Sometimes it’s the soothing sounds of a string quartet, or vigorous playing of violins that comes blaring out of speakers posted on the building housing a Burger King on the corner of Hyde and Grove.
The owner of the franchise says the Central Market Community Benefit District asked his landlord for permission to pipe out classical music as a way to deter a problem the sign posted in his window did not — loitering and panhandling — which had been a big problem at this location.
Similar sounds could be heard wafting outside the 7-Eleven on Drumm Street.
The franchise owner confirmed to KRON4 that he started this tactic three days ago as a way to address the same problem.
Another business owner on the same street says the homeless population who tend to hang out there can be a problem.
“They make a lot of mess on the sidewalk they bring a lot of garbage and sometimes they scream, they scare children, they scare women, so it’s really scary for people who are tourists,” said one person.
The executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness calls it noise pollution and agrees that the city needs real solutions.
KRON4 is told the speakers at the Market Street fast food restaurant went up around the same time a nearby entrance to Civic Center BART, another magnet for loitering, was sealed off for an unrelated reason late last year.
The owner of the Burger King franchise tells KRON4 he doesn’t know which had a bigger impact — the closure of the BART entrance or the Beethoven.
