I'm just Waiting for Bloomburg and Gulianie to team up against Loud Jaywalkers.

Regarding car alarms, the City already limits them in that they are only supposed to alarm for three (3) minutes. Obviously, though, alarms go off for a lot longer than the mandated three minutes. The proposed code would apply to the alarms with the new "plainly audible" standard.

Personally, I agree with those wishing to ban car alarms outright because, as one comic has put it, the car alarm has become the 'urban cricket' of New York City. Have you EVER seen anyone do ANYTHING when a car alarm goes off except look pissed about the noise?

i'd like to point out that's not a Mr Softee truck that does the 'hello' thing, it's 'Kool Man' or something. my old apartment was above a chinese restaurant and every day during the summer Mr Softee parked outside my window to run in and get his dinner. he'd leave the song playing for 20-30 minutes while he got his food. little else has pushed me so close to insanity. kool man will never bug me as much as that damn mr softee song.

Simon, I am with you on that weird "Heeellloooo" thing. I heard it for the first time last week in FT Greene and it is very disturbing on a variety of levels. The music could be seen as annoying, but playing on our Pavlovian responses to a woman's (?) voice saying hello is just wrong. Very distruptive- we had to get off the porch. You think it is a parrot, I thought it was just an odd accent.

You know, I don't think I've ever been to Williamsburg. And I can count the number of nights I've been on the LES on one hand. So Josh, you're still my friend, but I'm not sure what you're referring to.

I'll say again, and then close: quality of life is a relative term, but I think it hurts a persons quality of life more if they die in a fire than if they can't smoke. And many people, who never make it to the papers, agree. Talk to people (instead of just quoting tabs and blogs) if you disagree.

BTW, one more clarification: I'm talking only about authentic Mr. Softee trucks, not those weird bastardizations with bad sound that troll through the streets.

I am working from home today, and theres one of those Mr Softee trucks parked in front of my building. If I could I would blow it up with a bazooka, Grand Theft Auto style. Its loud and annoying. Its not the old bell song, its some kind of weird electronic casio keyboard sounding shit, on a loop, with a parrot voice that says "HELLOOOO" at the beginning and these barking dog and qucking duck samples, running over and over and over. FUCK MR SOFTEE

Oddly, I have a bird in my (v quiet) nieghborhood which must have taken the brown birdseed cause it starts singing at night and does not stop. I thought they all went to sleep at night? Hey Mr Mayor, can I kill it?

"Most people I talk to hate the smoking ban but aren't ticked off by Mr. Softee."

I hate Mr. Softee. I'm not ticked off by the smoking ban. In fact, I love and celebrate it. I'd buy the smoking ban a drink if I could.

here is most people (not living in williamsburg or the lower east side):

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/123083p-110561c.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/03-28-2004/news/local/story/177974p-154834c.html

http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2003/10/04/poll.html

http://www.10nbc.com/index.asp?template=item&story_id=9015

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2003/01/20/daily67.html

I agree with the overregulation part, though I don't think that anyone here can speak for the opinion of "most people."

It s/b http://adsformyself.blogpsot.com

It didn't go to the Bible thing, did it? Oh, not again!

Seriously, don't know why this keeps happening...it could make a person pa-pa-paranoid.

Tim, is that really your web site?

Josh, amigo, first of all...Victims of firehouse closings: 5/22/04 fire in Williamsburg... four dead, firehouse nearby recently closed.

Second... In the opinion of most people? Are you speaking for most people? Most people I talk to hate the smoking ban but aren't ticked off by Mr. Softee. Most people I talk to also think that since the Mayor ran on the argument that since he's a Republican and the gov is a Republican and the prez is a Republican that he can be more effective in dealing with them he should be held to a higher standard... and start being more effective... as opposed to turning citizens into lawbreakers because they want a cigarette.

Look, I'm just tired of every time I turn around the Mayor is wagging a finger in the face of the people he's supposed to be serving. Quality of life is a relative term, and as an uabashed fan of smokes in a bar - and Mr. Softee - the city is starting to feel vastly overregulated.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamen

to the car horns and car alarms. Anybody that sits behind a garbage truck making collections on a residential side street and leans on the horn needs a beating.

car alarms should be banned outright. there should be a tax on dogs to discourage people from having them in the city. dog barking and honking horns in residential neighborhoods should be fined at $500 per bark / honk, doubled between 10 pm and 7 am. city buses should be converted to silent 100% electric motors.

There is a taco truck in the UWS, around 106th Street. But I've never seen it drive around with music playing.

Oh, please. This city is so large and complicated, and it has issues on a scale that rivals most other countries. These huge, complex issues are being dealt with every day. Don't think that the city stops functioning just because the mayor wants new noise regulations.

A smaller, more personal issue like the noise ban or smoking ban--quality of life issues that make the city a better place to live, in the opinion of most people--get more attention than larger issues sometimes because they are easy stories to understand and write about and they affect everybody. Just because the mayor is trying to improve the quality of life in this city does not mean that he is forgetting that the city is a major target of terrorists, or that many schools need overhauling, or that the federal and state government have not given the city the money it was promised.

And by the way, firehouses aren't closing (and people aren't "burning to death"--where'd that come from?) because there isn't enough money or because the mayor is a Republican. The few firehouses that have been closed recently were closed because they were not necessary. It was an unpopular move, and a lot of firemean and community groups screamed bloody murder, but it saved the city a lot of money and it was a smart decision. see here:

http://www.nydailynews.com/04-05-2003/news/story/72916p-67518c.html

taco trucks?!? where the hell can i find a taco truck?!? and if i find one, do i have to have access to a toilet nearby?

do anyone else remember something about bloomberg giving a press conference last year on noise at city hall when a motorcycle with a loud muffler roared by. if i remember correctly, bloomberg whispered to an assistant and had the guy pulled over as he got off the brooklyn bridge.

Josh, Mayor Bloomberg's NY is overregulated and underfinanced. While firehouses close and people burn to death, we're worried about Mister Softee trucks. There's a huge difference between not being able to step out your door for fear of your life and pitching a fit over a barking dog or an ice cream truck. Would we like to hear less car alarms and jackhammers? Ablsolutley. But there's some stuff you deal with when you move from the burbs. And if people can't deal with it, then maybe city life isn't for them.

That five-foot-fool in city hall claims to be a Republican. What happened to the Republican ethic of government out of our faces?