A Safeway grocery in San Francisco's Fillmore District parked a LiveView Technologies solar-powered light and sound machine in its lot and has blasted classical music at exceptional volume 24 hours/day for the last week. Neighbors, including those in nearby buildings, have complained to the police but to no avail. From SFGate:
While other locations do not have the security system's optional audio feature activated, whoever is operating the mobile unit at 1335 Webster St. seems to have recently turned up the volume of the loudspeakers exponentially and is keeping the music going 24 hours a day.
This is despite a December 2022 blog post on the LiveView Technologies website called "The Most Humane Battle: Know How to Prevent Homeless Encampments With LVT," which included a section titled "Humane auditory alerts" that touted the benefits of using the security system's "temporary" alerts, rather than "continuous, loud music."
"It is … truly 'alerting,' making the area a terrible place to sleep for the night," the post reads of the "temporary" noises. "Imagine the sounds of the worst hotel you've ever stayed at. Only worse."[…]
A Safeway corporate spokesperson sent along a statement that acknowledged playing music at this location to "deter loitering" but did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about why the volume and frequency of the music recently increased.
