How dare those firefighters blow their horns!

[cboy4]

Neighbors fed up with fire sirens, air horns
Public safety demands that people be warned when
firefighters respond to emergencies, but residents
of some areas say they can't take the sirens and horns.
Chronicle photo by Mike Kepka




Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 26, 2008


Living in any city, particularly one as small as San Francisco, comes with its challenges- the loud neighbors, the lack of parking, the graffiti, the panhandlers.

Then, there are the sirens and air horns.

If you live near a fire station - and if your home is in San Francisco, the odds are good, because there are 42 stations spread out over 49 square miles - you may have taken these periodic wails and honks as another given nuisance.

But a large group of citizens in the city's center - the Tenderloin, Polk Street, South of Market and central Market areas - have had enough. Three years ago, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White signed a general work order saying that fire truck air horns should be limited to "high-risk" situations, but neighbors say little has changed and they are leaning on the chief to do more.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/26/BA11VQ90G.DTL

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Reminds me of the idiot here who bought a house

that backed up to the elementary school and vigorously complained about the noise the kids made when playing on the playground.

Idiots.

[cboy4]

5. Yea, where I live -- they're building thousands and thousands

of new homes near the airport.

(You know where this story is going.)

People are not only complaining about the noise...they're complaining about oil dripping from the planes and landing in their swimming pools.

You decided to buy next to the, hello, international airport!!

[Gormy Cuss]

2. In the big bad city, no less.

That story made me LOL this morning.

Reminds of when a developer threw condos on an old wharf in the middle of a working fishing port and the owners complained about the fish odor emanating from the processing plant on the adjacent wharf.


:eyes:

[hifalutin]

14. Like buying a house right on the riverbank

and not expecting the waters to rise, ever.
'Have you ever seen the rain.........?'

[magellan]

3. I've often wondered

...why no one has come up with a system yet that will take over any car stereo that's turned on to notify drivers within a certain radius that emergency vehicles are approaching. Since one of the reasons their horns are so loud is because people drive with their windows and sound system jacked up....

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

15. Could be done if youre listening to the radio via a broadcast

but if someone is listening to their CD player or iPod cant be done..

[magellan]

17. We used to have a hands-free set for our cellphone

You popped the phone in the cradle, and if you made a call or received one then whatever you were listening to on the car stereo -- cd or radio -- was muted and the phone call took charge. Seems they could make a similar device standard in all cars that's always listening for an emergency vehicle signal?

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

19. *way* too intrusive...

[magellan]

20. How so?

[niyad]

4. then we have the people who buy near an airport and complain about the

noise, and those who buy near a military firing range, ditto.

when the galaxy flight crashed near a heavily-populated area of reno just after take-off, I reminded those who had wondered why I was so insistent about not buying near the airport or its approach patterns of my concerns.

[cboy4]

6. Hahaha....you read my mind. (See above)

;)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. I just saw this ---

and damn , it pisses me off. I am sorry, but you moved near a frickin' FIRE STATION peoople!!!!! What did you expect???? :eyes:

There has been too damn much of that here in SF -- especially with the incredible rise in loft units being built in formerly industrial or downtown neighborhoods. There was a great old longshoreman bar that was pushed out after a 100 unit yuppie apartment was built next to it -- the new neighbors complained endlessly about the live music on the weekends.

I was just over at the Mytbusters space -- it is located in a light industrial part of of the City -- I saw where they are building a bunch of loft units on the lot that butts right up against the Mythibuster's building (you see it as an empty field wher they did expeperiments in the series) -- all I could think of is all the complaining the new neighbors will do when they move in and have explosions going off next door.

Idiots.

[Xithras]

8. The field where they fired the chicken gun?

I guess every square inch of flat land is destined to be built on. Who in their right mind approved building a residential building next door to an industrial park though?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. Yup, the Chicken Gun site...

How does it get approved? By defining the loft as a "live/work" space -- that is how they can be built in places zoned for light industrial. Everyone knows it is bullshit -- that those places are used as almost strictly residential -- they have long been a thorn in the side of neighborhood/SF activists who have bee trying for over a decade to save the City from the yuppie blight that was pushing out the working class, families, Latinos (and now the AA community here in Bayview/Hunters Point), small industrial businesses, and artisans.

There is a war on in our City -- and right now, if you are not rich and/or white, you are on the losing end if it. Thank you Willy Brown and Gavin Newsom! :puke: :(

[cboy4]

10. It was the same thing with that neon sign that had been

up for a million years in SOMA -- wasn't it for Coke, or something like that??

All of the new loft tenants were complaining it was too bright. lol

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. Yes, tthe Coke sign!

Tough shit on the loft tenants - they can suck it, for all I care.

[negativenihil]

9. This is pathetic.

Look - Firemen are the people who will run into your burning home to save you. That fact alone makes the horns and sirens completely tolerable imo.

Oh and I also live RIGHT next to a police/fire station. I hear cops and firetrucks and EMTs tearing down in front of my house *every* night.

[knight_of_the_star]

13. Tell me about it

I live on campus at SF State, there has yet to be a night when police or fire weren't tearing down 19th Avenue, it woke me up the first couple times after moving in but now I'm used to it. Just part of living in a major city.

[pink-o]

18. I used to live on Junipero Serra just south of Park Merced

...and between Muni air brakes, police and fire sirens, sleeping thru the night was rare.

But if you can't stand city noises, go ahead and live in the country! I spent a year in a rural area, and bolted back to Ess Eff as soon as I could get out! I would rather deal with crowds, noise, no parking, dubious characters in doorways with paper-bagged bottles and all the other city stuff than spend another minute wondering if that twig cracking behind me is either a mountain lion or a mountain man unibomber!
Too quiet, too empty freaks me out a lot more.

But it depends on what you're used to. I've lived in cities most of my life, I don't know how to deal with the country.

[indypaul]

16. And if it is you who needs their assistance

you will be only too glad to hear them coming.
But, of course, never quickly enough when it
is you who needs them, I'm sure.

[Breeze54]

21. I can see their point... to a point...

We have a cop in town that constantly hits his double siren for everything and it's not necessary at all. He does it late at night when there isn't even any traffic and real early in the morning. I think people complained because he seems to have cooled his jets lately. I don't know about the neighborhoods in your OP but if it's thickly settled, those sirens bounce the sound off all the buildings and it can be frightening. We have a loud horn that goes off to call the firefighters to the station also and that sounds like an air raid siren and can be loud and freaky too. I think if it's a busy traffic time they should sound the sirens but if it's a light traffic time, then use them as needed.