The constant noise!

lilbangladesh · May 2010

Every year it gets worse, and now that summer is here, I can count on getting absolutely no sleep whatsoever. Someone PLEASE tell me what my options are.

There are some neighbors nearby who hold ALL-NIGHT backyard parties EVERY NIGHT when the weather is nice (that is, when it is too warm for me to shut the windows, though one time when it was cool enough to shut the windows, they blasted the music so loud, my bed on the fourth floor of MY building was vibrating, and not in the good way). This week, I have yet to get to bed before 5:30 AM and it is utterly destroying my quality of life. These people have no respect for the neighborhood or the law. Tonight, the cops went over there at least five times. The noise will stop for about ten minutes and then it's right back to the old level.

I don't know the exact address because my apartment faces a brick wall so I can't see anything. (I send the cops to the RiteAid parking lot to find the noise because you can't hear it from the street.) So I have no way of finding out the exact address of the noise, let alone who owns the building, other than to go out into the street in my nightie and start banging on doors, which is probably NOT a good idea. When I've tried asking them to turn down the noise (they can hear me from my window) all they do is turn the noise UP.

I'm at my wit's end. This has utterly destroyed my quality of life. I can forget trying to hold down a job in the summer-time because I'm living on less than 2 hours of sleep a night. Not to mention that being forced to be on third shift is EXTREMELY bad for my physical and mental health. I need to be asleep before the sun rises if I can expect to be at all functional the next day, but if I go to sleep at this hour, like I've been forced to all month long, not only can I not sleep properly at all, I wake up batshit. I have not been able to get much done at all this month because I've been so profoundly depressed because I am not allowed to go to sleep by 3 AM.

I talked to 311 and they say that I'm SOL. That despite the fact that this is a CHRONIC problem and that they clearly have no respect for the law, nothing can be done.

That can't possibly be true, is it? You mean there is NO penalty for being a chronic nuisance? Chronic noise violators don't even get a ticket or something? All they do is wait for the cops to go away and then the noise starts up all over again. There are children in this building. This can't be good for them, either.

I have no complaints about the cops. Despite the fact that it was a busy night for them, they tried valiantly to shut the party down. (It was actually quiet for 45 minutes last night, but before I managed to fall asleep, the noise started up again at 1:30 AM, necessitating another call to the cops.)

Someone PLEASE tell me what can be done. I'm about *this* close to calling 911 and claiming that they are selling drugs. I'm getting pretty desperate.

lilbangladesh · May 2010

Oh, and I should mention that watching TV is nearly impossible during the parties, because the noise is usually louder than my television set will go! And this noise usually starts around 7:30 to 8 PM and continues until at least 5 or 6 AM. By the time the noise stops, my head is pounding so hard, I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to.

I think I've had maybe six hours of sleep all week.

nearnostrand · May 2010

I know this doesn't solve the problem, but have you tried those earphones that block out noise? I have never used them, but I know a couple of people who swear by them. They are supposed to be a bit expensive. If you haven't looked into them, give it a try.

My sleep deprivation story:

Where I used to live some years ago, I too suffered from lack of sleep due to the actions of a tenant in my own home. She had a mental impairment of some type, and all night she would scream profanities and threats (toward me many times), slam, and bang. I got no sleep for at least 6 months. I was a basket case. I could barely function. Besides the fact of getting no sleep, I was also fearing the day the woman totally snapped and tried to attack me or one of my children or someone else.
'
I hated walking in and out of my own home. I would call the police, they would come eventually, but all they seemed to be able to do was tell her to quiet down. One night near Christmas that year there was a big snow storm, and the building was remarkably quiet. It was like a blessing from above. I still couldn't sleep because I knew that I would be startled out of my sleep as soon as I closed my eyes. Anyway, it was quiet all morning until the police showed up to my house at about 10:00am with our tenant in tow. They had been sweeping the area for the homeless so that they could send them into shelter. They said they had found her standing on the corner in the middle of a snow drift with frozen snot on her face and icicles forming on her eyelashes. They asked me if she lived there. I have to admit I thought to myself of all of the times for the police to do "help", they go out and find my life's torment and return it to me. I reluctantly said yes and I let her in. We had to make her go up to her apartment, as she was trying to stay in our hallway or come into our unit. She also asked me if I could see the green man with horns that was standing in the hallway keeping her from going upstairs.

We ultimately were able to get her evicted, not because of the noise, or threats, or filth, or destruction of her apartment (the banging that we had been hearing was her knocking the bricks out of the wall around the mantle, and pulling apart the mantle itself - there were actual holes where bricks used to be). We were able to evict her due to non-payment of rent. It took us a year and a sh*t load of money. She didn't pay rent for over 14 months. Of course we never saw a penny. It was terrible.

lilbangladesh · May 2010

Yeah, but because she was a tenant, you were able to do *something*. I was able to get my neighbor downstairs to shut up by getting the landlord involved and they are no problem now.

But I have NO connection to these people because my landlord does not own their building, so apparently I can do nothing.

Never mind that I may not be able to pay my rent soon because I can't hold down a job due to these all-night parties.

I can't afford those earphones. I can't sleep with stuff on my head like that (and if it's warm enough that I must need to have the window open, the last thing I want is anything on my head.) And it does NOTHING to stop the vibrations from the noise that is shaking my bed, which is worse than the noise itself. I got NO sleep and I'm absolutely crap. I am a month behind in chores because I am nonfunctional during daylight hours now. And forget about sleeping now. I am unable to sleep during the day. It looks like the next time I'll be able to catch even a nap will be late October. If I don't end up on the street first.

outside child · May 2010

Get an air conditioner it is noisy where I live too and I don't hear a thing with the airco

lilbangladesh · May 2010

I can't afford to run the air conditioner all summer. Plus, I really don't like air conditioning, so I only run it when it gets dangerously hot.

Come on. I can't hold down a job through the sleep deprivation. Does anyone have a suggestion that doesn't cost ME money? I mean, it's THOSE fuckers that are screwing with my quality of life. How is it that the police, who bust people in Bed-Stuy merely for standing in front of their houses, are so unwilling or unable to shut down noisy parties at 4 AM? How is it that people can do this night after night without facing hefty fines? Or arrested for disorderly conduct? Is there truly nothing I can do?

mha · May 2010

Get earplugs. Duane Reade sells these ear plugs that go right into the air canal. The are made of rubber and swimmers use them. Not the foam ones that you have to first roll between your thumb and index finger. Those work, but not as well as what I will call the 'swimmer' earplugs. I use them to block out the noise of the neighboring building where a young man via webcam has 1am conversations with porno sites where he shouts into his microphone repeatedly, "Let me see your pu$$y! Let me see your Pu$$y!"

After inserting the ear plugs the only annoyance heard is my tinnitus.

saskia · May 2010

Is there any way to break the lease? And just move to a different area? If you think about it - you are losing money by not having work, so if you just took a bigger hit at first (all the money to break the lease, move and get a new place) perhaps you could make up for that financial defecit later by being able to to work steadily.

southofsouth · May 2010

move back to Kansas, you will be happier there.....this is the freaking city.

holla peno · May 2010

"The smell of pasta, ooooh, the smell of pasta!! Why oh why did I move to the West End in the twenties! oooooh!"

crowhillkitty · May 2010

i think you need to determine the exact location of the parties. take a walk early one night, pass by the neighboring buildings, see if you can figure it out. then find out who owns that building and complain, very nicely, to their management company/landlord. true, they do not have to be accountable to you, but if you complain often enough they may tell their tenants to cool it. if they aren't responsive, post ads on craigslist warning any prospective tenants that if they live at that address they will never sleep again.

lilbangladesh · May 2010

I can't figure it out because you can't hear these parties from the street, only from the back where I live.

Earplugs do NOTHING to counteract the offensive vibration from too high a bass. This makes my teeth rattle and is actually physically painful to me.

And I'm really tired of people saying "Get used to it. This is the city." There is a BIG difference between ordinary city sounds (garbage trucks, police sirens, traffic jams) that one simply has to put up with and constant all-night parties that literally cause your bed to move across the bedroom floor. I AM ENTITLED TO SLEEP AT NIGHT!!!

I can't break my lease because (ahem) I HAVE NO MONEY TO MOVE!!! And there is no way in hell that I'm going to be able to get as good a deal on rent as I have now. I mean, there is a reason why New York City passed a noise ordinance law, though apparently it doesn't have any teeth at all. I do not understand why the onus should be on me and not on the jerks who have no consideration for anyone around them. I live here because the city is the only place where I can (when I'm not being sleep deprived into oblivion) earn a living. I am a proofreader. There is nowhere else in the country (believe me, I checked) where I would have enough work to support myself. I live in the city because I like city living and I really can't stand the suburbs. Plus, when one's living is as precarious as mine, living outside the realm of public transportation is untenable. At least by living here, I won't lose a job because my car broke down and I have no money to repair it.

I once found some cops in front of my building when I left it late at night to escape the noise and complained about these all-night parties and the cop was like, "Well, we can only ask them to turn it down. It's all about respect, you know?" I was like, "How about respect for me? It's past 11 PM on a Sunday night. I have to perform tomorrow. I have a deadline that I just missed because the party started at 4:30 PM today. I haven't been able to sleep at night all month!"

Why is it that their right to make noise all night long supersedes my right to sleep at night?

I managed to drift off during the late afternoon only to be awakened twenty minutes later by yet another party. So this week I've had SIX and a HALF hours of sleep!

Amazingly enough, they JUST turned their music down, so while my bed is no longer vibrating (thank God!) it's still too noisy to sleep because I can still hear all those people screaming at the top of their lungs.

I mean, Good God, if they want to party all night, why can't they just take it indoors?

nearnostrand · May 2010

Do you have any neighbors that you speak to ho have the same concern? Each of you write a letter to the Brooklyn Borough President's office and complain about the fact that the police are having difficulty enforcing the noise rules. That will not solve your problem immediately, but perhaps it will help the powers that be pay more attention to the 311 noise complaints that come in from your area.

As indicated in my example above, in some communities it sometimes takes more than noise (or even threats of violence) to get action from the police especially if it's just you alone making the complaint. You are going to have to get some neighbors involved in making calls too. Do you know who your block association president is? Find out and seek their assistance. If you're not in immediate danger, you're problem is not a priority as compared to other problems the police get called about. If it's as bad as you say it is, it sounds like you're going to have to get other residents motivated enough to act.

Good luck!

doublediamond · May 2010

Next time this happens, go outside and either find the building or narrow it down to two or so buildings.

The next day during the day, go to the building you think it is and see if the super is on site and get the name of the management company. Go knocking on all the neighbor's doors and ask them if it's a problem for them too and see if they're willing to contact the management company and 311 when it happens.

Knock on the doors of the buildings you think should be affected. NO WAY you're the only one bothered unless all the neighbors are attending these parties.

It's a little awkward to knock on people's doors, but you're a desperate person in a desperate situation and you gotta resolve this no matter what.

Then, when the noise ordinance rule kicks into affect call 311 every hour or every half hour - depending on how aggressive you want to get with it. Call the management company, leave messages when the party is going on.

This is the time to start acting like a crazy person to get shit like this resolved.

magicube · June 2010

Go to nyc.gov and in the left-hand navigation, find the "elected officials" links. Click on each and find out who represents you at each level of government--city council, public advocate, etc. Send a polite letter (or you can start with email--but a printed letter can often be more powerful because everyone sends email these days) to each of them including the information in your original post. Request a meeting with each of them, if that's feasible for you. I know for a fact that Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, responds to emails personally (and fast). Your problem is the kind of problem that politicians like to solve because it involves relatively little effort for them but has a great media hook. And I do think that some of your representatives actually like helping their constituents.
While I understand that calling 311 and the police seems like it should be all you have to do, you should consider that you (or your neighbors) have elected people to represent your well-being. Use that.
Also, there are specific regulations about noise pollution in this city. I don't know the physics involved if you are hearing (and feeling) noise that can't be heard from the sidewalk, but if the decibel level can be measured somewhere public, it can be dealt with. I've spoken with an attorney from the city about this, and they are very serious about these "quality of life" issues.

ap · June 2010

My husband and I have occasionally filed noise complaints and one thing we learned is that the more calls 311 gets about a particular problem, the more attention they'll pay. (The police precinct has recommended this for when they themselves can't put a stop the noise.)

Call 311 EVERY SINGLE TIME the noise bothers you. Ask your neighbors if they've been bothered by the noise, too. Put a sign up in your building's entry, encouraging residents to call 311 w/ noise complaints as often as possible. Have friends who live nearby call, too--311 will have all these calls on record. The longer their list of calls, the more likely they'll do something.

Not to restate the obvious, but pinpointing the origin of the noise will be helpful.

Also, a cheapo window or room fan does wonders in the "white noise" dept. We live on a very busy stretch and the fan helps block some of the noise.

Best of luck to you!

park place · June 2010

southofsouth wrote: move back to Kansas, you will be happier there.....this is the freaking city.

I urge everyone to read all of the responses and then read this one.

There is one insensitive, loser remark in every thread posted by one who can say things that are stupid because the internet allows them to be anonymous.

Very brave and intelligent response.

I hope that someday, you face a similar problem that torments you. Nothing personal but some people learn best in just that way.

grievousangel · June 2010

Amen... that comment really pissed me off too.

To the OP, I am very sympathetic to your situation. I had a new neighbor who partied like this only a handful of times... luckily I live in a neighborhood that will not tolerate that... every neighbor on the block must have called this last one in, because It never happened again! I remember laying awake at 5 am and having murderous rage inside me, it wasn't healthy. I can only imagine what it is like to have this kind of feeling on the regular. I wish you luck.

tsarina · June 2010

Go on your rooftop to try to locate where the noise is coming from. If that doesnt help try to talk to people on the block to see if they know where the noise is coming from. Try a few different buildings till you get approximately where the noise is coming from. So many rooftops are connected and Its easier to move around up there to locate the source of the noise. Good Luck!

cool the kid · June 2010

No but seriously, consider moving to Queens

Boring, but quiet and cheap.

The constant noise!

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