A Safeway grocery store at 1335 Webster Street in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood has been playing classical music day and night from its parking lot for at least a week, a nearby neighbor told SFGATE.
Neighbors have filed multiple complaints to 311 and San Francisco Police Department non-emergency calls, but the music continues unabated, according to neighbors who spoke to SFGATE and shared their experiences in the Next Door thread. It keeps ringing.
A constant ringing sound emanates from a LiveView Technologies mobile surveillance unit. The unit, a solar-powered device that fits in a single parking space, combines lights, thermal imaging, speaker is equipped with Safety,” the company’s website states.
Safeway has installed mobile surveillance units in parking lots at multiple locations in San Francisco. While the security system’s optional voice feature is not enabled elsewhere, the person operating his mobile unit at 1335 Webster Street recently turned up the loudspeaker so loudly that it could be heard for 24 hours. It seems to keep playing music.
This is reflected in a December 2022 blog post on the LiveView Technologies website, “The Most Humane Battle: Knowing How LVT Prevents Homeless Encampments,” promoting the benefits of using the security system as a “humane Even though it included a section titled “Auditory Alerts”. Gives a “temporary” alert instead of “continuous loud music”.
“It’s… really ‘alert’ and the area has become a terrible place to sleep overnight,” the post said of the “temporary” noise. “Imagine the noise of the worst hotel you’ve ever stayed in. Worse.”
Safeway has chosen to go one step further than the “temporary” warnings proposed by Liveview Technologies and follow in the footsteps of other homeless noise disturbance measures attempted by 7-Eleven, Burger King and the Los Angeles Metro.
Residents of the surrounding apartments find the noise very annoying. Adrian Maestas, who lives nearby, said “no one” at Safeway’s management level gave him an explanation when he reached out about the meandering music. “They were pretty adamant that they didn’t know this was playing 24 hours a day,” Maestas said.
When contacted by SFGATE, management declined to comment and referred the reporter to the Safeway firm. team.safe road A company spokesperson issued a statement acknowledging that music is playing at the location for “anti-loitering” purposes, but did not immediately respond to additional questions as to why the volume and frequency of the music had increased recently. didn’t answer.
“Safeway employs several safety measures in its stores, including visible and non-obvious deterrents,” the spokesperson wrote. “We have live-view surveillance cameras to monitor parking lot activity on Webster Street Safeway. Since February, the unit has been playing classical music to deter loitering. As an ongoing effort, we monitor unit volume levels and adjust as necessary.”
According to neighbors, if music had really been playing since February, they wouldn’t have noticed until last week. Bruce Johnson, who lives in another building nearby, says he can no longer open the windows. “It’s loud enough to hear through the TV at night,” he told SFGATE. “It’s very annoying for people inside the building.”
“There are hundreds of people living within earshot of this situation,” Maestas added.
Mr Johnson said homeless people have been sleeping in cars in parking lots for a long time, sometimes with street vendors and tailgating companions playing loud music. But he classified the noise problem as an occasional occurrence, in contrast to what Safeway does now.
Maestas said the side of the parking lot closest to his apartment was dealing with noise problems even before Safeway’s classical music intrusion, with one vehicle in particular being a chronic offender blasting music at night. It is said that Safeway only adds to the dissonance. “Two music systems playing at the same time drives us all crazy,” said Maestas.
Safeway, located at 1335 Webster Street, is under the jurisdiction of District 5 Superintendent Dean Preston, who told SFGATE that his office was informed that loud classical music was playing over the weekend. He said he was.
“We reached out to Safeway today asking for more information and sharing our concerns about the volume and duration of the music,” Preston said. “Locals are asking Safeway to play a more active role in promoting parking safety, but it must do so in a manner that respects all neighbors and communities.”
According to a Nextdoor thread, Johnson and Maestas tried to file noise complaints with 311, as did other neighbors. Mr. Johnson was eventually able to file a complaint, but he and Mr. Maestas were also redirected to his SFPD’s non-emergency phone multiple times. As far as they know, no one from SFPD has visited the parking lot yet. SFPD did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment prior to publication.
