In Defense of the Ice Cream Man

On the same day that the Herald runs a story about a real problem involving rising violence in the school system, readers also get to hear more griping about a fake problem – ice-cream men who are too noisy.

Michele McPhee quotes one woman as saying, "You talk about road rage. I have ice cream truck rage.” She then added, “You think it’s a silly thing, loud ice cream truck music, until you live it."

Are they pushing something else in the ice cream? If the answer is no, then there's no problem. This is a city. Cities are noisy places. Sometimes, at night, you can even hear people talking. You might even hear a siren. It happens. If the worst you are hearing is the ice cream man, then you do not have problems.

If you take the ice-cream man out of the equation, then City Councilor Sal LaMattina, who is backing this measure, simply wants police to do a better job with enforcing noise ordinances. That in itself is a good idea, as long as he goes after the ice cream trucks as much as he goes after anything else noisy.

We liked what Barstool Sports had to say about the situation the last time LaMattina brought it up:

Today in Boston City Hall which is located in Boston which is reputed to be one of America's great cities, the City Council will be spending time debating ice cream trucks rather than say stuff like violence or housing or property tax rates or job creation or transportation. You know, because ice cream trucks and their blaring music of death is why Bostonians need City Councilors.

Somewhere, Clint Howard is annoyed. Image from Amazon.