Update: Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Building, Was Euthanized
Access-A-Ride Renders Bike Lane Inaccessible
The UWS Gets Its Very Own Apple Store
Emily and Sarah Kunstler, Filmmakers
People Wait For Tomorrow's UWS Apple Store Opening
Soft serve lovers rejoice, a compromise on the the Mr. Softee jingle has been reached. The proposed reforms last year to the city's noise code by Mayor Bloomberg called for Mr. Softee to be muted. No more jingle at all hours, no more jingle at all. The compromise reached by the City Council only calls for the jingle to be stopped when the ice cream truck is stopped.
Other parts of Bloomberg's noise crackdown seem to be on track: barking dogs have 5 minutes to stop barking at night, and 10 minutes during the day (do they make dog timers now); loud air conditioning units would be subject to stricter standards; construction projects would be curtailed at night except for special situations (keep the hooting and hollering during the day); and garbage pick up would be banned from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. within 50 feet of a residence (yay, but more garbage smell for rush hour).
While Gothamist hasn't been unlucky enough (or lucky depending on how you're looking at it) to have a Mr. Softee truck park outside our home for hours on end, we can see truck drivers moseying along at a snail's pace to skirt the law.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
How about no construction on weekends before 10 or 11am?
Few things are worse than staying up late Friday or Saturday night to be woken up at 7:30 AM to the sound of jackhammering outside your apartment.
What about car alarms that go off and never seem to stop, any law for that?
All summer the ice cream truck would pass under the window of my apartment every 5 minutes, tootling away with one of its 3 different jingles (including an especially grating one with artificial handclaps built in). I do not exaggerate with that 5 minute number. The truck would pollute my eardrums while I tried to sleep at 11:30 at night, it would poke its nose into my phone conversations ("is that the ice cream truck I hear in the background?" people would ask), it would invade my movie-watching space...it was there every moment of every day, haunting me with its incessant songs. How much dairy do residents of Brooklyn need to consume in a day? What small children are buying ice cream at 11:30 at night? Can't I live without having my dreams infested by "doodle-oo-boo-doo-doodle-oodle-oodle-doo, doodle-oo-doo-doo-boodle-oo-oo-oo" at all times? Whatever happened to the ice cream man driving by once in the afternoon to the delight of all neighborhood children? When he's there every second, the thrill is gone!
The jackhammering at 7AM really is unfortunate.
What about when the bars close at, what, 4AM, and people start coming outside, screaming...then the police show up, car alarms go off... maybe we all need our vocal boxes removed!
Well, I'm glad the Mayor is really dealing with the noise prob-WHEEO-WHEEO-WHEEO-WHEEO-ENH-ENH-ENH-ENH-ENH-OOO-EEE-OOO-EEE
Er, sorry. What was that?
You know if it's quiet everyone wants, I hear that Westchester and Jersey can deliver.
For four years I lived across the street from the elementary school on 6th St. bet. B and C in the East Village. There was an ice-cream truck out there every day when school got out. Grrr. And of course they also had summer school there every year but one. That one? Resurfacing and waterproofing the entire building, complete with scaffolding and dozens of grinders removing the old facing. Grind grind grind. I work from home. Not a good thing. Six months of high-pitched grinding. I bought earplugs.
I was impressed with 311, however. After looking up the hours at which they were allowed to do construction - they were going on till 9pm - I gave it a try. The guy I got said that since it was a school they probably had special permits that allowed them to extend the hours, but that he'd check it out anyway. Three days later he called back to say they didn't have the permits and would have to shut down at 6pm until they got them. Both things eventually happened, leaving me feeling both empowered and guilty.
As for car alarms, my local police precinct was good about sending someone over to pop the hood and kill the things if they got more than one report. Happened more than once. Always nice to hear screams of "THANK YOU!!" and "NO PROBLEM!" from neighbors to cops at 3am. If they can't kill it they'll tow it. Most people don't know the location and # of their local cops.
Having been out after 11 pm a number of times, I happen to know that a lot of garbage collection gets done at those hours (and since this the Upper West Side, everything is within 50 feet of a residence). I wonder when they'll be picking garbage up then? Certainly not during the day; the trucks take up half the street when they're loading up the garbage.
Now, I have the Mr. Softeen music stuck in my head. Thanks a lot, Gothamist.
I also have the Mr. Softee Music in my head. Does an mp3 of it exist?
Toby: An mp3 is proving elusive, but you can always listen to this story on NPR about the jingle.
Here'e the tune ...
http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/LB/mrsoftee.mp3