Rain Washes Away Noise

(CLICK TO ENLARGE) Between rain showers, a man bicycles east on H Street yesterday. The men from of the Universal Practical Knowledge usually erect a small wooden stage between the silver traffic box on the left and the traffic signal and red box on the right, but were absent most likely because of the weather. (Copyright © 2006. David Klavitter)

The residents in and around the 700 block of 8th Street enjoyed an amplifier-free Saturday afternoon after rain apparently washed out a group’s usual assembly at the southeast corner of H and 8th Street NE. It was the Universal Practical Knowledge’s (UPK) fourth Saturday absence of 2006.

And so it goes that crappy weather—when most neighbors are huddled inside from the rain—provides respite from the harassing amplifier, which blares just yards away from residential homes.

The D.C. law allows this nonsense to happen anywhere in the city—from Adams Morgan to Anacostia; from Georgetown to Tenleytown. The D.C. Council needs to fix this broken law. Councilmember Jim Graham said in March that his staff is drafting language, but he did not set a timetable.