Constant Sirens

axel foley · January 2015

Apologies for the nitpick-y topic, but I live at Park Pl. and Underhill Ave., and in the past three weeks or so I've noticed a huge uptick in police and fire engine sirens -- as in, I can pretty much hear them all the time now. The windows where the noise is coming through face south from Park Place, in the direction of Eastern Parkway, and the sirens seem to be consistently a few blocks away. I know it's NYC and not the suburbs, but I've lived in this apartment for eight years, and I don't remember anything like this before, so I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Is there a new police station I'm unaware of? Some sort of crackdown going on? Bored cops trying to get back at de Blasio by actively annoying residents? Or am I just going insane? If anyone has any theories, I'd love to hear 'em. Thank you!

crownheightster · January 2015

I have also noted a huge uptick in the number of sirens coming from eastern crown heights. I attribute them to the fact that it is winter and there are a lot of space heater fires occurring.

diorsvonb · January 2015

I'm in the same area and I haven't noticed that so much as the sound of low flying jets approaching LGA. In the last year, the traffic has really bumped up.

axel foley · January 2015

Oh yeah, I've noticed the jets too. One is flying overhead as I'm typing this, in fact.

As for the sirens, they're still going on all the time -- when I went to bed at 1 I could hear them, when I woke up during the night I could hear them, and when I woke up for good I could hear them again. My only strategy is to walk in the direction of Eastern Parkway at some point and see if I can figure out what the hell is going on. (Space heater fires is an interesting theory, but this would be a LOT of space heater fires.)

whynot_31 · January 2015

This twitter feed covers significant NYC police and fire incidents: https://mobile.twitter.com/nycityalerts

Incidents that don't involve risk to life usually are not covered, yet may still result in sirens.

I wonder if you are hearing more sirens in part because the leaves are off the trees for winter, and thus sound travels further.

newguy88 · January 2015

I live off of Park and Nostrand and I haven't noticed an uptick in sirens. Just the usual amount of cop cars, ambulances and fire trucks. I think it was about 1 AM on Friday my S.O. and I were woken up by three firetrucks and a couple ambunacles screaming past us on their way east. But a large convoy like that isn't all that isn't that unusual once in awhile. As crownheigtster pointed out this is space heater fire season.

As for the jets yeah there do seem to be more in the last year but they are pretty undisruptive. I almost never hear them. I'm much more disturbed by the cars playing very loud music stopping near my building at 3 am or the trucks honking at double parked cars that they can't get by.

psbklyn · January 2015

Until recently, I lived on Sterling near Vanderbilt, and I had the distinct impression that sirens in general increased quite a bit over the past half year or so (at least). As an aside, I also noticed a ton more jets -- one night, we counted well over a dozen (one about every minute) in a very short space of time. Not to mention the NYPD helicopters flying overhead when the Garner protests were in full swing.

I think the arrival of Barclays and significant increase in population density (with all of the new multi-story apt complexes -- and more to come) has a lot to do with it. I'm no longer in that area and realize now how noisy/busy feeling that area has become since 2009 or so. Not a positive development, in my opinion, but newcomers to the area may beg to differ.

whatchuwant · January 2015

I live on the parkway, and noticed an uptick of sirens and emergency vehicles the past 2 years. I did, though, just assume it was me being a sensitive first-time mom with a light-sleeping baby.

axel foley · January 2015

The sirens seem to have subsided from their very high levels in the last three or four days -- at least from my perspective -- so I'm hoping it was something of an anomaly. Though as others have said, it's not that quiet around here these days anyway.

axel foley · February 2015

I spoke far too soon; I still hear them all the time, including right now. I'm starting to think there's one (or more) officer who just drives around with the siren on for no reason. Maybe a show of force type of thing? Anyway, it's absurd. Finally gonna call 311 today, but I doubt they'll be of much help.

newguy88 · March 2015

Well today there seems to be a huge uptick in sirens. Including an emergency vehicle which got boxed in and slammed down the wailers for a good 2 or 3 minutes. Which is nice since I'm totally not trying to do work at home.

crownheightster · March 2015

There was a giant car accident at St. John and nostrand last night, around midnight. I saw the news12 coverage and there were pieces of car everywhere.

crownheightster · March 2015

and a lot of sirens.

axel foley · March 2015

I'm still hearing them in the distance almost constantly from my bedroom, and I remain baffled as to why.They're not that loud, but they're so consistent that I start hearing them even when they're not there. At this point, I'm just looking forward to put the air conditioner in in a couple months.

Constant Sirens

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