Last night, less than an hour after the Rec & Park Commission meeting considered Sky Track #large echo & trumpets#, a bizarre posting appeared on a Facebook Page with the City Logo that reads like an oil company trying to claim environmental brownie points after running an oil tanker into a reef full of penguins:
The capstone of the posting: "The City of Davis and its staff work diligently to ensure a vibrant community that enhances the quality of life for residents, families, children and students."
Oh please. Gag me with a spoon. Make me vomit. I'm heading to the vomitorium to hurl chunks.
Who wrote that, and why? What is really going on here that the City has that written in an hour, and up on the web? It's too perfect. Why would a City website post something so vomitously self-serving? That's not what cities do . . . they are government, not private. Cities shouldn't make proclamations about how great the city and its staff are. I've met several great City staff btw. This isn't about how great or not great any particular staff is. It's about the fact that it is not government's place to toot it's own horn — and we should all be asking: why is it doing so in this case? Something is rotten in West Davis.
And why is the City providing a forum so City residents can get into a Facebook war? So assholes can berate and belittle the neighbors for what, having an issue with the constant sound of metal grating on metal? I had no idea the degree of vitriol from users and abusers of the zip-line. What part of 'metal grating against metal' don't you people understand? This isn't rocket science, it's not even sound science. We all fucking know that metal on metal and a constant grating noise next to where we live can destroy daily life. That isn't a sound you just get used to. We don't need paid sound scientists to use meters and numbers to justify my love when we all know whatever the damn meter says that 'metal grating on metal' is an awful sound. I have not been so disgusted by some Davis people since the Trackside defenders.
More on the Facebook forum There are those playing the 'envy card' — 'you own a house!' – imagine the gall of someone owning a house in Davis :-|. There are those playing the 'you hate children' card, even though they say they never minded any of the sounds or children playing or shrieking in joy — only the grating of metal on metal. There are those playing the 'you get special treatment' card, even though the Krovozas and others are getting shat on by asshole zip-line users/abusers and City government. There's the 'you knew there was a park there when you bought your house' card, even though the Krovoza's pointed out repeatedly that they moved in next to a park and had no problem with that, the zip-line came much later and that is the only and specific noise issue. Metal on Metal!
And why is the City now a propaganda machine? Not that many years ago if I wrote to the City Council, two or three Councilmemebers would write me back with their personal response. Now an 'information officer' sends me a pre-packaged response about how my email was sent to all the Councilmembers. This is a new position paid for with your taxpayer money, and what we get is pre-packaged pablum. Now the propaganda machine is expanded to bizarre City-serving Facebook posts with forums for citizens to berate citizens. The City isn't a corporation that needs a slogan that it "enhances the quality of life for residents, families, children and students." Why are we putting up with this shit?
That meeting last night was bizarre. Truth is lies. Words are reality. Coneheads roam City parks. All that virtual meeting proved to me is a lot of people got dropped on their heads as infants.
Anyway, have fun playing 'Spot the Flaming Davis Assholes' as you read the comments in the Facebook page 😐
P.S. Why do we call it Sky Track with capital letters like it's some special thing with a proper name — instead of "that fucking zip line" ? 😐
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Davisite 
I have aural nerve damage in one ear and so have had to, out of necessity, learn how sound affects the human body. Loud sounds can cause me splitting headaches emanating from the inside of the ear, severe ringing in the ears, internal ear pressure, disorientation, burning, aural misinterpretations, etc. Sound frequency, duration, distance, peak-volume and distortion all factor into the severity of an 'event' as I have come to know them.
Though dependent on particular circumstances, in general shorter bursts of loud sounds are more damaging than longer duration of softer sounds. That is why going with some sort of 'averaging' system would be a tragic mistake. This would ignore the very real damage done by peak sounds. My world-renowned ear doctor from Stanford Ear Clinic would back me up on this. He has coached me on how to live with my condition, which is not treatable.
My ear doctor explains that there is a 'threshold' level at which the noise becomes damaging to hearing (in my case, the threshold is much lower than those with a healthy ear). The PEAK noise is almost always the problem. Therefore, changing the city noise ordinance to consider some AVERAGE measurement as the standard is not only unwise, it is INSANE.
To give an example of how unwise this is, an example everyone can understand – consider train horns. A train horn — at 100' in front of the horn — ranges from 96 to 110 db. Even at the low end this is painfully loud, and on the high end can cause ear damage in just a few seconds. But, if you averaged the railroad noise around the tracks over a period of hours, it would show very low AVERAGE noise as over time there are few trains. The PEAK noise is when the damage is done; AVERAGING OVER TIME would FAIL to CATCH the DAMAGING peak sounds.
While I am more bothered by sound than those with healthy hearing, ear disease is rampant and hugely under-diagnosed in this country. There are many people with my condition and many other hearing diseases who are intolerant of various sound conditions. This is not just about an annoyance, it is at times debilitating.
Another thing to consider is that those close to a noise source suffer from the exposure repeatedly and over time. Those adjacent to noise sources are the people who must be considered paramount and above all else. Let's say a nightclub with sub-woofers goes in next door to someone's house. But ON AVERAGE less than 1% of the people in town even hear the noise. The standard must be on how the noise effects those adjacent, not on the fact that 99% of Davis voters never hear it. Another abominable use of 'average' exposure.
I urge the commission, the City, and the Council to retain current noise-ordinance formulas and standards, and reject any attempt to change the noise ordinance to be more allowing of harmful peak noise exposures.
Sincerely,
Alan C. Miller, District 3