SPOKANE, Wash. – Some people on social media are voicing concerns with, what they call, a piercing sound device at the underpass at Cedar Street and 1st Avenue in downtown Spokane. They claim the sound blares out at night.
Some feel that this alleged sound device was placed to deter people from camping out under the viaduct, an act which is illegal.
A spokesman for the City of Spokane told NonStop Local that they are aware of a sound device after seeing videos on social media, but that the City did not install it.
The City said they are opening a complaint with Code Enforcement to identify the responsible party.
City Councilman Michael Cathcart told NonStop Local that any installation of lights, speakers, or other devices were not approved by BNSF Railway.
BNSF Railway has ultimate decision-making authority on the viaduct infrastructure, according to Cathcart.
“That overpass itself is owned and maintained by BNSF. And when we have asked in the past whether we could install speakers to play music, or even just lighting…BNSF is very strict about those things… It definitely wasn’t the City that installed any device. And, I think if there’s a device there, it was put there by somebody without BNSF’s permission,” Cathcart said.
NonStop Local contacted BNSF Railway, who said they have not installed any such device at that viaduct.
“They [sound devices] aren’t going to work long term…They usually are the outward expression of somebody’s frustration…and I understand that…We don’t want to see people sleeping on sidewalks, but we want them to be somewhere better. In an appropriate shelter. In some kind of appropriate transitional housing,” Maurice Smith, a documentary filmmaker who spotlights homeless issues in Spokane, said.
Smith also discussed how the alleged device ties into the removal of benches on the Monroe Street Bridge, in the sense that it seems both were deterrents to the homeless population by making the areas less usable.
That motion for the Monroe project was passed before Mayor Lisa Brown entered office.
While Mayor Brown is in favor of new lighting and anti-graffiti measures, she is not in support of the installation of metal panels or the removing of benches.
Meanwhile, the City is working to determine who might’ve installed a device, and if this is in violation with City Code.
