January 1, 2012
Noise Free America
For immediate release
Contact:
Mark Roberts
877-NOISE-NO
[email protected]
Ted Rueter
877-NOISE-NO
[email protected]
Chapel Hill: Roseville, Michigan, a Detroit suburb located in southern Macomb County, has won this month’s Noisy Dozen award from Noise Free America for tolerating an avalanche of noise from boom cars. In Roseville, boom car thumping is completely out of control.
Mark Roberts, an eight-year resident of Roseville, is the founder of “Ban the Boombox,” a grassroots organization. He is totally fed up with the noise situation in Roseville. He notes that “no one wants to listen. I get no help. The booming continues every day and every night, 30 to 40 times every day. The city states it’s ‘just too hard to catch.’ My argument is that there are at least 30 every single day. Why can’t a squad car be put out here and just pull them over?”
Roberts notes that an officer often sits out by the high school, when school dismisses at 2:40. Roberts can clearly hear six or ten booming cars every single afternoon. Yet, the police do nothing: “A police car could sit on my street, across from the high school, and pull over at least 30 cars every day. A $500 fine would mean $15,000 a day in fines! How can a city refuse this kind of revenue?”
Roberts notes, “It’s astounding. It’s completely, totally frustrating beyond comprehension. They honestly could sit out on Gratiot Avenue, Macomb County’s busiest street, and pull over 100 a day, every day. But they won’t. They refuse. I’m just astounded at the lack of law enforcement around here. These noise terrorists are allowed to do this, every day, every night, and nothing is done about it.”
In Roberts’ view, “It’s lawlessness. The booming, thundering noise is insane. It’s criminal.”
Roberts is no fan of his adopted hometown: “Roseville is a hell hole. It’s crap. The leaders are crap and there is just no escaping it. The leaders here are more frustrating than the lawbreaking noise terrorists. That’s how frustrating this is. I’ve been fighting, mostly by myself, for eight long years.”
The Roseville resident also faces a problem with train horn noise, which he calls ridiculous: “We have never been able to sleep with our windows open because they blow at 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 in the morning, every night. It wakes us up all the time. There are five train crossings within 2 1/2 miles, and even though the closest one is one mile away from our house, we hear them all. They blow five or six times at every crossing and we hear them at every crossing. It’s mind-blowing that this is allowed. I couldn’t lay on my car horn at 2:00, 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. I would be ticketed and thrown in jail if I did this one night!”
Roberts usually hears the train horns blow 25 to 30 times, almost every night. If two or three trains come through here, that is 50-75 obnoxious train horns every night.
All of this noise in Roseville has taken a toll on Roberts’ sleep and health: “So between the boom car idiots, the screaming trains, and the cretins who run our city, it’s a lost cause. I can’t even sleep and haven’t been able to sleep in my own home, for eight long years.”
Recently, Roberts and his wife “were sitting around the house relaxing, at 10:00 pm. We had finished a long, busy weekend, preparing to wake up Monday morning at 6:00 to begin a busy week. All of a sudden, this booming idiot drove by, thumping, booming, and vibrating us out of our minds! He was disturbing hundreds of people on his way! My windows and cabinets were vibrating. My body was shaking. What in the world gives people the right to do this? Nothing. And yet, Roseville simply refuses to do anything about it.”
Roberts concludes: “I know the booming is going to increase exponentially as soon as the spring and summer nights and weekends arrive. It will be out of control, as per usual around Roseville.”
Noise Free America is a national citizens organization devoted to noise reduction. Roseville, Michigan also won the “Noisy Dozen” award in October 2010.