California city to regulate ice cream truck music

California’s Long Beach City Council has voted to draft legislation limiting how and where ice cream trucks can play their music, as NPR reports.

A new ordinance will require drivers to lower the volume of their speakers while driving, and refrain from playing music completely while parked at beaches and neighbourhoods.

While the music of an ice cream truck is its veritable trademark, glockenspiel renditions of Scott Joplin‘s ‘The Entertainer‘ a siren to sweet-toothed children in the summertime, adults have found this decade-old tradition to be a nuisance.

In an interview with ABC News, councilman Dee Andrews said his office has received 200 noise complaints, and that the council has has spoken with 60 ice cream truck owners.

Andrews said, “When you get a complaint from your constituents you try to address it. It sounds kind of petty, but I’ll try to make it very simple and easy,” adding, “Let’s try to get along with our neighbors. Just be fair to the city that lets you in.”

One Long Beach ice cream truck driver Nestor Zea admitted, “Some people are old and retired and don’t really like the music. Some people are just tired of the music. The problem is there are too many trucks and too many people working these streets.”

Zea also added, “It will affect our business for sure because the kids really like the music. I’ve worked for 20 years in this business. And each year is hard enough to survive. People don’t understand that we pay for licenses, we pay taxes, we need to pay rent, and we have to support our children. I am 60 years old. I have a family to support. No one is going to hire me at my age.”