Hey, there! Log in / Register

Citizen complaint of the day: All the noise, noise, noise, noise!

An annoyed citizen in Brighton is slowly losing his or her mind due to music being played at the Lady of Fatima Shrine off Washington Street:

Unnecessary and unreasonable noise pollution emanating from loudspeakers mounted to exterior of Lady of Fatima Shrine building on a regular basis. Music is frequently audible from inside of residence over 300 feet away. Music plays on a daily basis for hours on end and has been left playing overnight on several occasions. Music is left playing while nobody is attending services or visiting shrine the majority of the time. Have made multiple visits to ask if they can turn it down when it is too loud, only to find that there is nobody inside the building.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

This guy is an a-hole. I used to live in the area and walked my dog through there regularly. You could never hear the music if you werent within 50 feet of the shrine and even when you walked right by it it was barely audible. The shrine is way set back from the street and nowhere near residences.

up
Voting closed 0

It was loud this year but so what ? It was beautiful. Like you ,I walk my dog thru there frequently and it was a nice addition to Christmas Day. The 'caretaker' of the Chapel, who is is also a close neighbor, cares very deeply about that little chapel and he's up there every day of the week keeping it beautiful and safe (w/help from other volunteers). So it was loud for a few hours on Christmas Day, high season for Christians. A few hours one day a year is minimul compared to that obnoxious station wagon which drives around, a gigantic manora on it's roof , blaring noise through a loud speaker for 9 straight days announcing an event which is *not* of a religious nature. I agree, the complainer is a twit.

up
Voting closed 0

I believe the shrine is part of St. Columbkille Parish, which is quite active. Phone call?

up
Voting closed 0

Try this: Visit a larger city in a Muslim country, stay at a hotel/inn close to a mosque.
Let us know what you think of Lady Fatima after hearing the call to prayer blasting at 5:00 AM - every morning.

up
Voting closed 0

I quite enjoyed the Muslim call to prayer that I heard each morning (not far from my hotel) when I was traveling in Eastern Europe 1999. However, I wouldn't want to listen to it for any extended length of time, or all day, or into the night...that's just annoying and inconsiderate! Call someone@ town hall...should be some ordinance in place for such disturbances. Good Luck!

up
Voting closed 0

Some people just love to be miserable; It seems to be *their* religion. I'll mention the horror of this *noise pollution* issue to my neighbor, I'm sure he will be concerned because he's a nice guy and cares about this community with all his heart. Then we'll have a good laugh. We live in an area which has changed dramatically in the past 10-15 years do to the influx of certain religious groups yet we don't complain to City Hall about their childrens' unending scream-talking - talk about noise pollution- 18hrs /7 days a week. My suggestion if the chapel hymns are that disturbing : Move.

up
Voting closed 0

OMG, yes! Our first morning in Marrakesh....

up
Voting closed 0

Merry Christmas! What a jerk.

up
Voting closed 0

Because Festivus has no music.

up
Voting closed 0

hahahhahah ! Good one ! Thanks for lightening up the conversation.

up
Voting closed 0

There are cell phone apps that measure decibel levels. There are noise ordinances that specify maximum acceptable levels. If the decibel reading is over the maximum then the guy has every right to complain. Even if the noise was not violating noise laws I would still prefer to not hear it on my property if I was a neighbor. While the church might act as an anchor the church does not pay property taxes. So if I'm helping the church stay alive by contributing to paying for the roads that allow parishioners to visit then I would hope the church folks would demonstrate consideration for me and my neighbors who might not want to hear the same music.

But if the parishioners think the guy is overreacting then I would hope the parishioners would be willing to hear whatever music the neighbor likes to hear - in their living rooms and bedrooms.

up
Voting closed 1

Amen.

up
Voting closed 0

Yeah, this person should should call the City's Environment Department and ask someone to come out and do a noise reading. If the noise rises to a level where there is a problem, the city will act.

up
Voting closed 0

Ok, next time the 50+ kids are playing at the newly renovated parks in Brighton, I'll take a decibel reader with me then call the police about noise pollution. Besides, who knows if a kid is being accosted or harmed - it's important to make sure those screaming kids are ok . I pay high property taxes and other taxes and fees which pay for those parks (which we cannot even walk through with leashed dogs due to the terror our small dogs invoke, leading to more screaming) and public libraries and the public 'squares' where families w/6+ kids congregate for multiple annual festivals (of which we are not permitted to attend). Not fair, I don't have even have kids yet I pay for upkeep of those public areas. Oh, wait, noise or not, we cannot say a word - that would be considered discrimination or something worse if *we* complained about noise pollution and the trash and litter left behind, 18hr/7 days a week 9 months a year.

up
Voting closed 0

Much?

Would you rather they be playing on your street?

Where is this park where you can't walk a dog ... oh, I get it, it isn't the dog, you just hate kids.

Move to an old phart colony all ready.

up
Voting closed 0

Perhaps the church could put one of those short range radio broadcasters in like people do with Christmas Lights displays?

"Tune your radio to 82.5 to listen to the music"

Regardless of how loud it may or may not be, noise is always a subjective issue, and it's wrong for the Church to arbitrarily play music for regular, lengthy amounts of time without prior neighborhood agreement. Everyone has a right to "quiet enjoyment of their home".

up
Voting closed 0

Tell *that* to the 100's of families with 4+ children per household who scream all day as a manner of communication. I feel discriminated against that chapel hymns are considered offensive but we must bear the burden of unending noise all day every day coming from the parks, the private schools (quite close to the chapel) and the neighborhood children and families. I too would love some quiet enjoyment which is completely out of the question 9 months of the year.

up
Voting closed 0

Dah who doraze! Welcome Christmas, come this way!

Seriously though, I back this guy's position (IF it's legit). If it's true that you can hear the music from inside your apartment over 300 feet away, then guess what? It's too loud.

up
Voting closed 1

Yes and no.

A year or two ago, I heard rock/pop music in my living room as if the neighbors were having a house party at 9 PM. It was loud and clear enough for me to make out all of the lyrics and songs. I investigated and determined it was coming from the street past his house. I hopped on my scooter to find the culprit and politely ask them to turn it down and when I got there, I realized it was actually coming from the street beyond that instead.

Move to the next street...and still hadn't found the source. So, I go a bit further and I'm now about half a mile from my house and have lost the source. As I backtrack, I pick it up again in the middle of an elderly subsidized housing project....an odd place for the music, but whatever. I search and discover it's coming from where I had lost it at. This went on for another mile or so until I realized that I was basically next door to BC where they were having some sort of outdoor event on one of their fields.

Because of the hills, streets, buildings, and the way the sound was funneling through them all, it was clear as day in my living room...but over a mile away at BC. To this day, I can sometimes still catch their marching band playing on game days in that same way.

So, it doesn't have to be exceptionally loud to be heard inside a living room a few hundred feet away if it's being funneled just right and directly at their window. The Baltimore Science Center actually has a cool example of this next to the Inner Harbor walkway where you can whisper to someone dozens of feet away and have no interference through the use of paired parabolic concrete dishes facing each other.

What that means here is that the loudspeakers may just need to be adjusted to point in a better direction that prevents their transit of soundwaves throughout the nearby community. I live near the shrine and would be in range to hear it the way this complainant does and yet I never do unless I'm walking by on Washington Street. It's probably not that it's too loud but that it's aimed poorly.

up
Voting closed 0

Remember when the first Fenway Park concert happened--like 2004-ish? I lived in southern JP, by the train tracks. That night we were sitting in the living room with the windows open and it sounded like someone was playing an acoustic guitar in the house across the street. It wasn't loud, and you couldn't make out a tune, but the sound was definitely there. I wondered if it was from the concert, which seemed really strange because it's not as if we heard anything else from Fenway--we were miles away. I also imagined that if *we* were getting noise from the concert, then the people in the Fenway itself must have been getting their eardrums blown out. Not so.

Turns out, the sound from that concert behaved in very weird ways. Measures were taken to control the noise in the Fenway, but there were many complaints from people further out, mostly from people who lived near the Southwest Corridor. Near as could could be determined, the concert noise was getting into the Southwest Corridor, bouncing off the cement walls, or somehow causing sympathetic vibrations in the rails, and basically echoing its way down to JP. It was very strange, and if I hadn't heard it myself I would have thought those people were imagining things.

To the city's credit, there were different noise-control measures in place for the next concert, and I don't remember hearing anything.

up
Voting closed 0