Shoutout to the retired cop who told me about the 'quiet hours' loophole in my town

Last month I got a noise complaint from my neighbor over a Saturday afternoon band practice. I was pissed so I looked up the local noise ordinance and found it says quiet hours start at 10pm. But then I noticed a weird clause about amplified instruments being banned during 'reasonable daylight hours' too. I called the city clerk and she said that's been on the books since 1957 and nobody ever enforces it. The retired cop who lived down the street told me the real trick is to just keep the windows closed and point your amps away from his house. He said the law was originally meant to stop a guy who played the bagpipes at 6am every Sunday. Now I'm thinking about starting a petition to scrap the whole thing since it's basically useless for actual complaints. Has anyone else found a weird local law that everyone just ignores?

2 comments

2 Comments

blairc9013d ago

Heard about a similar situation in a town near me where there's still a law on the books banning people from playing the accordion after 9pm. It was apparently written back when the local dance hall had a rival band problem. The thing is, these old laws stick around because nobody cares enough to fight them. Sounds like your town's law is just a relic from a different time, like mine. Probably easier to just work around it than to deal with city hall trying to rewrite the whole thing.

the_max13d ago

Wait, the law was originally written to stop a guy playing bagpipes at 6am on a Sunday? That is both the funniest and most specific thing I've heard all week. I can just picture some council member sitting there furious after waking up to that noise.