noisy neighbors

rose

Aren't there legal limits on the decible level you can generate, regardless of the time of day?

raw

Carnivore wrote: It's a step in the right direction at least.

Speaking of steps...and maybe this is a cultural thing...but after growing up in a home where people took their shoes off at the main entrance, I don't understand my upstairs neighbors who clump, clack, and thump loudly around in their street shoes.

brooklynpotter

Rose wrote: Aren't there legal limits on the decible level you can generate, regardless of the time of day?

yes.

i don't know what they are, only that the city used a little decibel meter to read the noise my psycho neighbor was complaining about.

erikka, DON'T GIVE UP THE FIGHT!

doctorj

Rose wrote: Aren't there legal limits on the decible level you can generate, regardless of the time of day?

I don't know about legal, but there are certainly physical limits to the decibel level you can generate, regardless of the time of day. The loudest scream is 124dB. 150dB is enough to shatter bones in the ear, so you won't ever hear anything louder than that. The WW2 air raid siren atop the RCA building at the Rockefeller Center was reportedly the loudest ever sustained man-made sound, at around 170dB. Over about 190dB, air cannot sustain so much energy as a continuous medium, and starts to break down into a series of explosions.

anonymous

Subject: are you all talking about that amazing band on third street?

I just found this site and threads, and although I have not read all of them, it sounds like our "neighbors. "

I have called 311 several times about this noise, which is really bad when it echoes across the courtyard. So have other people on my block, who had the right street address. My call was just a general noise complaint about 3rd street area the first time I called. The third time I called I may have given them the wrong address so I been meaning to apologize to folks on Third Street who got that complaint. Perhaps they read this? I also thought about putting up flyers on 3rd street, at first, as I had no idea where it was coming from and God was it frustrating.

I thought it was a high school kid practicing drums when his parents were away. Come to find out they are college age, think it is too bad we don't "like the music" and well, there you have it -t hey are totally self-absorbed.

Anyway, calling 311 works. Bloomberg is really pushing it and they do react eventually, Especially if there is a big spike in calls.
If you have a music noise problem - also think about people who might share the burden across the street or across a courtyard. There is power in numbers -if everyone keeps calling 311 or the police precinct -they will take it more seriously.

Please let me kow if I am right about the location, we can agree to call 311 at the same time.

By the way, heard they were moving as building was sold? Rumours I know...

erikka

Subject: Re: are you all talking about that amazing band on third str

2nd st courtyard wrote: I just found this site and threads, and although I have not read all of them, it sounds like our "neighbors. "

I have called 311 several times about this noise, which is really bad when it echoes across the courtyard. So have other people on my block, who had the right street address. My call was just a general noise complaint about 3rd street area the first time I called. The third time I called I may have given them the wrong address so I been meaning to apologize to folks on Third Street who got that complaint. Perhaps they read this? I also thought about putting up flyers on 3rd street, at first, as I had no idea where it was coming from and God was it frustrating.

I thought it was a high school kid practicing drums when his parents were away. Come to find out they are college age, think it is too bad we don't "like the music" and well, there you have it -t hey are totally self-absorbed.

Anyway, calling 311 works. Bloomberg is really pushing it and they do react eventually, Especially if there is a big spike in calls.
If you have a music noise problem - also think about people who might share the burden across the street or across a courtyard. There is power in numbers -if everyone keeps calling 311 or the police precinct -they will take it more seriously.

Please let me kow if I am right about the location, we can agree to call 311 at the same time.

By the way, heard they were moving as building was sold? Rumours I know...

I'm afraid not---while my neighbors are irked, they refuse to complain (yay, I get to be the bad guy!), but I'm sorry to hear you're in the same boat. When you call 311 you get a reference number--maybe introduce yourself to your surrounding neighbors and share this number so the police know it's the same party being complained about. I'm starting to think strength in numbers is the way to go on this.

anonymous

Erikka,

Sorry if I missed it before but do you live in the so-called "hipster highrise" on 18th St? 'Cause about a year ago some friends of mine--not knowing this building's reputation--moved in for more living space and had to leave 2 months later when they couldn't deal with the madness anymore.

anonymous

Subject: loud pizza

Does anyone know if you can complain about car music? I live next to a pizza place and people seem to think leaving their doors open and the music all the way up while they wait for their pizza is appropriate in a residential neighborhood. I've asked the owners to put a sign up or something, but it still happens. Any advice?

boygabriel

TuckPendleton wrote: Somewhere in your lease there is a clause along the lines of "warranty of habability" which basically says the landlord must make the apartment building a decent place to live. This clearly violates that.

This is good advice. Warrant of Habitability is in almost every lease and yours is definitely being violated. The landlord is required to fix the situation.

jamzer

Subject: Re: loud pizza

guest066666 wrote: Does anyone know if you can complain about car music? I live next to a pizza place and people seem to think leaving their doors open and the music all the way up while they wait for their pizza is appropriate in a residential neighborhood. I've asked the owners to put a sign up or something, but it still happens. Any advice?

Drop egg bombs on the bastards' cars.

michaelkeys

Yeah!

doctorj

From Politiken.dk, 26 Dec 06:

Japanese person going behind bars for playing loud music non-stop for 29 months.

A 59-year-old woman played pumping dance music day and night to bother a neighbor, who now suffers from insomnia. She'll spend 20 months in jail for having systematically harassed her neighbor in Heguri town in Western Japan.

Over four years ago the 59-year-old turned her stereo system on her neighbor's house, put on a dance music cd, and turned the noise right up. She was arrested in April 2005. At that stage the musical harassment had continued 24-hours a day for 29 months, writes AP.

Couldn't sleep.

The neighbor, also a woman, now suffers from insomnia and migraines. The two women have previously had a number of disagreements, inform police without going into details.

The judgement was laid down by Osaka's highest court and was a sharpening of a previous judgement, when the 59-year-old was sentenced to one year's prison.

As grounds for the increase, judge Hiroshi Furukawa says, that the woman still nurses a major hatred towards her neighbor, and would probably commit the offence again.

vanilla

Subject: Re: loud pizza

guest066666 wrote: Does anyone know if you can complain about car music? I live next to a pizza place and people seem to think leaving their doors open and the music all the way up while they wait for their pizza is appropriate in a residential neighborhood. I've asked the owners to put a sign up or something, but it still happens. Any advice?

you could always take down their license plate # and call 311. also try to get the car's model & make, but plates are most important.

erikka

Some progress has finally been made! My super came over to change lightbulbs on Saturday and I notified him that we planned to not renew our lease in April. He was quite upset and said he had spoken to the next door neighbors and they had promised there would never be another noise complaint (ha!). The next morning we got a call from the owner of the building (the one who told us we'd never seen him again as soon as the ink dried on the lease) and he personally called and handled the situation and said that if we had any more complaints to call him directly.

My neighbor came over to apologize shortly thereafter and we had a little discussion on practice spaces and the inappropriateness of having a full band in your living room. He was really truly clueless and suprized that someone would be disturbed by having a six piece freeform jazz band playing next door at night. He said that he'll move practice to a time that we're not home or get a practice space. The funniest part of the conversation was when he asked why we never knocked and we had to explain that we did knock--he was just playing so loudly he couldn't hear it.

I think it came down to the landlord realizing he was going to lose his good tenants because of the actions of his bad tenants. I'm happy with the outcome.

michaelkeys

erikka wrote: Some progress has finally been made! My super came over to change lightbulbs on Saturday and I notified him that we planned to not renew our lease in April. He was quite upset and said he had spoken to the next door neighbors and they had promised there would never be another noise complaint (ha!). The next morning we got a call from the owner of the building (the one who told us we'd never seen him again as soon as the ink dried on the lease) and he personally called and handled the situation and said that if we had any more complaints to call him directly.

My neighbor came over to apologize shortly thereafter and we had a little discussion on practice spaces and the inappropriateness of having a full band in your living room. He was really truly clueless and suprized that someone would be disturbed by having a six piece freeform jazz band playing next door at night. He said that he'll move practice to a time that we're not home or get a practice space. The funniest part of the conversation was when he asked why we never knocked and we had to explain that we did knock--he was just playing so loudly he couldn't hear it.

I think it came down to the landlord realizing he was going to lose his good tenants because of the actions of his bad tenants. I'm happy with the outcome.

Congratulations. It's good to hear you've finally awakened from the nightmare.

drano

I'm glad it seems to be working out. Even though your neighbor appears to be on the right track now, the conversation must have been a bit frustrating. I wonder why there so many people that don't realize that sound carries? How is that possible? It's not just him, there are number of times I have tried to talk to a neighbor about something they were doing that was F'ing LOUD only to have them look at me as an exceptionally stupid goat might and then come out with the inevitable, "Oh, I didn't realize it was loud, you could hear, blah blah blah." Yeah, who could hear amateur carpentry at eight in the morning?

Anyone have insight? Please?

Anyhow, rant over.

jennitrixie

Just wanted to add that if your car has an alarm that insists on going off repeatedly in the middle of the night, you DESERVE to have your car stolen and I will actively wish that crime upon you. To my observation car alarms only ever seem to go off as a malfunction, and if I were queen cars would only have (silent) tracking devices in the event they are stolen. A girl can dream.

tuckpendleton

Congratulations, Erikka! Gives hope to us all...let's just hope the new behavior sticks.

erikka

Drano wrote: I'm glad it seems to be working out. Even though your neighbor appears to be on the right track now, the conversation must have been a bit frustrating. I wonder why there so many people that don't realize that sound carries? How is that possible? It's not just him, there are number of times I have tried to talk to a neighbor about something they were doing that was F'ing LOUD only to have them look at me as an exceptionally stupid goat might and them come out with the inevitable, "Oh, I didn't realize it was loud, you could hear, blah blah blah." Yeah, who could hear amateur carpentry at eight in the morning?
Anyone have insight? Please?

Anyhow, rant over.

My god, it was like explaining astrophysics to a toddler. He just kept squinting and scratching his head saying "really?" until a lightbulb finally went off that was like OH....drum kit + xylophone + amp turned up to 11 = loud.

I grew up in a deaf household and even they could figure out the concept of loud. Unbelieveable.

t-fal

Hello all noise haters and noise makers! If you can no longer stand the bullshit of your neighbors, whether they are noisy, or whether they drive you crazy about your noises, and you are looking for a new place to live, look for a building that has a layer of concrete between floors! (this probably rules out brownstones.) It seriously helps to prevent the transmission of noise between floors. Of course its even better if there is a layer of concrete between the walls as well.