitch about the noise. On their parts, the City government and the Navy have worked together to try to limit the noise pollution from Naval planes over the more heavily populated areas. But they are still planes, and they still use jet engines, and thus are still somewhat noisy.

On the other side of the idiots who bitch incessantly about this are the people who printed up some bumper stickers a while back, stating simply, "I LOVE the sound of Navy jets!"

Some genius decided to build a bunch of 6 story apartment houses right at the end of the runway (ensuring that planes always had to take off at full throttle to clear them), and then complained about the noise that resulted.

Interestingly, I once had to answer a question about airport noise. Geographical background: Sky Harbor Airport is the main airport in Phoenix, and is located in east Phoenix, just a bit west of my home town of Tempe. The eastern takeoff and landing patterns go over the Salt River bed, which divides the main part of Tempe from the northern part of the town. This reduces noise pollution somewhat since no one lives in the river bed. Political background: as a college student I was running for Mayor of Tempe. (Seriously.)

At one point I (and presumably the other candidates) received a questionnaire from one of the local civic organizations. One of the questions still sticks in my mind: "If elected Mayor, what would you do to combat noise pollution from Sky Harbor Airport?" My answer was short and to the point: "Build a dome over Tempe. Seriously, this is a stupid question. Sky Harbor is essential to the financial well-being of Phoenix, Tempe, and the entire Valley of the Sun. Planes are going to take off and land, and planes make noise. There is a REASON that property values are lower in north Tempe than in south Tempe: the landing patterns go over the Salt River in north Tempe. We can't simply NOT have airplanes taking off and landing. It is, in short, a necessary evil."

I was an idiotic beer-swilling college student, and even I realized how stupid that question was.

Also reminds me of the hotel I worked at had a trauma center heli-pad right across the street from it. Heaven forbid they have to make a landing, because we actually had guests DEMAND compensation for the noise.

These are the same type of people that would complain about ambulances making them late for their tennis game.

Years ago, I was flying back to Key West from Phoenix. My first flight out of Phoenix made an emergency landing in El Paso because a passenger was having a medical issue. I don't know what the issue was, but it was serious enough to cause the plane to make an unscheduled emergency landing--sounds kinda serious to me, don't ya think?

Well, I ended up getting to Miami too late to catch the last flight back to Key West, and had to spend the night in Miami, in a crappy hotel near the airport. Did I bitch? No. Why? Because whoever that guy was that had the medical issue on the plane was almost certainly having a worse day than me! And yet, I have no doubt that there were people on that flight that bitched, and complained, etc. Idiots.

[Racket_Man]

Memory Jog: About 8 years ago, there was a restored pair of WWII bombers (a B17 and a B24) that came to town here as part of a traveling air show. Stayed the weekend and made a bout a dozen flights, even took some passengers.

I was standing on my front doorstep taking video of the Flying Fortress on one of it's laps around the area when the person across the street came out and asked me if I was planning on joining her in filing a noise complaint against said aircraft.....

I just looked at her funny and went back inside

Yeah, 4 radial engines at throttle are fairly noisy, but this is by no means a common thing you sour killjoy....

And the National Guard helicopters on maneuver make much MORE noise and come through MORE often, so what was your point?!

I guess that moving to a town about 50 miles south of me would be out of the question for that person.

Every year for the last I 40 or so years they host an international airplane/flying convention. ALL types of aircraft show up from WWII bombers to experimental (which is what it all started with 70 years ago). they have flying exhibitions for 7 days and draw HUGE crowds. there are aerobatic demonstrations and all types of modern international military craft and commercial aircraft and even the Concorde made several appearences

[vikingchyk]

And the National Guard helicopters on maneuver make much MORE noise and come through MORE often, so what was your point?!

Try having Marine One, and its accompanying air support, buzz your house... Hey you, get out of my airspace, or I'll call the police!!

[ozcatbug]

In 1981 the theme park I worked at (not in 1981, I was 4 then) opened on the Gold Coast. At the time there was nothing around it. Perfect for a theme park, right?

When I worked there in 2000, we were forever getting complaints from the people that lived in the estate across the road from the theme park. Really, you buy season passes for the park, think it is fabulous to be so close that you don't need to drive, love that you can look out your window and see the wonder of the park, think it is an incentive for family and friends to visit, but when the screams and machinery noises from the coasters break in to your little bubble, that's when you complain? People are stupid.

And as an aside, I worked there for 2 years. The noises fade away very quickly, until the only noises you tend to hear are the ones that are unusual. For example, if a ride starts and suddenly all staff turn to look at it, that's when you should worry. I've seen a few rides break down, and they all grabbed staff attention. It always shocked guests when they would ask if the screams would get to me after a while, and I would answer with a confused look on my face "what screams?", but one little ride making an strange noise, that I would hear.

[crazylegs]

Try having Marine One, and its accompanying air support, buzz your house... Hey you, get out of my airspace, or I'll call the police!!

A local known PITA once rang the police to complain about - the police helicopter. He stated that he would phone 999 every 3 minutes until the helicopter went away.

He carried out his threat (shame it wasn't actually the police helicopter) for 30 minutes until the fuzz arrived and seized his phones as evidence.

Oddly enough he never pulled that stunt again.

[morgana]

A local known PITA once rang the police to complain about - the police helicopter. He stated that he would phone 999 every 3 minutes until the helicopter went away.

He carried out his threat (shame it wasn't actually the police helicopter) for 30 minutes until the fuzz arrived and seized his phones as evidence.

Oddly enough he never pulled that stunt again.

I *LOVE* stories of idiocy backfiring!

[drunkenwildmage]

Kinda off-topic, but Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ has had to deal with this for quite a while now. I think the judge told the snobs, "The track was here first" and that shut them up.... for now.

I remember hearing about it, that went on for a few years.

[Gaki]

If his precious nose is that offended, you're right, he shouldn't live by train tracks. My apartment is about 30 to 50 feet for the tracks and they come by only at night and in large numbers. They also have to blow their horn a lot due to all the crossings in town. Personally I adore them and I domt think I could sleep without them. I love the smell of them too. But I never really thought about why my rent is so cheap...Haha. Must be the trains. Lucky me.

[Sapphire Silk]

Try having Marine One, and its accompanying air support, buzz your house... Hey you, get out of my airspace, or I'll call the police!!

Been there, done that. The house where I grew up is directly under the flight path for Andrews AFB. Military craft, including Air Force 1 and Marine 1, flew over my house all the time.

I tuned the noise out. Didn't even notice it.

Years later, I lived in an apartment near the RR tracks. Tuned that out as well.

Ditto the RR tracks near where I live now. Tuned out. And the local airport (though the traffic is no where near what the Andrews AFB traffic was).

I once lived in an apartment right off a major interstate. Again, tuned it out.

You can learn to live with anything.

[PatchO'Black]

Here's my thought: If a building is built next to a known source of noise (railway, airport, etc.), then the residences should have to sign a waiver indicating that they are willingly to occupy said building despite the noise, and that they cannot seek legal action against the railway, airport, etc. regarding said noise. Of course, there would be more details to it, but that's the basic idea.

[Argabarga]

Another local example was back when I was in high school.

I was living in a literal one-stop-sign town, there was only one intersection, one store, and about 50 houses in the "downtown" area. Ever since I could remember, there was this abandoned borded-up stone garage that sat at the corner of said intersection that had become a weed-choked lot with the hulls of rusted out cars, tires and other garbage littering the place.

One year, a local resident bought the property, cleaned it up, updated the equipment and reopened the place as his own shop.

Within a year, the guy across the street started filing complaints with the township that the garage caused too much noise and he "couldn't sleep at night" Which was odd, since by the garage's own posted hours, they CLOSED at 6 and the garage owner went home at 8, so nobody was even there at night. Obviously, nothing came of that, since the property had never been re-zoned from it's original garage purpose, there was no law against making a garage out of it again. The guy had just assumed it would always stay abandoned.

Then he tried to petition his neighbors, they put up signs in the windows saying they SUPPORTED the garage, as they now no longer had to drive 30 minutes to the next town over to get their cars worked on/inspected

He then went to the newspapers, and managed to get a front-page story on the "problem" done on a slow news day. Out of all the people the paper interviewed, he was the only one who wanted the garage gone.

The township eventually told him to move if it made him so upset, there was no law being broken and they rather liked the garage as an tax revenue source as opposed to a weedy eyesore, and the ol' sourpuss sold out and left town.

Shop's still in business today