Some Skip the Amplified Bus Stop

(CLICK TO ENLARGE) A resident boards the trusty eastbound X2 Metro bus at the H and 8 Street NE intersection on an early Sunday morning. Some X2 riders tell me they exit the bus a stop early Saturday afternoons so they can avoid walking in front of and being called racial and homophobic slurs by one group using a very loud, battery-powered amplifier. (Copyright © 2006. David Klavitter)

An amplifier-less Saturday, Aug. 19, blessed the residents and business around H and 8th Street NE. It actually felt like a serene Sunday, and I was lulled into an afternoon nap at home after enduring a grueling morning of class work. I’m not sure why the usual Saturday noisemakers did not appear. Was it too hot and humid? The temperatures were in the upper 80s. However, the Rev. Dallas Williams spent an hour preaching--at times with an amplifier--on the southwest corner on Sunday afternoon.

Ward 6 Councilmember candidate Curtis Etherly and several volunteers stopped by our neighborhood Sunday to ask about the noise problem. He and two other Democratic candidates vying for the seat said they would fix the city’s broken noise statute.