I woke up Friday morning to the steady buzz — and even roar — of engines. I’m used to such noise from time to time — like on a few days when major construction was taking place for the new fire station at 33rd and Whitaker.
But that construction noise wasn’t incessant, not at all, and I didn’t have to deal with it on weekends, when Savannah mornings are the quietest and most leisurely.
This weekend’s constant roars, however, aren’t from nearby new construction, but from race cars at the Savannah Speed Classic. I live south of Forsyth Park, a couple of miles as the crow flies from the poorly conceived Hutchinson Island racetrack, which I’ve only ever used for Irish road bowling.
Irish road bowling is a heck of a lot quieter than auto racing.
I can hear the engines through my closed windows, even with the air on. When I open my front door facing away from Hutchinson, the sound bounces back at me as if there are motorcycles racing up and down a nearby block.
And this is going on literally all weekend, even into Sunday. So on one of the busiest weekends downtown in the last six months, the days will be filled with this awful droning, which can be heard well south of Victory Drive.
I’m sure the folks participating in the event are enjoying themselves, and I hope there are enough of them that we’re at least getting a significant tourism boost.
But we really need to think about whether this sort of irritation and inconvenience is worth it.
Local law enforcement has been out with sound meters along the edges of Forsyth Park during some recent music festival. Why not hold this event to the same standards?