Follow Up: Kill the West Courthouse "Birds"
Decatur Metro | August 16, 2008Rus writes in and points out this question/response in the AJC earlier this week…
Q: What kind of birds are currently camping out in Decatur Square and why have they taken up at the square? Is anything being done?
TERRY FARR,
Decatur
A: Did you see birds, or just hear them? The One West Court Square building recently installed a speaker system on its roof that plays the sounds of birds of prey: hawks, eagles, owls and sea gulls. The idea is to scare birds away from the building before they fly into its glass-paneled sides. Aside from the noble goal of saving avian lives, the panels cost about $2,500 each to replace.
The building manager has adjusted the sound several times. It started out a bit loud but is now hoped to have gotten to a sound level that scares birds but doesn’t confuse humans.
You may recall that Carl has both written in and approached the city commission about this issue in the past. If not, here’s the link to that post. I also remember hearing somewhere that at least one commission member wondered why this was suddenly a problem that needed to be addressed by recordings of coked-up, chirping birds of prey. (OK, they didn’t say “coked-up”…that’s me employing “artistic license”)
Well, Carl couldn’t stand it then, and though the AJC writes that the building manager has “adjusted the sound”, Rus reports its still too darn loud.
“It doesn’t seem to me that the sound level has been decreased at all. I used to be able to read the paper on the square but now I can’t due to the horrible screeching of what sounds like flying monkeys! They are too loud at Pastries a Go-Go to sit outside, I can even hear them at Dancing Goats! Why hasn’t the city done anything about this? How many windows were actually broken by birds? I remember one or two on the courthouse side that were cracked for years they certainly didn’t rush to replace those and I didn’t see any new damage in the past couple of years. What about the hawks I used to see near downtown? They seem to have been driven away by the recordings. But I’m starting to see more of the critters the hawks kept in check downtown: Rats and Pigeons (Sky-Rats).
So to recap, The recorded “birds” offer:
1) lower quality of life for taxpayers and tourists resulting in less income for local businesses
2) Disturbance of the balance nature that promotes vermin and disease
3) A questionable deterrence of bird strikes on windows on ONE building (may scare confused birds into striking other buildings).”
I’m not usually one to take such strong stances on things, but this action seems to be in blatant disregard to the surrounding area. A couple initial questions come to mind: Was permission ever asked for or granted? How many birds are we talking here? Has this bird laugh track solved the problem?
As I’ve said before, its not bad enough that its such an unsympathetic building right on top of the courthouse, but now we have to hear from it for miles around? Give me a break. Prove you’re saving the lives of hundreds of birds and have no other alternative, or turn the dang thing off.
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Wow! OK, I was wondering what in the heck seagulls were doing nesting on the top of a building in downtown Decatur. I thought either I or a bunch of birds were going completely loco. I guess I’m a little slow on the uptake!
Mystery solved.
Thank you again, Nick. After being out of town for ten days (and going for several days with real gulls in the backyard), I’ve *really* enjoyed life without this horrible assault on the senses. I trust that the City Commission will ban this practice altogether before our reputation is permanently affected.
There’s a similar system in the parking deck for the Promenade II office building on 15th Street. It’s annoying the first several times you hear it but then it sort of blends in with the background noise, like the clattering of the tow trucks that prowl about there looking for parking scofflaws.
you can get a ticket if your dog barks too much and annoys the neighbors. seems to me this noise is just as bad as a barking dog……..
PLEASE STOP THE CHIRPING!! I usually love the sound of birds, but this plain ridiculous! We can hardly sit out on our balconies and read because of the constant blast of noise. If it has to be one – does it have to be on ALL day long? Can’t it be some kind of intermittent accosting to our senses…
I have to chuckle about this issue wondering what sort of bounty would be put on these birds heads if they were in fact real birds nesting nearby. It seems that most people think they are real until they are told otherwise. I agree they are kind of loud but to me the serenity of Decatur is more disturbed by the Marta busses or the car radios that are blaring as people sit at traffic lights.
To me the more bothersome issue is the amount of trash and cigarette butts all around downtown. I’ll take the fake sounds of birds over watching someone flick their cigarette butt on the sidewalk or leave their empty coke can on a bench when there is a trash can less than 10 feet away.
To me this issue gives Decatur more a blemish than the birds. How does Decatur look when there is an empty Starbucks cup on Thomas Jefferson’s head down in front of the courthouse.
Hey, Christian, you could help by depositing things in one of the many nearby trash cans. The City sanitation folks are quite diligent, but they can’t be everywhere.
Yeah, I’ve never thought Decatur had a trash problem.
Also, both trash (regardless if its a real problem or not) and MARTA bus noise can’t be solved by the flick of a switch. The Pyscho-Birds (Hitchcock pun intended) can be.
Hey Steve. I already do this. I know the City sanitation people are quite good at this but with the increased volume of people downtown, I am not sure if the budget allows for them to keep up with the increasing amounts of trash.
I wrote to representatives of both the city and the Downtown Business Association and asked for their feedback about starting an alliance between the businesses and downtown residents in a sort of “Keep Decatur Clean” initiative similar to what the Adopt a Highway groups do in getting out twice a month and helping to keep the area litter free and I never got a response from anyone. I just joined the Decatur Condo Alliance yahoo site to see if they could maybe help spark some interest in this with either group. I think it would be a great volunteer event.
Who did you write to at the Decatur Business Assn and the City? A personal visit might be in order.
Christian et al:
In Oakhurst, we just got some citizens together ourselves and took care of it…it has worked out well and didn’t require any city assistance or input.
Hope this helps.
It works for birds, and apparently has been developed to work on teens, too. So, it seems to me what we need to develop is a recorded sound that drives away smokers and people that drink sodas, then play it really loud on the square and along the sidewalks wherever we see trash accumulating.