December 2020

Guys, do something!

Look, people, politicians, it must be possible to put together the best scientists and engineers and ask them to find the most environmental low-noise and non-polluting way to build and repair structures in urban areas, to be really smart and innovative about it?

This surely must be doable, a solvable task? Like what about modularization? The old masters of masonry knew how to do this smart.

Why isn’t this problem attacked, it is a very interesting problem!

This situation is absurd in many ways.

To mention one then there is this thing which is so hilariously nutty that it drives me insane: All construction sites use a diesel driven power generator to drive their tools, the concrete drills, the electrical saws and so on – and they do this in a town complete with MASSIVE nuclear power-plant backed huge electrical power-grids supplying things like subway trains, le Metro, and le putain de TGV the brilliant national high-speed electrical train network (?!).

Why, just WHY, do they need a messy DIESEL generator designed to withstand conditions on remote outposts on freaking Mars to run an electrical power drill here, in the middle of an urban area?? So much in the middle of electricity-heaven that they have to carefully study detailed 3d-maps to actually AVOID drilling into high-voltage iron and f****** die.

Now add to this picture that info-board; a digital info-board on our neighborhood corner educating us, the citizens, about the 60 bucks of fine you get if you cause … (ta-daa) noise-pollution.

Yes, they said it, la Ville de Paris: noise-pollution is a felony.

However, you see, that is not about the … beyond maximum outdoor mega death metal hard rock concert level construction site machinery from 7am year upon year that make entire buildings shake, nor is it the amazingly penetrating bone-marrow splintering wrrrroum of angry male gasoline consuming die-hard scooterists you can hear loud and clear at least three blocks away all over the place (and do beware never to approach such a creature; they are the incarnation of toxic masculinity on steroids and will happily send themselves to jail, ruin their lives, and yours too, should you comment on anything while they scooterize their urban war theater called French traffic).

No, not that kind of (permanent) TEMPORARY noises which are NECESSARY, because, something … yes, actually, why? (And why can’t we do better?)

But that’s not it. This is not the noise pollution la Ville de Paris talk about so kindly on the info-board.

That thing is – those illegal urban noises they are things like: street musicians (say, if we imagine a violinist, a guitar dude, or what-so-ever, can actually be heard over the scooters and diesel-drilling…), people having a good time talking and laughing at terraces late in the evening (people, like people, in a town, which is what you’d expect, no?), children playing (right, that is bad!), boom-boxes and hip-hop dancing, basket-balling, love making for open windows and so on. In other words, the leisurely ‘noise-pollution’ humans make when they have a life, noises you can actually bust someone for doing without hurting the economy (I guess?), and give them a fine.

See? It is insane; this is insane. This is definitely not bio.