City that never sleeps seeks quiet

The Age
July 28, 2007

SOMEONE, somewhere, seemingly in the bowels of this apartment building, is playing a double bass ...

.. it does not stop, and since the beat is felt as much as it is heard, the sound seems to be a physical thing emanating from the building itself.

The player has hit upon something in contemporary New York. By going almost subterranean he has found a way around the new noise regulations. How do you complain about a vibration and still appear sane?

Since July 1 a new set of noise regulations has clamped down on the city. Royal Softee ice-cream vans are a legitimate target. Those tinny little jingles and meaningless ditties accompanied sometimes by a mechanical female voice that announces "Hello" are now restricted to when the van is on the move. When stationary, the jingle stops or the operator risks a $US350 ($400) fine.

An earlier version of the regulations would have silenced the soft-serve ice-cream vans entirely, but a regrettable compromise let them retain their voice. The other targets of the noise regulations are traditional nuisances such as barking dogs, nightclubs, construction sites, home stereos and noisy air-conditioners.

Dog owners whose pets bark for 10 minutes uninterrupted, or five minutes at night, face fines of up to $US175.

When the new regulations came into force, the city's environment department was receiving hundreds of complaints daily. It might seem as if city dwellers had been waiting all these years for someone to register their complaint and to act upon it.

The city certainly has made it easier to complain by describing the offending noises not in decibels but in terms such as "plainly audible" from a distance of 4.5 metres (for nightclub disturbances).

City officials describe the system as "complaints-driven", and in fact noise complaints had been running into the hundreds of thousands each year.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who authorised the noise limits, said noise was a prime quality-of-life issue for New Yorkers.

This is a revolutionary stance from the indifferent posture the city offered in earlier times.

Under Mayor Bloomberg the city has become more caring of its citizens, and more interfering ...

"We're not trying to turn the city into a farm town, but people have a right to sleep. It's a matter of balance," said Michael Saucier, spokesman for the Department of Environment Protection.

"Residents deserve as much peace and quiet as they can get in the context of a lively, vibrant city of 8.2 million people."