I saw a video report about this on CNN.com or abcnews.com a week or so ago. I can’t find it again, but when I read the headline, I was taken aback a little, however, the neighborhood did not seem to be across a highway from the ride. It almost seemed as if you were in a residential neighborhood and you looked across the street and you could see the ride behind your neighbor’s house. It also looked like one of these small low-rent amusement places that seem to be like those ubiquitous ones in Florida where it’s bumper cars and a bungee jump platform every other block. I don’t know if anyone can search those sites to find the video version, but it might add to your understanding of the situation.
Well, here’s a video (next to the AP article) and you can clearly see the very large freeway in pretty much every other shot.
Here’s the article in the Sacramento Bee, a paper that is not known to me for their shoddy journalism. If they say the neighbors complaining are on the other side of that freeway, I have little reason to disbelieve them.
Maybe they should strap a ball gag on everyone that rides. Some people would consider that a cool bonus!
My thoughts exactly. What a 12 lane freeway isn’t noisy???
if they can hear people screaming on a ride maybe they should turn their hearing aids down a bit 
I can never seem to get over the fact that people buy a house near something (pig farm, racetrack etc…) that they will complain and have it shut down/closed/changed.
That happened here in Las Vegas. There is a guy who runs a pig farm (You may have seen it in Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe). It has been on the way north side of town forever. Las Vegas is growing so fast, that neighborhoods sprung up all around this pig farm. Now people want it to be shut down/moved away because it smells. Uh, You didn’t notice the smell when you were looking at the houses?
Same thing the the BMI (Black Mountain Industrial) Complex in Henderson, NV. The area has been a industrial complex (magnesium, chemicals production such as liquid chlorine and more…) since the 40’s. People have been bitching about how it’s ruining their property values by being there. Your house was built in 2005, the complex has been there since 1940 something arrrgh!!
Since this amusement park is in California, I am not surprised to hear this sentiment from the amusement park neighbors at all. Being in Las Vegas which is full to the seams with California transplants, that sentiment is popping up all over the place here and sadly, becoming policy. :mad:
Bastards. Feh…
I’m 50/50 on this one. It seems like this is not the sort of place for a massive thrill ride like this, and those that moved there would not have any reason to suspect that it would be installed. On the otherhand, if we’re talking about freeway property, then its not exactly like you hear the crickets on a summer day anyway. How late is this park open? Past 9:00 on a weekday would be totally unreasonable in a residential area. Highway noise is not the same as amusement park screaming noise. I have trouble coming up with any real decision in this case.
So the noise from various rides isn’t a problem…but the kids screaming on one of the rides is? Da’hell?
Is that even possible?
The thing is, they bought a house near a mini-golf course, then the mini-golf built a huge thrill ride between the windmill and the goddamn volcano hole, which, excuse me is impossible. This is not a case of people moving in next to something and then demanding that it change. The business changed.
When they are at the top of the ride, they are higher than the freeway and any sort of sound abatement the freeway has. (you know those large walls) It also sounds like kids were going up there and screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs.
At Six Flags Magic Mountain (maybe all Six Flagses, I dunno) they have a policy where if you think you’re going to get sick on a ride, you cover your mouth and raise your other arm. I saw a woman do that on one ride, and when they stopped to let her and her companion off, Mr. Rilch and I hopped off too. So it is possible.
But it’s necessary to scream on a ride like that. If you’re genuinely scared, you have to scream and release tension. Sure, some people scream for the heck of it, but I’ve seen people at the park I worked at come off rides ghastly white, shaking and occasionally in tears. I would tell them, “Next time, just scream your lungs out and you’ll be fine.” But that park was surrounded by unpopulated hills, so I don’t think I helped bring down property values.
The article said they also don’t like people looking into their pools from way high up. I don’t know if that’s a valid concern or not. Unless someone specifically went on the ride in order to catch you swimming naked with the gardener, but in that case, you’ve probably got other security leaks.