Readers of the Reporter have surely noticed my occasional jibes against sources of irritating noise in Mexico: loud neighbors, salones de eventos, balnearios, leaf blowers, all-terrain vehicles – the list is long.
All these years I thought I was alone in my lamentations, but there must be something new in the air (besides noise) because both Guadalajara and Zapopan have recently begun imposing big fines on some of the worst offenders: bars, nightclubs and, ironically, neighborhood churches honoring their patron saints with explosions in the night.
And now we witness a true, grass-roots response to the issue: an organization called Cruzada Contra el Ruido has drafted its own initiative on how to resolve the problem and on July 24 delivered it into the hands of legislators at the Jalisco Congress in downtown Guadalajara.
“Our aim is to protect people suffering from noise,” Cruzada’s lawyer Alberto García Ruvalcaba told the press. “Noise not only from commercial establishments, but also from neighbors. In our state there are no sanctions against noise and inspections are not carried out. There is practically no infrastructure to do this, no resources, no personnel.
He continued: “The final result is impunity – the people causing this go unpunished. We would like to see changes in the law to resolve these problems once and for all. We are prepared to do whatever it takes, to go the extra mile here to find a concrete solution to these awful problems.”
García and Congressman Augusto Valencia agreed that the payment of an ordinary fine is unlikely to deter the owners of noisy establishments that make money from loud music.
The plan, they said, is to establish a sliding multa (fine) which might be 3,000 pesos for the owner of a small bar, but a million and a half pesos for the owner of a profitable salón de eventos. After two offenses, Garcia suggested, the establishment would lose its license to operate.
After the press conference, Garcia told me that the Anti-Noise Crusade started when neighbors came together to try to deal with a local bar belting out music ten hours a day, five days a week.
“But I’ve had issues with excessive noise all my life and because I’m a lawyer, I have
always looked to the law for solutions,” he said. “Our organization is formed around our Facebook page (Cruzada contra el Ruido en Guadalajara) where we advise people, point them at legal resources and publicize their complaints.”
García also touched on the problem of neighbors who turn on loudspeakers full blast in the middle of the night.
“Neighborhood noise is the most difficult to tackle. The police cannot enter the noisy neighbor’s house, but what could help is to make your initial call to the police by dialing 911. The roar of excessive noise is included among the emergencies that you can report using 911, and this may cause the police to take your case more seriously.”
Finally, García suggested people make a video of the disturbance and upload it to the Crusade Facebook page, where it may, hopefully, shame the perpetrator.
“We hope to instill a new awareness in people, that it is unseemly to make so much noise, that it disturbs the neighbors.”
Members of the Cruzada Contra el Ruido shared their stories with John Pint. Here are some of them.
“A company rented the house next to mine and literally turned it into a factory. All day long, in their patio, they run metal-cutting saws, producing excruciatingly loud noise and at night they hold wild parties there. These activities are forbidden in my neighborhood, but the police refuse to do anything about it because the owners of the house have friends in the office of the Public Prosecutor.”
“I work in a library. Recently a bar opened next door to us, producing so much noise that it’s impossible for people to read or to do research. We asked the bar to turn down the volume, but they refused. How can you have a library without silence? We just can’t stand it anymore!”
“My son was suffering from depression and we were trying to help him recuperate. He needed peace and quiet but our neighborhood is very loud. The Zeta Gas truck passes by, blasting us with noise, then it’s the bread truck and so on, all day long and at night every dog in the neighborhood starts barking all at once. Then things got totally impossible: a neighbor started playing music so loud it literally vibrated our windows. Well, none of us were able to sleep anymore in my house, including my son, of course, and it just got so bad that he couldn’t stand it anymore and he took his own life. My son committed suicide ... and that is why I’m here today. I thank God for this Cruzada and this initiative and I just hope it might help save someone else’s child.”