Soft Machine³ - Arts Tech and Other

UPDATE: Geo-local shame

• Posted the only checkin and photo for Le Meridien in San Francisco on BrightKite
• Added the second “tip” for Le Meridien in San Francisco on Foursquare 
• Both link back to this post
• Todo: Flickr, Picasa (use geo-tagging and photo caption) with maximum sharing

 

UPDATE: SF MoMA gets a pass

I believe the city or a contracted private company operates the garage on behalf of SF MoMA — and it is not an immediate “neighbor” of mine where Le Meridien certainly is.

 

There are two instances of a pedestrian “safety measure” that are so embarrassingly bad, I simply must point them out. The “safety measure” I’m referring to is the “warning alarm” meant to signal to pedestrians that a vehicle is about to emerge from a garage onto the street.

These alarms are automatic, and go off continually. I’m not sure what inhumane ogre equipped Le Meridien’s and SF MoMA’s garages, but I’d love to have words with it. These two garages emit such horrible noise it damages the quality of life for the entire block. In addition, the noise is so loud and unpleasant that hearing impairment is a real possibility.

I’ve embedded the recent, relevant TED talk to persuade the SF MoMA and the Meridien Hotel that proper, aesthetic use of sound makes good business sense.

I’m at a loss as to why repeated, jarring, unpleasant noises are added by choice to modern urban environments. There is a delightful little private parking garage near the bottom of Columbus that uses an ingenious alarm bell — it’s an actual bell mechanism that goes “ding ding.” Imagine that!

I’m going to have to make a visual representation of the alarm sound that was chosen for the SF MoMA garage; some visually gifted people may be effectively deaf. Perhaps I will collect some “sound from the streets” to drive the point home.

Le Meridien should soon realize that I’m a nearby neighbor who has been offended by their “safety measure” many, many times. Furthermore,  they are damaging the business of the Elephant and Castle across the street, which has outside tables that are repeatedly bombarded with their “safety measure.” Perhaps if I approach the Elephant and Castle directly with a noise complaint against Le Meridien, it will have a more immediate impact. Some businesses are deaf to complaints of citizens. 

I expect I’ll need to file a noise complaint with the city to get relief in either or both cases. I’d like to know if these alarms exceed the decibel level which the city’s “noise abatement” department handles.

Le meridien are nasty noise polluters who stink up the whole block