The City is Noisy

News flash: New York City is noisy! Apparently many people complain about the noise (about 169,000 complaints to 311), and Mayor Bloomberg, in phase 2 of Operation Silent Night (which sounds more like a death strike), is proposing to change the way charges of excessive noise can be enforced. Summons will now be allowed to issued for "plainly audible" sounds, versus the vague, unenforceable "plainly audible" noise (for example, a loud music could be considered plaingly audible"). Decibel limits on construction equipment would also follow, as well as measuring the noise a collection of equipment emits, instead of measures each of the pieces individually (like the air conditioner and the ventilator together). One TriBeCa resident tells the Daily News, "I have not opened my windows in over 10 years," due to living next to a commercial building.

And just when Gothamist was about to mutter, "Hey, you live in New York - suck it up," the Daily News includes this quote from John Dallas of the Bronx Campaign for Peace and Quiet: "This is New York, where people are supposed to be hardened and used to everything. When you have hard-core lifetime New Yorkers screaming about noise, something is wrong." But did the couple who moved from the Upper West Side to Park Slope's Fifth Avenue in hopes of a quiet, more family oriented really think that gentrification means no loud clubs? However, noise complaints are the number one quality of life issue for New Yorkers, with the most coming from residential parties and loud music, second most from vehicles, followed by clubs.

Gothamist's favorite neighborhood group against noise: OUTRAGE - Organizations United for Trash Reduction And Garbage Equity (" one of several neighborhood groups trying to stem the tide of trucks that shuttle back and forth to trash processing centers"). And 3M Type 1440 Padded Earmuffs reduce sound by 24 decibels.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on December 22, 2003 8:20 AM

Comments [rss]

Santa

People that honk their horns to annoy people in residential areas are pathetic scum. Die scum!

Trinity

Hey, i live in Melbourne Australia and i have to say that i love the loud music! without it....life would be dull and lifeless!!

Michael W. Smith

Hey New Yorkers, don't move away from NYC to escape noise, it is everywhere and getting worse. I live in a small town in Virginia and the boom cars vibrate my small home 50 times a day with excessively loud music. I call the cops but the boom car jerks are already long gone. Our police force is small and they cannot set and wait on the next boom car thug to pass by. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in 2001 that over 4.5 million households wanted to move away from their neighborhoods because of traffic related noise. I hope that new legislation can be passed, and enforced, across the country that will give us back the peace and quiet that we have the right to. Loud music, that vibrates an entire city block, is illegal and those offenders do not have a right to behave in that manner.

bob

get a life dick head

Dave Hernandez

I just got finished screaming at a taxi driver. Every night I am treated to the incessant honking of idiot taxi cabs who come up my block (downtown -- Financial District.) It's a one-lane road and it's backed up with traffic because car services pick up late-working bankers. There's nowhere for them to go, yet they honk and honk and honk. It's 11:30 at night, I live on the 28th floor and all I hear is honking. Incessantly. I love New York dearly and I can stand the normal noise of people living in the city but someone leaning on their horn because they're frustrated they turned down the wrong block is bull crap.

sema

horn honking IS illegal- okay, not as such, but there is a $200 fine for it. there are signs up all over the city. just kinda hard to enforce. and it isn't new yorkers honking, we don't drive in manhattan, it's mostly auslanders who do. and don't call us crybabies, foolio. it has nothing to so with quaintness or suburbia- this is the antithesis of suburbia, no matter how many pottery barns there are, because of the density of occupation. noise is necessarily a part of that density, but unnecessary noise- like the horn-honking- isn't, in fact it shows a lack of respect for the people who live in the city, especially those born and bred and shouldn't have to 'move somewhere else' when this is where home and family are.

Loud

The noise complainers may have a few points, but legislating noise reduction cuts into our freedom. Just because something is annoying doesn't mean it should be illegal.

This transformation of New York is unfortunate. New York is morphing into a bunch of tattletales hell bent on converting the urban lifestyle into a quaint suburban and family-friendly environment. If New York is too loud for you, then move somewhere else. Crybabies.

bumble

This is a fantastic initiative, and I really hope that they go through with it. The noise level is unbearable anymore. Nevermind the idiots who get stuck in to a gridlocked intersection as the light is changing and honk because of their own stupidity because they just couldn't wait an extra minute to move ten feet. There are so many other sounds that add up until you want to jam your fingers in your ears as you walk down the street (because you're done pulling your hair out). Like the street fair jerk who puts his loud, moaning generator outside your building for an entire day, or the Mister Softee truck who parks on a corner and plays that song over and over, and the people who stand in the same place every morning having the loudest conversation possible about nothing. I think Belview will have considerably less patients if they lowered the noise level here.

If only Bloomberg would put me on the committee. I could single-handedly lower the noise level by half. I just know it!

ibitmylip

i've done a survey. the hornhonkers are from nj, ct, and pa. most of them, anyway.

Coolfer

Personally, I love the people who can't drive without honking their car horns. There's the type of person who gives a few long honks if the cars in front don't speed out of a green light like it's the Indy 500 (yeah, that must have been an unbearable 0.2-second wait). Then you've got the person who is stuck in gridlock and will honk as a form of stress release. No cars are moving, and no cars are going to move any time soon, but the honks come long and loud. New Yorkers just can't sit quietly in traffic. It's not like their sitting on the 405 in L.A. These are residential areas. Then you've got the cars that will stop to pick up somebody and honk until the person comes out of the building. Forget the fact that everybody in the city has a cell phone. No, a call can't be made. They've gotta honk for a minute or two. Why not ban car horns? I can't remember the last time a horn was used for its intended purpose. All in all, I get the impression that most New Yorkers have never been outside the city, otherwise they would have learned to appreciate the sound of silence.

eu

About the noise: they are right.Sometimes you feel you can not take it anymore. And do you know what I think it's the main cause: the way some people alter their cars ( especially those that own a Honda...just my impression).It's just like by having a very noisy car make your "thing" look bigger.

I just came this year here in NY and I have to say that this is something that I really hate.

Why the police doesn't fine this? Like the way they take care of parking spots.