June 8, 2004
Mayor B Tells NYC To Shush
Mayor Bloomberg introduced reforms to the city's noise code, making it easier for police to crack down on noisy areas, giving some a compelling case to call him "Mayor Boo-On-Your-Parade-berg." Or Doomberg, whatever. Yes, it's all about quality of life, and Gothamist loves a good quality of life, but some of the things... The NY Times has descriptions of what would be affected:
- Barking dogs would have 5 minutes to cease yapping at night, and 10 minutes during the day. (Currently there is no time limit.)Mayor B thinks dogs can just stop barking after 5 minutes? No more Mr. Softee, trilling down the lane? If this, then when not ban those freaking car alarms? There's a fifth area the new noise codes would address - "More practical regulation of sound from commercial music sources," like bars, clubs, and cabarets...these laws are actually more flexible for bar/club owners and give them a chance to fix the issue after a first offense, instead of paying a fine.
- Roaring air conditioning units, now mostly exempt from noise laws when in clusters, would be subject to stricter standards.
- Construction projects would most likely be curtailed on weekends and at night, and the industry would be asked to use equipment to reduce sound, like noise jackets for jackhammers.
- Ice cream trucks, accustomed to inching down city streets bleating out-of-tune childhood ditties, would have to lose their soundtracks by 2006, replacing them with the little bells of yore. (Taco trucks would meet the same fate.)
Mayor Bloomberg actually consulted with the City Council (who will have to approve it later this summer), as well as construction and bar & nightlife folks, in developing these laws, so there is support behind it. And it seems like the public will be responsive, given that most 311 calls are noise complaints. The Mayor's earlier high-noise reduction effort, Operation Silent Night (which sounds like a black bag operation), began two years ago in high-noise neighborhoods, but the Mayor called OSN only "a Band-Aid." The new noise codes will now let police issue summons if the disturbance is "plainly audible," instead of needing to using handheld decibel counters. But what is excessive noise? Is it those annoying kids talking during a movie? The rumbling of trucks and buses down the street? The fire trucks outside your window, since you live near a firehouse? Or is it hearing your neighbors have sex at 2AM when you're in a dry spell? If you can't take the noise, why are you living in the city? Perhaps Gothamist is too used to the white noise of the city. But looking at this list of top noise complaints from the Daily News, many are not addressed by the new noise codes. Also, dog owners weigh in.
Read the Mayor's press release on the new noise codes.
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Maybe he can get started addressing the HORRENDOUS noise of subway cars: the trains on the tracks, the distorted sound systems, the conductors screaming at the top of their lungs to "let go of the freaking door"... But that may not be a particular neurosis of his, seeing as that seems to be the basis for his "innovative" leadership.
Jesus, this dude is obssessed with the lamest, most irrelevant shit.
Dear Mayor School Marm: Here's how you can kick-off your anti-noise campaign: Just shut up.
BTW, great point, Jen, regarding noise and city life... if it's too noisy for you, move to Westchester.
mr softee drives me nuts with that irritating song, but i'd miss it if it was suddenly removed. the words to the song: http://www.mistersoftee.com/music.asp
I wouldn't miss Mr. Softee at ALL. It's not so bad where I live now, but in my old neighborhood there were lots of kids, and several competing ice cream trucks regularly trolled our block. Sometimes there would be as many as four or five in an hour, and this went on until well after 10pm every night. They were so loud that they interfered with conversation, with whatever you had on t.v. or your stereo - and *forget* ever taking a nap!
If people want quiet, move. If you moved to New York for quiet, yer stoopid.
I seriously doubt anyone moves to New York seeking pastoral quiet, but A-frickin-MEN about the Mister Softee song ban.
It depends on the neighborhood you're in. Banning ice cream truck songs may be the thing that keeps me from going on a killing spree.
What is up with these idiotic comments--move to Westchester if you want quiet?? You people probably would have said ten or fifteen years ago, 'move to Westchester if you want less crime, or if you don't want to be assaulted on the subway, or if you don't want to be accosted by smoke in restaurants and bars, this is New York City, man.'
Well, grow up. These are all quality of life issues that affect most people, and it is the role of the mayor and the city to confront them, and I'm glad that these problems are being solved. The mayor is not trying to make it illegal to talk above a whisper,he's just getting rid of some obnoxious noises that make it annoying to live here, and it is a problem when you can't sleep because you have construction going on all night, or cars honking outside your window, or a stupid ice cream truck parked in one spot, playing its music endlessly. Whatever. I'm glad he's doing it. Now go and take some more pictures of the subway.
While I do not support mandating things like noise (which is inevitable in a city), I have to admit that I'd probably welcome the silencing of Mr. Softees and yapping dogs. But really, people, who gets to determine what's loud? That's pretty subjective. Then again, if they begin to fine parents who bring wailing toddlers into fancy restaurants, then you're talking...(kidding, just kidding).
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?
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.
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
There is a taco truck in the UWS, around 106th Street. But I've never seen it drive around with music playing.
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.
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.
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.
Tim, is that really your web site?
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.
It s/b http://adsformyself.blogpsot.com
I agree with the overregulation part, though I don't think that anyone here can speak for the opinion of "most people."
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
"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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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'm just Waiting for Bloomburg and Gulianie to team up against Loud Jaywalkers.