Some of the police ride those super loud Harleys - it's a fake macho / steroid / HGH thing... Also, you'll frequently see one or two Harleys, with straight pipes (and ape hangers) parked at the fire station on Whitney. Leaf blowers should be banned, aside from the noise pollution, they are major emitters of air pollution and blowing all that dust around into the street, other peoples yards and into the atmosphere is another source of particulate pollution.
There are cities, in the U.S. that have banned the use of blowers. There are yard services that do not use gas powered equipment. I encourage people to hire them.

When I finally moved away from Whitney Avenue, I was really relieved not to hear the constant drone of leaf blowers, lawn mowers, chain saws, and other loud equipment (not to mention traffic). I really think these machines should be outlawed in the city- considering that nobody's lawn is large enough to warrant use of these "time" and "energy" saving devices-- which actually use a lot more energy than necessary. Human muscle, a rake or a push mower make a lot more sense, especially with our obesity epidemic. I still find it odd that it's so much quieter where I am, but the density of housing is just as great.

Friday night at about 1:30 five men left Dempsey's, got on their choppers which were parked across the street facing the road and started them up. The noise level was unbelievable! As they sat there, reving their motors, they looked all around up at the second and third floors of the buildings where apartment dwellers live, and all flipped the bird with both hands triumphantly raising their arms. Then they drove off, making the maximum noise possible. They are special people who do not have to obey laws, I guess. What noise ordinance???

Agreed w Dempseys - non emergency never sends anybody out. I once had a cop tell me he wouldn't ticket them cause he had a bike too.

Oh that is great - cop won't ticket cause he had a bike too. Now that is the type of person we want on the police force. I guess that means he wouldn't bust a person for speeding because he speeds?? So much for the laws of the land...

to stop the blowers:
really? Lawn mowers? Do you frequently get woken up at 2-3 am by a lawn mower???

As a housewife at home most of the time with my small child, hearing the non-stop drone of leaf blowers, snow blowers, and lawn mowers actually nearly drove me mad. To top it off, something was always under construction- a neighbor's garage, the road outside, another neighbor's roof, the apartment above me being renovated. I couldn't believe the amount of noise pollution that would go on all day in East Rock. I'm so happy not to be there anymore, and I'm only a mile away from where I was and it is seriously ten times quieter.

i've noticed that koji downtown is also ridiculously loud at night.

i completely agree about the motorcycles at dempseys, as i live down the street, but it seems like a very difficult thing to enforce if their clientele late at night ride bikes.

What can be done about people blasting music in their backyards, or in some cases, from their windows? Our condominium complex was built years ago. Since, then, scattered public housing units have been built around us. I have called the police, as have my neighbors, but the loud music still blares.

NO THEY DO NOT! I have call PD in the summer for 2 years now about the neighbors in the back blasting thier music so loud that we can not go in our yard and can not open our window most of the weekend and nights...so loud that I recorded it..with the PD on the phone...and they could not hear me talk over the music..so I went inside..and she said sure we will send someone out....then I found out the one of the civilian staff owns the house or live there or something! Ticks me off. I even tried to blast my music back...but I do not own anything that loud! What I was told was they only of to of the noise things and they never have used them.

This is one of the top quality of life issues in the city (as it is in other cities). Despite repeated requests, many of them documented over the past 4 years on SeeClickFix, it seems that little if any meaningful action has been taken here.