Letters for October 1, 2009

Good Vibrations

Re “Too darn loud” (Editorial, Sept. 24):

I paid my $60 bucks to participate in Street Vibrations. There was no motorcycle parking on Virginia Street or any side streets. I never had to show my VIP pass or motorcycle parking permit from Street Vibes. I don’t know why I purchased the ticket to begin with, and I won’t do that again. Downtown Reno looked like a craft fair without motorcycles. Virginia City was way cool with lots of motorcycles, and so was the Grand Sierra. Reno Street Vibes is done in Reno. After all this time, Reno still doesn’t get it. Time to pass the Vibes to Sparks, they know how to treat motorcycle riders. Everybody made money but Reno. Gee, wonder why? Cops were all over the place, but they were cool.

Dave Currier
Reno

No Constitution for you

Re “Too darn loud” (Editorial, Sept. 24):

I can hardly believe the myopic perspective of whoever wrote the editorial about Street Vibrations.

Too loud?! I’ve lived here for 25 years and have never ever had a feeling of this event being “too loud,” and nobody I know has ever complained about it.

So you get to live through one week of motorcycle loudness, and it upsets you, and you bring in the Constitution to further your point. Well, guess what, for one week, thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts are enjoying the epic beauty of our area. You can’t handle one week of loud accelerations?! How did your life become so special?

It sounds to me that you’re up in arms about something that doesn’t deserve to be up in arms about. Get over yourself, and enjoy the dynamism that Street Vibrations brings. The other 51 weeks of your year won’t have such a loud noise.

Rob Pelikan
Reno

Stop. For the children.

Re “Too darn loud” (Editorial, Sept. 24):

I just wanted to thank you for writing the editorial on how the people of Reno truly feel about Street Vibrations. The noise that this event brings is just ridiculous. I live on [a busy street] with my husband and 10-week-old son. My son sleeps in the room closest to the street and is constantly awakened because of these loud bikes. Now I don’t hate motorcycles, but I do hate that 1) People actually modify their bikes to be louder. This is nothing more then a pathetic attempt to get more attention, and they should really stop, 2) The people who come to Reno from all over the country are so inconsiderate. They ride by at all hours of the day and night, revving their engines constantly and blasting their extraordinarily loud stereos at ear-splitting levels. I like my music loud, but when it wakes up my son, it just pisses me off. The people that come here need to realize that those of us who live here have to sleep and some of us, quite a few actually, have children that they are disturbing.

Now I understand that this event, as well as all of the others, bring much needed revenue to Reno, and I think that’s great. But the city of Reno has really given its residents the shaft this year. They seem to care more about tourists than the people who live here. Let’s look at the Fourth of July. Did Reno have fireworks? No. Sparks had them. Tahoe had them. But the city of Reno cared so little for us that “due to budget constraints” they decided to do away with our fireworks. And yet there were fireworks for tourists during “Street Vibrations.” Did anyone else think that this was really irritating? This city is so eager to please the tourists that they seem to completely forget that people actually live here, which has truly made me lose respect for the city itself.

To sum it up, Street Vibrations seems to be nothing more than just another way for Reno to make a buck at the expense of its residents. The people of this city are disrupted constantly throughout this event. Our ears bleed with the showing off of “bikers,” most of them no more than “Weekend Warriors,” with too much money who just want to show their money to others. Quite a few of them break laws that will be overlooked by the police, who will then just go pull over another Reno resident for something stupid, all to keep the peace with these intruders in our city.

When will Reno wake up and respect its residents and care enough to treat us, maybe not as good as, but similar to its tourists?

Keslie Martin
Reno

Bunch of bull

To the guy who played matador with me in Trader Joe’s parking lot today: Hey Jocko, that nice new BMW might have impressed your chickies, but it’s just a car.

And the fact that I wasn’t impressed enough to step out of your way might give you a clue to that thought pattern.

Sorry to have put a bit of extra wear on your brake pedal, but when you attempted to veer in front of me, and I again stepped in front of you, you should have figured I was into the game.

And your parting shot, when you were some distance away, of “you were almost a dead man” was pretty goofy. Hey, here are three simple rules for you to live a more “civilized” life:

1. Pedestrians have the right of way.

2. Pedestrians have the right of way.

3. Pedestrians have the right of way.

I swear, the price of a car and the owner’s IQs are inversely proportional.

Craig Bergland
Reno

But, loud pipes are cool

Re “Too darn loud” (Editorial, Sept. 24):

There’s no credible study that shows that loud bikes are safer than the quiet ones. In fact, The Hurt Report effectively debunked that myth many years ago. The American Motorcyclists Association asks everyone to ride quietly and respect others. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation has made a similar request. Many thousands of bikers ride quietly and safely every day in this country.

One way to reduce the noise of loud bikes that are equipped with an illegal exhaust system is for a state, city or town, to adopt the EPA label system which is easily enforced. The cities of Denver and Green Bay have done so with good success. More recently, Boston and East Greenwich, R.I., have adopted the EPA label system.

The same law allows individual citizens to sue in federal district court to enforce the law. It wouldn’t surprise me to see an environmental organization sue the state to require EPA label adoption and enforcement.

That’s because when the EPA certified exhaust system is replaced with a loud system, the air emission controls are disabled causing a great increase in the amount of toxins released into the air.

Andy Ford
Portland, Maine