What can Reed Bente do about the supercharged car stereos that rattle windows and shred nerves in south Lansing?
Since employing a shotgun would be illegal, the only other option apparently is to move away.
In an e-mail to me Bente wrote: I’m speaking of the area of South Pennsylvania and East Mount Hope. Even with all the traffic noise at this intersection, there is something else more devastating: mobile boom boxes.
“They are so loud that even sitting inside my house, with my windows closed, I can’t hear my TV; all I can hear are the car stereos shaking the house and the ground it stands on.
“It’s not that I don’t like music. I do. I like all kinds of music. I just don’t like it forced upon me.”
Bente went on the City of Lansing Web site and confirmed that there is, indeed, an ordinance against excessive vehicle noise.
The city attorney even provides a standard: “Music or noise so loud that the person in the next car can fell the vehicle shake.”
The Web sites notes, however, that “Individuals may not file complaints for this type of violation.”
If, however, “an LPD witnesses the violation the officer can write a ticket.”
