Alameda - Air Noise a problem?

[Ms. Virginia]

I live right in the middle of Alameda, bordering the Gold Coast to the north. Although some people don't seem to notice ambient noise, I am sensitive to it. If you are too, the airplanes, boom cars, fire trucks, police cars and motorcycles will drive you crazy. In addition to the year round overhead air traffic (especially the annoyingly loud cargo planes which start taking off every few minutes at 6:00 a.m.), when there is any precipitation, the big airliners are routed over the main island. Local law enforcement do not appear to enforce the noise ordinance at all (car stereos that can be heard within 50 ft. are illegal), and the boom cars cause our floors to shake, the windows to vibrate, even with everything closed. Read the Alameda FireWire in the Sun...you will see that the fire department in this town responds to false alarms, plumbing problems, and annoying smells around the clock and they sound the sirens for them all. There is quite a lot of traffic because of all the schools and retailers.

One other thing...the property taxes are huge to pay for all of the above infrastructure. And this is a very political, pro-business town.

[Alamedan]

Originally Posted by Ms. Virginia

I live right in the middle of Alameda, bordering the Gold Coast to the north. Although some people don't seem to notice ambient noise, I am sensitive to it.

You must be sensitive...

I lived in Alameda for 10 years bordering the Gold Coast, and never noticed any of those things... I'm moving back to Alameda next year, and noise isn't an issue... In fact, I was just home in Alameda for the past two weeks, and it was quiet as usual... (Now the city of six million I'm at school in now... you wanna talk noise... it's noisy!)

The only time planes are ever diverted over Alameda is when there is a major storm, and planes need to land from a different direction... and there are not a lot of major storms in Alameda.

[Randy613]

I think if you spent a bit of time in East Oakland and then come back to Alameda You will think your problem has ben solved!

[94501westender]

Originally Posted by Mike-NC

My wife & I are thinking of relocating West when I retire, in about a year. We lived in Marin about 10 yr ago and though we liked the scenery, we found the cost excessive and transportation options poor. We would love to have the cultural, climate, and scenic attractions of the Bay Area. Investigating Alameda, it seems like a nice location that we might afford.

I notice Alameda is very close to Oakland International Airport. I am wondering, is air noise a factor?

When the wind changes direction coming out of the north/northwest you then hear BART, 880 and everything in between.

[Sebastos]

All parts of Alameda are close enough to Oakland Airport (OAK) to hear very loud noise from commercial jets taking off, which happens constantly 24/7 (yes, that includes the middle of the night). There was a recently settled class-action lawsuit by CLASS (Citizens' League for Airport Safety & Serenity) requiring that soundproofing for windows and doors be added to houses near the airport. This solution was quite ineffective, because most houses in Alameda do not have air conditioning, and it gets hot enough that windows must frequently be left open to allow adequate cooling, defeating the soundproofing. Also, the airport noise is so loud that it can still be annoying even with the soundproofing in place and all windows and doors closed. There were also some restrictions placed (at long last) on airplane flight paths, but I haven't noticed any great abatement of the noise.

Check out the following for information about CLASS and their inadequate countermeasures to noise:

[url]http://www.fernsiders.org/CLASS_Newsletter_October_2007.pdf[/url]

Assertions by some that Alameda is a quiet town are simply not true.

[Sebastos]

Apart from the airport noise mentioned in my previous post, I should mention what brought me to the city-data.com website in the first place. I was searching the Web for city ordinances on noise, intending to call the police to try to stop the use of a jackhammer on the concrete walkway right in front of my home at 8:00am. This walkway is not a city sidewalk, and the workers using the jackhammer weren't city workers; it is an interior path in the courtyard of my apartment complex, and the workers are employed by the homeowners' association (HA). As renters, we have no leverage at all with the HA, and we have had far more problems with it than with our landlord. The HA has absolutely no respect for the privacy or "quiet enjoyment" of tenants, or even of individual homeowners who don't agree with its policies. (Some units in our complex are rented, others occupied by their owners.)

It's 9:00am now, and they're no longer using the jackhammer. But I suppose I should continue researching the problem in case they do it again - in Alameda, you can't just assume that there will be an ordinance prohibiting such activity, nor that the police will enforce it if there is.

[Mouthy]

Pure crap. The planes are VERY noticeable near Webster and the old Naval station. If you are watching tv, you will have to turn up and down the sound as they fly over. And this happens late into the evening 9:30-11:00 pm. If it's anything like that at Bay Farm, I feel sorry for the high prices they pay for that. The middle of Alameda doesn't get the traffic because they are not that near the water.

[kgbnsf]

Originally Posted by Alamedan

You must be sensitive...

I lived in Alameda for 10 years bordering the Gold Coast, and never noticed any of those things... I'm moving back to Alameda next year, and noise isn't an issue... In fact, I was just home in Alameda for the past two weeks, and it was quiet as usual... (Now the city of six million I'm at school in now... you wanna talk noise... it's noisy!)

The only time planes are ever diverted over Alameda is when there is a major storm, and planes need to land from a different direction... and there are not a lot of major storms in Alameda.

The same here. I live on Encinal (main street across the island) near Grand and the noise is not even close to being an issue that the other poster claims. As for the planes, only when the weather is bad, they route them about a mile off shore from the Island towards Oakland Airport (take a straight line from OAK's runway). And they are landing, not taking off, so it's much quieter. In the summer, plane noise is no different than anywhere else in the Bay Area. Bay Farm Island, that's a different story due to light prop aircraft taking off, but the main island isn't bad at all with air traffic noise. For these other posters complaining so strongly about the noise, they must be hyper sensitive. Even when outside, on the worst day, there was never a time where I had to talk over a plane, no less 'turning the tv up loud inside the house'. Don't get me wrong, it's a city of 80k, dense and you'll hear average noises that a city that size would have. It's not country quiet if that is what you are looking for. Which seems to be what these other posters thinks it should be. If noise was such a problem, home prices would be far lower.

The city has nice neighborhoods and decent commercial districts. I wouldn't say it has sleepy neighborhoods. You should visit it a bit to get a feel for it.

[copwatch]

Fernside close to OTIS school is definitiely noisy. From 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM hear quieter private planes flying past, 2 or more per hour. Around 4:00 AM can hear engines reving up, sounds like propeller aircraft, but don't think any large ones left. Rumors that drones flying over east end after dark, been star gazing trying to find one but no luck.

[Mouthy]

6.8.21: It's 7:48 am and the are jackhammering RIGHT NOW. I know in other cities, construction projects are not allowed before at least 8am. It's become more than a nuisance, Between the planes and the early morning construction, the only recourse is to seek legal action myself.