Siren Happy Seattle

Let me preface what I am bout to write by saying that I have a great deal of respect for our emergency services people and recognize that many of them, readily put their "lives on the line" for us every day. For their service and tragic sacrifices, I am truly grateful. But I am frustrated but the seemingly promiscuous use of sirens in our little urban core.

The "Emerald City"? Try the "Siren City". After living in the downtown area of Seattle for 5 years, I can pronounce our little city as the most siren happy of anyplace I have ever lived- and that includes New York City (28 years), Hong Kong (8 years) and Tokyo (2 years). Given the number of times in any given day you hear a siren wailing through the urban core, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Baghdad, circa 2002 or in the city with the worst crime rate and public safety record in America.

It's just unbelievable! Siren wailings average out to about 1 every 20 - 40 minutes in the "urban core"- where we live; which is pretty amazing given Seattle's small population. I grant that: living 2 blocks away from a police precinct, 1/2 a mile from Swedish General (Hospital), a few blocks away from a fire department and a few blocks away from I5 are part of the reason we notice the sirens as much as we do.

I also admit that, given the fields of construction sites in our area, accidents will happen and that is yet another reason we have emergency services swirling through our corner of the city. Yet discounting these facts; allowing for genuine emergencies and false alarms it still seems that the emergency services people are guilty of a whimsical use of their little sirens; or from overdosing on TV dramas.

Use of sirens for anything but genuine emergencies, both real and preceived, would be wrong; and would simply amount to noise pollution. Far be it from me to play the cynic :-), but I am tempted to think these guys switch their sirens on when they go for coffee or lunch, need to get back to the firehouse for a pee; or simply to practice. There just aren't that many fires or accidents or crimes committed in our little urban core.

I wonder....do the police use their sirens when a bicycle theft is reported? Or a burnt waffle sets off a smoke alarm? Seattle Vice? Now there's a TV drama in the making. Is this yet another piece of evidence that our little, aspirational city has all the pretense of a metropolis such as New York? "We may not be as big as New York, but we use sirens more than they do!" Seattle is the Little City that Could.....