Sixty-two percent, or 33,533, of the complaints logged with the Department of Environmental Protection from July 1, 2014, through June 30 of this year were tied to off-hours construction or noise from equipment such as jackhammers.
Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. Your articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to an article are welcome.
However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, that contains violence, racist comments and potential libel will not be published. Facts are helpful.
If you'd like to make personal attacks and libelous claims against people and businesses, then you may do so on your own social media accounts. Also, comments predicting when a new business will close ("I give it six weeks") will not be approved.
Wakka Flocka Killah is going to out all 24k+ construction workers! No rest for the wicked this holiday weekend!!!
ReplyDeleteI had read that Number 1 in noise complaints is other people's noise such as music etc. but I guess this only covers complaints that go to DEP.
ReplyDeleteBTW could we do a straw poll on best ice cream/gelato in area? Odd Fellows, Daveys, Mikey Likes It, Van Leeuwen, Fresco, Big Gay, (etc.)? I think it would be a cool article (with separate categories for froyo and vegan.)
WOOF!
ReplyDeleteWhat about car horns? Ridiculous amount of gratuitous horn-blowing in this city.
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't the NYPD ticketing the offenders? Good source of income and teach people some manners.
- East Villager
Car alarms should be banned.
ReplyDelete- East Villager
I guess we need to start calling about the frat boys, & OMG girls. They all want to be winners!
ReplyDeleteI call BS. Most of the noise is from cars and trucks honking ther horns all day a millisecond after the lght turns green, plus the constant wailing of sirens from ambulances, fire trucks and police cars, but none of these made it on the list.
ReplyDeleteMy wife snores.
ReplyDeleteThe NY DEP is not going to call out its own (i.e. the government's) fire trucks, etc. Car alarms should be subject to some sort of legal rules against gratuitous noise.
ReplyDeleteThe noise from car alarms and cell phones is the biggest change since the '80s, when the EV was quieter.
As far as the NYPD ticketing the offenders, it's a good idea, but not going to happen.
On a related note (ticketing offenders), they should ticket errant bikers going through red lines and stop signs. It happens constantly on 1st and 2nd Ave. The NYPD could make a small fortune enforcing the law and actually doing its job.
Hey Anon 12:47 PM, check out the traffic on 3rd Avenue and St Marks Place every weekend; lots of cars and trucks running the red light there. Also have a peek at Bowery and Houston and at Bowery and Delancy.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Mate, I guess those aren't the human-powered 2-wheelers you're gunning for.
Taxis use their horns the way lungs use air.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that cars occasionally run red lights, buy the percentage of drivers that do it is nil. Bikers on the other hand routinely break traffic rules and run red lights. I was struck by one going 15 mph a year ago where I was crossing with the light. I've experienced many near misses as have a number of people I know. None of us ever had a close call with a car or truck.
ReplyDeleteBill
NYU garbage trucks are #1 on my list. Thursday night Webster Hall clown show is #2.
ReplyDeleteREPORTED CITYWIDE
ReplyDeleteDOT data crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists (not involving motor vehicles)
2013 stats
pedestrian injuries 316
pedestrian fatalities 1
bicyclist injuries 26
bicyclist fatalities 0
2012 stats
pedestrian injuries 244
pedestrian fatalities 0
bicyclist injuries 32
bicyclist fatalities 1
2011 stats
pedestrian injuries 26
pedestrian fatalities 0
bicyclist injuries 6
bicyclist fatalities 0
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikestats.shtml
Bill, you don't know anyone who's even had a close call with a recklessly driven motor vehicle? Please. A couple hundred NYers are killed by drivers of such vehicles every year, and untold thousands injured, but by all means, let's focus our ire on cyclists with whom you've had "near misses." I dislike jerk cyclists as much as everyone else, but it's ridiculous to claim that they are the real menace on our streets.
ReplyDelete"But the cyclists who kill — or could kill — deserve attention anyway.
ReplyDeleteFirst because they should have more empathy — after all, cyclists are killed by reckless drivers. ... But second, because the cyclists who kill have a lot in common with drivers who kill."
2014 DOT stats are not out yet but based on news article there were at least 2 pedestrian fatalities in bicycle/ped crashes in 2014 in NYC.
http://nypost.com/2014/09/22/new-yorks-cycles-of-death-our-arrogant-biker-nightmare/
I seem to file at least one noise complaint every weekend with 311, and I know I'm not the only person here with bros and hos for neighbors.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbors in the apartment next door seem to all be bartenders who get home at 11:30 and crank up their stereo to 11.
To me, the scariest vehicles on the road are those battery powered bikes ridden by Chinese delivery men. They're absolutely silent, so one can't hear them approach. Most of the users are totally oblivious to traffic signs. God forbid the pork fried rice should get there a minute later. Some guy actually drove over my right foot a couple of days ago. Lucky for me, he was too fast, or else I'd be in Riker's Island at this very moment.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely call/write 311, repeatedly if necessary. The online form is quick.
ReplyDeleteIf people don't complain about the noise, the city doesn't see it as a problem.
- East Villager
Hey Scuba Diva:
ReplyDeleteBartenders who get home by 11:30??? I want that gig.
Anonymous @ 6:43. Yes, there are more fatalities and injuries caused by cars, but that's because there are so many more cars than bikes.
ReplyDeleteIf you think that a higher percentage of car drivers break traffic laws than do bikers, you're the one who isn't watching traffic patterns. Btw, the stupid bike lanes have made pedestrian safety much worse. I loathe having to check two lanes of traffic, one by the sidewalk and another in the street outside the lane that cars now park in. Get rid of the bike lanes now more than ever!
Walter, you're right about the bike power devices, which I have been told by a few people are illegal. The food delivery people who use them routinely fly through red lights. I've thought about going to the Asian restaurant on A near 5th St. and complaining to the owner.
Of course the useless cops do nothing about them.
Ditto for Susan Stetzer. Someone remind me what her taxpayer-paid for "job" is....
Bill
Not sure which is worse, jackhammers or the drunk NYU girls upstairs wearing spiked heels on bare wood floors at 4:30am.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of bad drivers, taxi cab drivers are in a class by themselves. And I should amend my comment about not having had a close call with a car by saying that I almost got hit by a cab driver turning left on 2nd Ave. at 4th St. He didn't bother to stop at the red light and barely slowed his vehicle. I had to literally break into a run half way across the street. I remember wishing I had had a brick, which I would have put through his window. He sped off after making the turn.
ReplyDeleteAnother time I was walking north on the west side of 1st Ave. and then stopped at the corner of 4th St. after noticing two of the big van-like taxis speeding up to get through yellow lights. Both sped through and turned north onto 1st Ave. AFTER the light turned red.
Technology--with big fines--are part of the long-term solution to this problem. Of course, the streets are run by the monopoly called government, so it's not going to happen soon.
The problem is worsened by the traffic laws, lack of enforcement of them, and the slap on the wrist fines that traffic law breakers get.
All of this is another reason why both law and streets should be in the private sector. See the book "Roads in a Market Economy."
Bill
@Ken Isn't that the same thing? #OMG
ReplyDeleteMy biggest noise complaint is with the obnoxiously loud Fresh Direct trucks.
ReplyDeleteBill
why can't enforcement be the same for cars as for bikes?
ReplyDeleteand for all other laws that are supposed to maintain the quality of life in our neighborhoods and city?
including noise!