WASHINGTON — In D.C.'s upscale Kalorama neighborhood, foreign embassies are mixed in with the area's multi-million dollar homes, giving the community an international vibe. But neighbors say what’s happening outside the Chinese ambassador’s home on 23rd and S streets is more than a first world problem.
It’s just not right.
“Kids don't want to come home for holidays,” said ANC2D Commissioners Carole Feld. “People don't want to host friends at their home.”
For nearly two hours most mornings, protesters descend on the neighborhood with megaphones to air grievances with the Chinese government. At volumes so loud, the noise reverberates for blocks.
WUSA9 took sound readings, with a digital reader, and recorded levels over 104 decibels. Sound experts say the noise levels neighbors routinely wake up to is equivalent to a freight train passing by. Or sitting in the front row of a rock concert.
The protesters blare the megaphones from 7 a.m. until shortly after 9 a.m., when the ambassador leaves for work. Some days they also return for a couple hours around dinner time. It’s been happening for roughly two years now.
And neighbors say they are fed up.
“Nothing to do with the Chinese or the First Amendment,” said Don Friedman, president of the Sheridan-Kalorama Neighborhood Council. “It is simply an issue of the noise.”
Friedman added the neighbors “deserve better.”
And now some are taking matters into their own hands. In one instance, an upset neighbor took one of the protesters blaring megaphones, which was strapped to branches in a tree, and threw it in the garbage.
It was that neighbor who ended up in handcuffs and briefly detained Secret Service on accusations of destruction of property. The neighbor was eventually released without being charged.
WUSA9 spoke to the protesters using a translator app on their phones. Their complaints revolve around land and financial disputes with their government.
“We feel very sorry for the neighbors around us but we cannot stop protesting because there is no other way,” said one protester who added the volume is the point. Their way of demanding a meeting with the Chinese ambassador.
But neighbors say they are the ones caught in the middle. In a September email sent to a group planning ways to fight back, neighbors went so far as suggesting “hiring a private investigator to gather information” on the protesters as a way to get them to stop.
“I think we're at a tipping point for the neighbors,” said Feld.
“Right now, people just can't stand it and they don't see an end in sight and it's just become unlivable,” Feld added. “And what's happening here can happen anywhere.”
Why? D.C.’s Noise Control Act.
Nearly 50 years old, the law includes exemptions for First Amendment demonstrations, specifically for protests related to union rights. In the District, outdoor demonstrations have no sound limits. A protest can only be shut down for violating the noise ordinance if the noise level exceeds 80 decibels inside the nearest home—and only if a city inspector takes the reading.
But enforcement of the noise ordinance has been kicked around in recent years from agency to agency within D.C. government. Leaving neighbors frustrated. The Department of Buildings is now responsible for enforcing D.C.’s noise ordinance.
After hearing the angry complaints from residents, and hours before WUSA9 was set to publish this story, noise enforcement officers from DOB walked the neighborhood taking decibel readings from outside homes and inside the Chinese ambassador's residence. Although it remains unclear if those readings violated the current noise ordinance.
D.C. Council is actually considering two different bills addressing noise issues in the city. But as written right now, neither would do anything to solve the complaints of people who live nearby.
A DOB spokesperson told us the noise readings will be given to councilmembers, who will then decide if they want to tweak the new legislation to add stricter noise limits in D.C., even in the case of first amendment demonstrations like the ones happening in Kalorama.
“We are looking to you, to help us.” Feld told D.C. councilmembers during a hearing in September.
“The issue for me in not the content,” said D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson. ”First Amendment protects content. It is way to loud. It is way too obnoxious. It is preventing peace and quiet in that neighborhood.”
Mendelson added finding a solution is “going to require some creativity.”
Until then, the protesters say their message will keep echoing throughout this community, with the sound up.
“Day after day,” one protester told WUSA9.
Some neighbors think the U.S. State Department should step in, saying the use of megaphones goes beyond free speech and amounts to harassment of a foreign diplomat, which violates both federal and international law.
The State Department told WUSA9 its legal department reviewed the case and determined the protesters are within their first amendment rights.