We want a more livable Lexington. Let’s start with less noise.

When I first moved to Lexington from Cincinnati in 1990, one of the things that attracted me here was the livability of our town. Lexington’s not too big or too small: it’s just right. I found the people here to be incredibly friendly, the rural landscape was soothing, and I bought a cute, affordable house on a tree-lined street just two blocks from the UK campus.

In the 32 years since then, I have watched some of our city’s best assets being slowly chipped away. Some changes were sudden, like UK administration’s dry campus decision, which immediately forced noisy and destructive partying into my neighborhood. Other changes have been gradual, and we don’t notice them until it’s too late. But I feel it’s becoming harder and harder to live here.

I think that urban noise is one of the problems that is under-recognized. We are blasted by noise from the boom-boom cars, the extremely loud motorcycles, and the truckers using their engine brakes (also known as “Jake Brakes”) to decelerate and to snort at cars they don’t like. When I lived in Joyland, the roar from I-75 never stopped – not even at 3 am. I cannot understand why we don’t have sound barriers along I75 throughout Fayette County. Every other city in America has them. Hello, Congressman Barr?

Excessive noise is bad for human health. The World Health Organization calls noise pollution the second most important cause of ill health in Western Europe (after air pollution). It raises our blood pressure and makes us irritable. It lowers our quality of life. I often feel like I am being bombarded with harsh, aggressive noise, and it’s starting to drive me nuts – especially the circling of the infernal police helicopter. I want to move far, far away just so I can have some peace and quiet in my retirement years. Yet there is little discussion of this noise issue in the current Mayor and Council elections.

If we want to have a livable city that continues to welcome people from other states, we have to grow up. Let’s start addressing the noise issue.

When I lived in the Elizabeth Street neighborhood, we experienced the blast of the train horn at the Waller Ave. railroad crossing about 40 times a day. I don’t know how people who live next to the tracks can stand it — the noise is like an atom bomb going off in their back yard. Louisville has a “No Train Whistle” ordinance along Frankfort Ave., to make this area more inviting to the residents and the restaurant-goers. Many cities like Franklin, Kentucky have outlawed the use of unmuffled truck engine brakes. Why can’t we?

The dreaded Fourth of July holiday looms. Our city officials and law enforcement seem utterly powerless to deal with the cacophony of illegal fireworks noise that we will all experience for the next 6 to 8 weeks. For those of us who love our dogs, it can be a huge problem.

I understand that our Division of Police feels they are short-staffed. They can’t be everywhere, they can’t ticket the loud motorcycles or the fireworks people. I’m tired of “we can’t.” As a city, we lack the willpower, not the manpower.

But there is hope: I corresponded with Lexington Legends CEO Andy Shea a few months back and asked him to please reduce the noise during their weekend fireworks displays - I live a half a block away from the baseball stadium. You know what he did? He listened, and now the Legends use a much quieter type of fireworks. Like a good neighbor.

Dave Cooper is an environmental activist in Lexington.

This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 8:40 AM.