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What Keeps You Up, New York?

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This is like one big passive aggressive note! It sort of makes us want to circle #30 and hand it to our eternally sparring neighbors. Anyway! Do you see anything missing on Greg Hathaway's "Things That Keep Me Awake in New York City" poster (full image here)—what keeps you up in this town? [via Apartment Therapy]

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  • pazzia

    ice cream truck jingles >:|

  • Macho Donut

    the distant incessant sucking sound of the sewage treatment plant in greenpoint. it sounds like the jolly green giant is running his shop-vac all night long...and then around 7AM the pile drivers join the chorus. And let's not forget the bandsaws in the production studio downstairs!!!

  • GREGORYABUTLER

    Maybe it's because I'm actually from here (born in Manhattan and lived here my whole life), but the noise doesn't bother me a bit. I always get a good night's sleep.



    And I live on Amsterdam Av, so I have the buses going by all night.



    When I go to suburbia and spend the night, the lack of noise is what weirds me out!

  • Reflect

    HOW HOW.. could bead bugs have possibly been left off that list? you must be a newbie.

  • I'm ok now but back in the day it was the random sound of gun Fire just as you were feeling cozy. oh And Those Infernal Crack Heads Fighting Violently for God Knows what Reazon.

  • militza

    I used to live in a suburban part of brooklyn with a bunch of schools nearby. sometimes visiting teams would come with marching bands in tow and park on the corner near my buidling. for some odd reason they used the early morning hours to practice their drumline routine.

  • NannyState

    Weird restaurant food smells that you can't quite trace and neighbors that incessantly open then close their doors without leaving their apartment.

  • Thats SO funny. I wish I could see it on Film or some shit!

  • Greg Hathaway

    Thanks for all this attention. Here's a store!

    greghathdesign.com/products/ny...

  • Pharmer

    Mosquitoes, when you have one buzzing around your ear at night.

  • Clarice City

    156. People that never stop whining.

  • soundfreak

    What about BEDBUGS.



    Ever since I found out my upstairs neighbors have them, I haven't slept very well.

  • angry_pickle

    I think a lot of indoor noise could be solved if builders actually built better walls and floors and strived to exceed federal building codes. When I visited a government housing project in Hong Kong, the units were steel and concrete top to bottom and I couldn't hear a thing.

  • drewo

    Note the source of 11 of the top 14 noise generators on that sign: the automobile.

  • nomnomnom

    The Mets/Yankees/Knicks/Rangers/Giants/Jets. All those work too.

  • CrazyDEX

    They forgot pigeons cooing / fucking. That's why I switched my bedroom to not be next to the airshaft.

  • kchu

    My 12 year old neighbor incessantly plays the trumpet...terribly. It's been two years, you would think he would improve!



    But I never complain because it's better than him being on the streets in a gang. Oh well.

  • Nyctini11

    We have "on the books" some pretty tough noise laws(including construction sites) i've had to look them up numerous times in an effort to not fully go postal to get a single decent nights sleep(has yet to happen) I just don't understand the point of them because it's blatantly obvious they are not enforced on anyone besides the Clubs/lounges and that's probably because they can give them hefty fines to fund the payroll, other then that it's a damn joke just like 311. It's truly surprising more people aren't committed each year in this city, cause after 4 sleepless nights of Jack Hammering (only in the middle of the night)i was damn close to being fitted for a straight jacket.

  • mybloodymatch

    When Flatbush was getting repaved last fall, the city thought it would be a great idea to do the jackhammering part of the work in the middle of the night. It would start around 9 p.m. and go until 2 or so in the morning. The worst part was that they would stop for awhile and then start back. Just as you'd think they were done for the night and that you might finally get some sleep, it would start again. I filed a noise complaint and the woman told me what the decibel limit is for nighttime construction work (which this was definitely over), but I'm not sure it did any good.

  • aprfctcrci

    you people are hilarious. i would love to see the posts complaining about the traffic and other nuisances caused by repaving flatbush or any other busy city street during the day. might as well just not repave it. oh wait, then we'd have to listen to you complain about potholes.



    simple solution, move out of the city. bunch of f-ing whiners.

  • soundfreak

    Yea, I live on Flatbush. Last June, our very first night in our apartment, at 10pm they started jack hammering right underneath our window and worked until 4am. The whole building was shaking. It was a nightmare and lasted a couple of weeks. It was awful because they would work sporadically and we never knew if they were going to show up that night. All they did was move the traffic light post over 1 foot.

  • nicemarmot

    They do that everywhere. When they repaved 1st Ave, they jackhammered up the old pavement at 3am.

  • farleft

    Some idiots definitely took part in this survey. "peace" and "quiet" are the two last ones on the list. WTF?

  • Outter Burrougher

    after five years in the city, i moved to an apartment where my bedroom faces silence. i kept telling myself i would get used to it, but three years later, i still run a portable fan as a type of noise machine.

  • stereotypical

    I've been here for 4 years and I sleep so much better when I'm somewhere quiet. I never got used to it I guess.

  • ganghiscon

    Become so used to the noise, it's hard to get to sleep without it.

  • stereotypical

    Its become a summer evening pastime for my roommates and I. We sit on our 3rd floor balcony in Queens, eggs in hand, and egg as many cars as we can that blow their horns. Just hit our first guy on a loud as Harley the other night. It was a Sunday after midnight and the fucker went wide-open up and down our street about 5 times. He noticed the egg on his jacket but never saw us.



    This also works well with loud car alarms. Egg the thing a few times and they'll never park on your block again.



    I encourage everyone to partake in this. Its exhilarating.

  • pipsy

    Sadly, my neighbors are not scared of eggs. They're not even deterred by dog shit smeared on their windows. Alarms on the hair trigger that go off 4+ times a night really do deserve that step up from eggs.

  • I like your idea, but with some of the crazy car alarms in my neighborhood, I've been thinking about buying a few bricks to have on hand.

  • EricRoberts

    Ohhh totally. When we used to live in car alarm central (1st St & 7th Ave, Park Slope) I used to calm myself down and sleep while the car alarm still blared by imagining taking the claw end of a hammer and making a long gash in the offending car's windshield.

  • JacqueMehoff

    I used to put some dings with my pellet gun to car alarms.

    I've heard deer musk in the vents is a good idea, too.

    vents are under the windshield.

  • stereotypical

    Ah, nice. That is some foul smelling stuff.

  • jules1000

    I always wanted to do that! But I just never had the safety that an upper floor balcony provides.

  • yg

    Watch out, some drivers have baseball bats with them. Or The Club.

  • stereotypical

    Ha, we were worried about that at first but nobody has ever seen us. I've got a bat and hockey stick of my own so I'm not too worried.

  • nicemarmot

    I swear sometimes in the middle of the night, my upstairs neighbor drops bowling balls on his hardwood floor for fun. What the hell is he doing up there that makes so much noise?



    Other than that, numbers 1 through 4 are pretty much totally accurate. Especially those goddamned truck horns.

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