When, Why and Who -- "signal" laws

General Readers, 

The text below is the formal agenda information sheet associated with the Traffic and Public Safety Commission meeting at city hall on July 14 5:30, details available here.  It is open to the public, and in my own view, if the mandate of the expanded commission is to be addressed, some degree of public sentiment for this must be shown by your attendance and participation.  This link is to my article on details of this mandate, including a partial video of the last meeting where this issue was addressed.

 June 30, 2014


This is presented as a Commissioner Initiated Agenda Item for the July meeting of above commission under the title of "Scope of areas for attention of this commission"

Encinitas, a coastal city of 60,000 in San Diego County has a history of early adoption of laws that have little immediate effect on the problem to be solved.  A recent example is outlawing of one time use plastic bags, something that attempts to lessen ocean pollution, exemplified by the Pacific Gyre where currents cause an accumulation of such material.  This law was passed not out of the illusion that this city will make more than an infinitesimal difference in the total release of effluvia but for the signal value to the broader movement, with the hope it will become broadly normative.

I personally remember the first regulation requiring picking up dog feces being introduced in New York City in the 1970s, accompanied by widespread ridicule and rejection.  Other movements such as preventing secondary cigarette smoke and holding bartenders responsible for serving drunk patrons, all faced the headwind of going against what was being widely accepted.

This brings up the role of this small city's commission which I will argue is most useful not in refining laws already enacted, but in breaking ground, making the case for new laws and restrictions.  This cannot be done in an ideologically laden setting, where there is a general animosity towards government itself, specifically its regulatory function where the benefit of the broad polity supersedes individual freedom.  Once anything is reduced to sorting by the partisan divide of this country into liberal and conservative (including its local manifestations)  the process of discourse stops.   This has already occurred pretty generally on a Federal level, very much in most states, but still less so at the local level.  There, NIMBY, or neighborhood interests tend to intrude, as avoiding expansion of the nearby cement mine or halfway house will unite members of the tea party with card carrying members of the ACLU.     

These political dynamics, I argue, make our local non-elected Commission not only the ideal, but perhaps the only entity in our current legal political constellation able to have a genuine discussion on issues such as I will suggest next.  The first one is on a new technology,  Remote Control Hovering Craft, that I have described at this link

http://focusonencinitas.blogspot.com/2014/06/remote-control-hovering-craft-public.html

The other subject is that of noise pollution, a problem as old as the industrial revolution, a specific cause that is amenable to amelioration but has not been done so in this state or city.  First this commission would look at the documented medical and psychological harm of vehicle noise, specifically that which is not integral to the function of the vehicle, rather used as a choice such as a type of muffler, especially on  motorcycles, which one manufacturer advertises as, "disturbing the peace for fifty years." 

Both topics could be relevant, and more importantly, possible for this commission as it is not immediately subject to electoral influence.  The first task is defining the issue through presentation of existing research on the subject.  Then there would be public feedback of views  from this constituency, which would be followed by a recommendation for action, which could be a local ordinance or a proposal for interacting with other levels of government.  

While this is not a law making body, correctly an activity reserved to elected representatives,  we do have the authority under the defining city ordinance to issue reports on our findings, which would in itself have value in the two areas that I have brought forward.
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Link to Journal article:  Noise Pollution: A Modern Plague
 http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/554566_3

"Uninterrupted sleep is known to be a prerequisite for good physiologic and mental functioning in healthy individuals.^[28] Environmental noise is one of the major causes of disturbed sleep.^[1,10] When sleep disruption becomes chronic, the results are mood changes, decrements in performance, and other long-term effects on health and well-being.^[3] Much recent research has focused on noise from aircraft, roadways, and trains. It is known, for example, that continuous noise in excess of 30 dB disturbs sleep. For intermittent noise, the probability of being awakened increases with the number of noise events per night.^[1]"

This article is a survey of  the myriad harmful effects of interrupted or fractured sleep
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/820529