Revision of New Orleans' noise ordinance: efforts toward simplification and enforceability

摘要

New Orleans may be one of the most complex cities of the country in terms of the city recoveringfrom Katrina and its burgeoning music and tourism scenes in tandem with the re-development ofresidential areas, historical preservation, and efforts to retain identity from before the storm. Thecurrent noise code is considered unenforceable, and the current revised draft suffers from similarproblems. Residents, businesses , musicians, law enforcement, and government all have a stake inthe final revision and the challenge is to have a simple, objective noise ordinance that isenforceable. This paper reports on the complexity of the problems, city sound mapping,historical issues, socio-cultural issues, and suggested numerical (dBA and dBC), legislative, andcommunity self regulating approaches being considered at this time.