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 Editorials | Issues | November 2006 
Mexico City Tries to Turn Down the Volume
 Antonio Olivo - Chicago Tribune
Mexico City - Along the crowded Lagunilla outdoor market, street vendors were arguing, even though they could scarcely be heard over wailing police sirens, honking green taxis and blaring music coming from all directions.
Over all the commotion, one opinion came through crystal clear: A new local ordinance to set decibel limits in one of the world's noisiest metropolises will never work, despite the steep fines it would impose.
Several wondered: Is it even possible to harness Mexico City's carnival of sound? To quiet the roving mariachi bands-for-hire that sing about lost love until dawn? To silence the sidewalk barkers promoting the latest trendy bars? Or, in a 24-hour society that loves a good party, to undo the fact that one's stature is often measured by the strength of his stereo speakers?
"Nonsense," declared Ricardo Sanchez, 26, a compact-disc vendor at Lagunilla who blasts merengue, reggaeton and other dance music that can be heard a block away. "If I didn't want any problems with noise, I'd stay inside my house and never leave."
As the Mexico City area continues to grow past 20 million residents - many who live near factories, dance clubs or often-congested roadways - local officials say something must be done about the increasing volume.
Their response is the new Environmental Standard for the Federal District, adopted in September, which cracks down on loud factories, bars, markets and other places of business in the capital.
Sound levels are climbing beyond what is universally considered to be safe, said Ernesto Trujillo, head of environmental regulations for the Mexico City area, who will oversee the new ordinance's enforcement. The law does not apply to the city's international airport, which is federally regulated, despite its proximity to a cluster of apartment buildings.
"This is not healthy," Trujillo said. "We are looking at higher levels of distress in the district due to the noise, an augmenting of stress."
To show the government means business, higher fines associated with the new ordinance start around $90 and can climb to $900, Trujillo said.
The new ordinance tightens a noise law for the area that went largely ignored after it was approved a decade ago, said Sergio Beristain, president of the Mexican Institute of Acoustics and author of a 2004 treatise on the kaleidoscopic nature of noise pollution in Mexico City.
Beristain ascribed the problem to a mixture of erratic urban planning and a culture that loves to be heard.
"The people, they're used to noise," he said with some resignation, calling the new law too limited in scope. "I'm not sure they have the resources they would need to enforce this ordinance. It would require a massive education campaign."
Trujillo, head of environmental regulations, said enforcement would be carried out with portable sound monitors in response to formal complaints and on routine checks, he said.
Trujillo said officials also are formulating plans to quiet the sometimes-deafening roar of traffic, a task that would include widening roads, replacing creaking public vehicles and cracking down on trucks that sound like exploding bombs as they rumble over potholes.
"This has to be a garden path that we will change little by little," he said.
Talk of garden paths or anything else that's tranquil is instantly drowned out among the narrow walkways of Lagunilla marketplace, one of the city's loudest neighborhoods.
There the regulars acknowledge some truth in the government's assertion that the worsening noise could be harmful.
Beatriz Garcia, 32, whose family sells clothes across from Sanchez's CD stand, said her mother keeps aspirin in her pocket for her frequent headaches. Garcia's 7-year-old daughter has spent countless days there with cotton stuffed in her ears.
"It's always like a party here," Garcia said, glancing toward Sanchez. "You can't hear the people when they want to buy something and they can't hear you. We have to negotiate prices with pen and paper."
Sanchez argued that he and other vendors who play music are providing a service.
"If there was no music, people would think it was boring here," he said, complaining in turn about a neighbor's crying baby and the constant drum of traffic.
Farther down the aisle of shops, Gloria Hernandez, 62, smiled and said, "One gets used to it." And Jose Luis Suarez, a police officer assigned to the area, threw up his hands and said he was glad he didn't have to enforce the law.
"I would never stop giving out tickets," Suarez said, adding that the street racket is still in his head when he goes to sleep at night. "Here, there is no culture to put such a law into effect."
With that kind of attitude from government employees, the citizens must take matters into their own hands, Garcia said.
Her solution: She'll buy a megaphone that would allow customers to hear over the music and everything else.
"Then," Garcia said, "we'll see who outdoes who!" |
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