The joys of no noise

Kim and I try to go for an evening stroll as often as we can, usually after we've had dinner and before all the good stuff comes on TV ("good stuff" being relative, of course. Usually, for me, it's a ball game of some sort).

Anyway, the stroll up town is usually our quality time together. Kim is still an 8-to-5 working person, meaning unless it's the weekend, the lunch hour is about the only time we have with each other until she gets off work.

So, after dinner, we walk. We usually head up to Main Street because we like to look into the store windows. It's also the time when we get to talk. Usually, it's about how Kim's day went, but we also map out our strategies for the rest of the week, whose birthday is coming up, when is the next fire pit.

But talking on Main Street is getting tougher these days. I don't know when it started, but suddenly, cars without proper mufflers seem to be taking over. Sometimes they travel together. Sometimes they try to out-loud each other at intersections by gunning their engines (why would you do this when gas is $3.30 a gallon?). It's like American Grafitti has come to Lexington. Consequently, there are times when Kim and I can't hear each other talk, even when we're walking side by side.

When did Main Street become Pit Row?

OK, OK. I know what you're thinking. When did I turn into such an old fart? Cruising Main Street is pretty much a young man's game, I guess, designed to impress – who, exactly? But, geez, when the rest of the town has pretty much rolled up its sidewalks by 7 p.m. on school nights, is this noise really necessary?

And it's not just Main Street. Loud cars don't just suddenly materialize out of the blue in front of Lanier's. They have to get there, and sometimes, it's through residential areas. Heck, we live just five blocks off Main Street as it is. We can hear the noise from our front porch. It's really unnerving when loud vehicles come roaring through our street to get to Main.

I wonder how those residents living in loft apartments in town must feel? The residential district is, essentially, Main Street itself.

Lexington does have a noise ordinance. In Chapter 8 of the Code of Ordinances (Police Administrations and Provisions, Article II – Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions; Division 2 – Noises; Section 8-31, Generally prohibited, under (a), it states "Subject to the provisions of this section, it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to make, permit, continue or cause to be made any unreasonably loud, disturbing and unnecessary noise in the city..."

The ordinance goes on to define (1) "Unreasonably loud" (2) "Disturbing" and (3) "Unnecessary." I could write word for word those descriptions from the ordinance, which all seem to apply here, but if I did, this blog would take until Tuesday to finish.

I did talk to a police officer about this one night while on our walk, and while she did take note of the noise ordinance, she did point out that it would be very difficult to enforce. The offending vehicles are transitory and probably would be gone by the time a police officer arrived. I guess. Maybe they could set up a noise trap, I don't know.

I think my best hope in all of this is that eventually, the thrill of making noise with your car on Main Street simply runs out of gas.