Expect the Mayor to bandy these stats about until he is re-elected. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced that New York is the safest city in the U.S. for the second year in a row. NYC experienced a 5.5% drop in crime (after a 5.9% drop in 2002) a rate which the Daily News calls, "nearly four times lower than in Dallas, three times lower than in Phoenix and roughly half as high as in Philadelphia or Los Angeles." more ›