Police op launched to reduce car noise
Loud cruisers face fine of $81 if caught downtown
Downtown hoteliers say they want some peace and quiet for their highend guests.
Some longtime Santa Feans want to continue cruising down San Francisco Street and other downtown roadways as they have for decades.
The merging of those two competing desires have led hotel operators to complain some cruisers are making a habit of night riding with loud cars and motorcycles, bothering guests they depend upon to revive their businesses.
On Wednesday, the Santa Fe Police Department announced it was stepping in.
Police have launched an operation dubbed “Slow & Quiet” with the intention to reduce drag racing and exhibition driving in the downtown area.
“The operation will also concentrate on loud mu±er noise often
associated with this type of dangerous driving,” a police news release said. “The operation will focus in the Plaza area, neighborhood streets and may adjust based on real-time complaints.”
An increased police presence will be in place for the next 30 days on, but not limited to, these thoroughfares: San Francisco Street, Old Santa Fe Trail, Marcy Street, Don Gaspar Avenue, Otero Street, South Federal Place, Grant Avenue, Palace Avenue, Cathedral Place, Shelby Street and Washington Avenue.
A noise ordinance violation could result in an $81 fine, police said.
The Santa Fe Lodgers Association and residents have been lobbying for some kind of relief.
“The noise is made by modified mufflers to make as much noise as possible, souped up cars racing through their gears, Harley Davidson bikers revving their loud muffler-enhanced engines, and boom box cars at an all but deafening decibel level,” Inn on the Alameda President Joe Schepps wrote in a June 9 email to Mayor Alan Webber.
The noise problem, hotel owners say, started after the novel coronavirus left the downtown are largely vacated in mid-March. But hoteliers say noisy cruising continues as tourism is picking up and some hotels are reaching the state-mandated 50 percent room occupancy limit.
“Because there is so little traffic, they are having free rein on the street,” said Tom McCann, incoming president of the Santa Fe Lodgers Association and regional vice president at Heritage Hotels & Resorts, which owns five downtown Santa Fe hotels. “It starts at about 8 p.m. and goes to 10:30 to 11. There is a lot of squealing of tires and extremely loud engines.”
The hoteliers want better enforcement of the city noise ordinance, which states a vehicle’s decibel level cannot exceed 90 decibels measured at a distance of 25 feet. Also, a vehicle cannot be “modified in a manner which will amplify or increase the noise emitted by the motor of such vehicle above that emitted by a muffler of the type originally installed on the vehicle.”
Before police announced the new operation, Webber said loud cruising also had struck neighborhoods in the shelter-in-place era.
In recent months, other neighborhoods, particularly South Capitol, also have complained about cars racing down Cerrillos Road and other streets.
“The noise ordinance is not just about hotel operations,” Webber said. “I do believe it’s a community quality of life issue. We have seen a marked increase in people driving faster and louder.”
Webber said he has met with city constituent services staff and police to better enforce the noise ordinance or rewrite it to “make it … enforceable.”
“It’s a pervasive problem for us,” the mayor said. “We need better enforcement.”
The next enforcement could be the closure of San Francisco Street to vehicle traffic. The mayor and City Council on Wednesday considered a resolution proposed by San Francisco Street merchants to establish a “framework” to enable the street’s closure “for a certain period during 2020” to allow on-street dining and create a pedestrian zone.
More than 2,800 people have signed an online petition at change.org against the street closure. Many opponents cited on Facebook the tradition of cruising the street for decades.
Cruising is part of downtown, even with some noise, said Brenda Marie Sandoval, founder of Simply Cruizin Santa Fe Events & Promotions.
“We don’t condone squealing wheels,” Sandoval said, noting fixed-up cars that are loud are still street legal.
“There isn’t anything illegal about them,” Sandoval said. “They are below the decibel level. If they are not below the decibel level, cops would have been able to pull them over. The hotels need to learn to share.”
The loud cruising, however, is a new phenomena, the mayor and hoteliers agree.
“We have never experienced that in my time here,” said Jenny Kimball, chairwoman of the board at La Fonda on the Plaza.
Guests complain and some request another room, hoteliers said, presenting a quandary to those who are near the state’s 50-percent room occupancy limit. Many hotels do not have staff enter a room for 48 hours after a guest checks out.
“We’ve taken rooms out of service,” Kimball said. “If someone says ‘move me,’ we can’t release that room to someone else for 48 hours. We’re not in a position to turn away business or move people to the other side of the hotel.”
At stake is Santa Fe’s specific reputation as a touted tourism venue, said Jeff Mahan, president of the Santa Fe Lodgers Association.
“We don’t want the perception of Santa Fe to change to ‘It used to be a quiet place to visit,’ ” Mahan said. “You put a little attention and focus on it, and it gets better.”