Need to stop the church bells

[creighton0123]

No where else to vent: I live very close to a fairly large church. Every hour, on the hour between 7AM and 7PM, they ring the time. That's fine. HOWEVER, every morning between 7 and 7:30AM and every evening between 7 and 7:30PM, they ring a song over and over again.

 

This, I would claim, is beyond excessive and is disrupting the peace. I am starting to grow tired of it every single night, night after night. I shouldn't have to close my windows to block it out.

 

I can tolerate their desire to play the music for a short time, but for half an hour in the morning and in the evening is beyond acceptable.

 

I wonder if I can file a complaint with the city.

[norajane]

 

I feel your pain. My dorm in college was right across the street from Rockefeller Chapel and the bells, the bells, the bells!!!

 

What was worse was when the carillon players would practice at this other church a few blocks away...have you ever heard a carillon? It is discordant and jangly at best, and when you have people learning to play it...ouch!

[creighton0123]

I know. This church (Christian Science Church in Boston) is surrounded by three major hotels, four major apartment complexes, and about 200 brownstone apartment buildings... It forms an artificial amphitheater that deafens over 10 thousand residents and visitors in the middle of suppertime.

 

I could stand at the foot of the church and it's about 75% less noisy than it is 600 feet away.

 

I love the view of the church from my apartment... but cannot stand being woken up at 7AM every morning and deafened by it at 7PM every night.

[Art_Critic]

Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings

 

It means come to church for some religions.. or announcing the mass ceremony so I doubt you could get 'em on disturbing the peace...

 

I used to live about 1/4 mile from trains tracks years ago and it used to drive me nuts.. then one day I just got used to it and never noticed the trains.

[creighton0123]

Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings

 

It means come to church for some religions.. or announcing the mass ceremony so I doubt you could get 'em on disturbing the peace...

 

I used to live about 1/4 mile from trains tracks years ago and it used to drive me nuts.. then one day I just got used to it and never noticed the trains.

 

The noise of a passing train, however, is unavoidable noise. There are situations where churches have been sanctioned for excessive use of their bells - where the use qualifies as disturbing the peace.

[whichwayisup]

No where else to vent: I live very close to a fairly large church. Every hour, on the hour between 7AM and 7PM, they ring the time. That's fine. HOWEVER, every morning between 7 and 7:30AM and every evening between 7 and 7:30PM, they ring a song over and over again.

 

This, I would claim, is beyond excessive and is disrupting the peace. I am starting to grow tired of it every single night, night after night. I shouldn't have to close my windows to block it out.

 

I can tolerate their desire to play the music for a short time, but for half an hour in the morning and in the evening is beyond acceptable.

 

I wonder if I can file a complaint with the city.

 

Where I am, there are noise bylaws and certain times come into play. No way should those be going off so early in the morning. That's just wrong.

[creighton0123]

Where I am, there are noise bylaws and certain times come into play. No way should those be going off so early in the morning. That's just wrong.

 

In Boston, noise ordinance laws are between 9PM and 7AM. I've looked it up before because of some jackass construction workers a few years back who insisted on doing all of the heavy work at 7:10AM every morning for a few weeks. Still, not the morning that bothers me. I don't wake easily. It's the evening when I'm just getting home and relaxing, opening up the apartment to get some fresh air in.

[denise_xo]

 

I feel your pain.

 

Ditto. When I was in my early twenties I lived at place that had four churches in the vicinity. At the time I was generally partying hard and was always sleeping and badly hung over at 11am on Sunday when they'd all start chiming simultaneously

[Taramere]

No where else to vent: I live very close to a fairly large church. Every hour, on the hour between 7AM and 7PM, they ring the time. That's fine. HOWEVER, every morning between 7 and 7:30AM and every evening between 7 and 7:30PM, they ring a song over and over again.

 

This, I would claim, is beyond excessive and is disrupting the peace. I am starting to grow tired of it every single night, night after night. I shouldn't have to close my windows to block it out.

 

I can tolerate their desire to play the music for a short time, but for half an hour in the morning and in the evening is beyond acceptable.

 

I wonder if I can file a complaint with the city.

 

I think your first course of action, in any complaint, should (where possible) be to contact the person or organisation you have a complaint about.

 

I don't know how it is in the US, but I think here (UK) there is recognition and acceptance within the ecclesiastical bodies that church bells can be an irritant to a lot of people...and therefore they should be prepared to deal with complaints and to try to reach compromises to reduce any annoyance.

[freestyle]

I used to have three Catholic churches near me, in my old neighborhood--one would start at 6 a.m. on Sundays.

 

For someone who got home from work at 3 or 4 a.m. (meaning ME) that was the middle of the night by my reckoning.........

 

So I feel your pain,too, OP.......

 

Thankfully I moved, but I do get jolted awake by barges and trains a bit too early sometimes............. *sigh*

[Kamille]

Yes that would be annoying.

 

I spent all summer surrounded by construction work. Somehow my neighborhood wasn't affected by the economic crisis. Everyone was renovating! My landlord undertook renovations on the house, both our immediate neighbor's houses underwent renovations and two houses in front underwent major renovations. (They're redoing the foundation on one of them, as far as I can tell.) It made hanging out on the balcony and working from home, impossible this summer as there was noise and dust from 7am to 7 pm. I'm hoping this means next summer will be nice and quiet.

[pureinheart]

Have you spoke with the officials of the church? Let them know this is disturbing?

 

I wait till 9-10am to run anything power related in order not to disturb my neighbors...possibly the church would be willing to play the music later in the morning?

[pureinheart]

Oh also...I can drown out most noise by a fan or aircleaner. Homedics work good too (they are devices that have ocean and other such sounds).

[Art_Critic]

Interesting article.. 2009

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/arizona_catholic_church_sues_to_ring_its_bells/

 

then another.. 2010.. resolution...

 

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/03/05/20100305churchbells0305.html

 

A federal judge this week ordered the city not to enforce its noise ordinance against "sound generated in the course of religious expression."

[freestyle]

Interesting article.. 2009

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/arizona_catholic_church_sues_to_ring_its_bells/

 

then another.. 2010.. resolution...

 

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/03/05/20100305churchbells0305.html

 

 

Wow. I would've been furious if I was one of those residents.Especially seeing as the houses were there BEFORE the church moved in.

 

I'm all for freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, but where does the line get drawn?

 

Isn't forcing me to listen to church bells in my own home, due to excessive amplification, impinging on my right to worship as I choose? Or NOT worship, if that's not MY religion?

 

If I lived there, I'd be really tempted to play Tibetan chants through a P.A. system in my backyard, just to prove a point. ( even though I'm not a Buddhist)(.........not that there's anything wrong with that)

[Stung]

I don't know. I do feel for you to some extent, as I would hate that, too. Also, I am REALLY not a morning person, so that would have me hating life on weekend mornings. But...did you not know the church rang those bells, before you moved in? Was the church not there first? Is this a recent change to their bells schedule?

 

I lived on a very steep hill once in a major city, on a street with a bus line. A family bought the house next to me, and then immediately started bombarding the city with complaints, trying to get the bus rerouted so they wouldn't have to listen to it laboring up the hill in the early mornings. They bought the house knowing there was a busline there that many other people depended on for their commute, and then they bitched and moaned about it until they eventually sold the house again some years later. No sympathy from me on that one.

 

Another time, I lived in a district very well known for it's warehouse clubs and artist lofts. Everybody knew that district had loud nightclubs and bars and nightlife that partied on into the wee hours, it was a pretty famous area for it and exactly WHY the artist lofts were considered desirable hot commodities. Yet people started buying up the chic artists lofts, and then lobbying the city to have the nightclubs shut down or force everything to close earlier, because they didn't like the noise. I didn't have any sympathy for them, either. Don't buy a loft in an area famous for loud late nightlife if you can't handle being exposed to loud late nightlife. It just seems like common sense.

 

I don't want to be rude, and I have liked many of your posts in the past, but I'm not sure how the church bells are really that different from the buses on the hills or the loud nightclubs at 2 am, unless this is a recent change they've newly implemented. Maybe I am missing something?

[creighton0123]

Stung, I had lived in the neighborhood before, but not in this apartment. When I previously lived here, I did not recall the bells ringing for that long. I only started noticing about a month or so ago, suggesting that they did not ring every morning and ever night for that length of time. I was only aware and accepted the hourly chimes.

 

I've talked to other neighbors as well and they did confirm that the song-playing for half an hour in the morning and in the evening is new. I live in an urban area. In the heart of Boston. I can deal with sirens and subways and loud buses and other city noise, but not half an hour of non-stop church bells that obviously exceed noise ordinance.