Urban interventions

One of my favorite things to do in Minneapolis is walk down Nicollet Mall, our downtown pedestrianized street, late at night. Actually it's not entirely pedestrian-friendly, as (infrequent) bus service means that you are often in danger of being impaled on the bike racks of buses as you let your guard down.

The best time to experience Nicollet Mall is at three a.m. on a Monday morning in the middle of a January cold snap. Deserted, utterly. But oddly enough, classical music tinkles out of the lighted gazebos that serve as bus shelters on the street. Such an aesthetic acoutrement has been proven to deter teen loiterers. But when you're the only listening and its too fucking freezing to stick around anyway, the effect is just plain creepy.

There may be other aural assaults underway and I just can't hear them. An interesting New York Times article today made mention of a novel fun-wrecking device employed in Britain that takes advantage of the fact that kids can hear sounds at frequencies adults can't--something I hadn't been aware of.

The device, called the Mosquito ("It's small and annoying," Mr. Stapleton said), emits a high-frequency pulsing sound that, he says, can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no one older than 30. The sound is designed to so irritate young people that after several minutes, they cannot stand it and go away.

So far, the Mosquito has been road-tested in only one place, at the entrance to the Spar convenience store in this town in South Wales. Like birds perched on telephone wires, surly teenagers used to plant themselves on the railings just outside the door, smoking, drinking, shouting rude words at customers and making regular disruptive forays inside.

Now, I'm a big fan of Spar stores, as that's where I got my videos and frozen pizzas and tins of lager, but I can attest that they do attract the rabble. The fact that I may now shop in peace while youngsters are driven away by a sound I can't hear is a test of oldness I'd rather not pass. But one interesting paragraph caught my attention:

He is considering introducing a much louder unit that can be switched on in emergencies with a panic button. It would be most useful when youths swarm into stores and begin stealing en masse, a phenomenon known in Britain as steaming. The idea would be to blast them with such an unacceptably loud, high noise - a noise inaudible to older shoppers - that they would immediately leave.

First it was happy slapping and now steaming. British kids have all the fun.

Another story out of Britain got the militant pedestrian in me smiling...the diy speedbumping / interventions / performance art of children's author Ted Dewan, whose gone to creative lengths to get people to slow down when driving past his house. He's erected giant bunnies, staged gruesome accident scenes and set up his living room in the middle of the road all in an effort to get folks to slow down. The photos are hilarious.

I've been known to slap cars, give deathly stare downs and otherwise berate rude motorists who have tried to run over my feet or knock me off my bike, so Ted Dewan, I salute you.

Posted by jason at November 30, 2024 11:54 PM