From the NY Times:The fans have been there since long before the shuttered factories and vacant warehouses of Long Island City began giving way to schools, restaurants and homes. They sound like a giant rattle shaken at great speeds, they are unrelenting and they follow no set pattern, running for an hour one weekend and for an entire night the next.
At River View Gardens, a subsidized housing complex for the elderly that sits right next to the fans, Osvaldo Cordero, the superintendent, said that at one time this month when the fans were on for 24 hours straight, “I had people coming up to me crying because they couldn’t get any sleep.”
It's despicable that the elderly are being warehoused in a place located in a spot that makes their life hell.
For the rest of the complainers - caveat emptor.
Sorry, I'm just jealous...
41 comments:
The fans are needed because they are doing work down there. Would they rather kill the workers? The person who put these people there were well aware of the situation. It's all about the money!
Too effing bad for the residents. Just like the morons nearby complaining about the noise from the Sunnyside train yard, too effing bad. The source of noise was there first. STFU or move.
If it made the rent cheaper you can put one of those near me.
The MTA will fold on this just as the LIRR folded on the idling trains. Money talks BS walks. LIC is not your mommas industrial wasteland anymore.
The MTA folded on the idling trains? You mean they don't idle anymore? What BullShit is coming out of the tower people these days.
LIC is part of Queens, whether they want to admit it or not.
I suppose the MTA will stop fixing the 7 train because of the tower people.
Yeah, ok.
LIC is not part of Queens might be true but its not Manhattan.
Once the Towers are in place they will be forgotten. Everyone is rolling their eyes then the kiddies complain but us old hands know they are just being reeled in.
Like HANAC building those block busting towers next to the Triboro Bridge, scenic 21st Street, and the Astoria Church site, the find marginal places for these people.
Well it does beat cancer inducing brownfields along Newtown Creek and the East River for young (brownskin) families.
Everyone knows that its cheaper to the taxpayer, and happier for the senior, to keep them at home in comfortable surroundings and provide them sevcies there rather than another welfare state boondagle.
The purpose of these senior warehouses is to empty rent controlled or rent stablized apartements and replace them with extended families of tweeds.
Elderly in New York? I thought the law required that they move to Florida upon their 70th birthday. Buy these people train tickets, condo's in Florida are 80% off right now.
Having the elderly live in a luxury building right at the waterfront with a great park and midtown views is just terrible.
The MTA could run the fan on the Manhattan side instead. Or alternate it. Why should the residents in LIC have to be the only ones to deal with this? Usually Crapper likes to defend Queens residents vs. Manhattan, but when it comes to LIC, Crapper is so bitter and jealous that he hates on it no matter what.
As for the idling trains, the MTA put in new measures that cut the idling and noise in half. Give a request in a respectful, adult way and sometimes you get results. Throwing a tantrum in a juvenile way usually gets you nowhere.
Actually, they do alternate it. The tower people moved into an area where a huge fan has been making noise for years and they want it shut off because they arrived. Ditto for the LIRR. And "giving a request in a respectful, adult way sometimes gets you results" is a bullshit answer. People have been complaining about things all over the city for decades and few have gotten anywhere. I work in the area and have not noticed a reduction in the train noise. I think the realtors are up early.
Yes! Living near the waterfront and a park make up for the fact that you can't sleep at night because of the noise and have to run crying to your super about it.
I am sooooo jealous!
"The MTA could run the fan on the Manhattan side instead. Or alternate it. Why should the residents in LIC have to be the only ones to deal with this?"
First of all, they do alternate it, so you obviously don't live there and probably just make your money there. And you think in order to appease the crowd in LIC that it would be acceptable to just force Manhattan residents to deal with it instead?
Wow. Just wow. Shows you the calibre of what's running LIC these days.
"Why should the residents in LIC have to be the only ones to deal with this?"
Because you moved to an outer borough, morons. Welcome to the club!
"giving a request in a respectful, adult way sometimes gets you results"
please sir, another piece of bread sir.
being a queens doormat makes you a laughing stock from the playas and plaything with the small mineded postal clerks running this boro.
NYers (Manhattan & Brooklyn & the Bronx) are sassy kick-ass types that get what they want because they are the squeeky wheel.
They only started alternating the fan after the LIC residents who lived nearby raised the issue. The MTA can lower the fan noise if they put the money toward it. Having the fan next to residential buildings should require lowering the fan noise. Pure and simple.
The elderly home and the Citylights building have been there for over a decade, more than enough time for the MTA to figure out how to do something.
The idling train noise has been cut down at least 50% on days over 50 degrees, and a bit less than that on colder days. There are news articles quoting people who live in the area and people who work at Bricktown Bagel nearby that verify it. Sorry if that doesn't fit into your hater story.
Keep showing your jealousy Crapper, it totally fits you.
They can't shut them down on cold days or they won't be able to start them up again. You really don't know what the hell you are talking about, sir.
"They only started alternating the fan after the LIC residents who lived nearby raised the issue."
Complete and utter nonsense. The article says the noise is not consistent. Hint: When it's not taking place, it's because they are using the vent on the other side instead. Go over to the east side and take a listen.
As for your railyard issue, most people I have spoken with have said the situation hasn't improved. But that's likely because it's been below 50 since January when the LIRR responded to the guy from One Hunters Point and said that they will stop the idling when the temperature reaches above 50 (aka Spring). So to say that it has changed is pretty laughable, and demonstrably false. It makes me laugh especially since there is a group that formed to address railroad issues across Queens that the tower people were invited to but refuse to join. Have fun taking care of your issues on your own. "Strength in numbers" so long as you don't have to mingle with those filthy blue collar people to the east, eh?
Yep, as I said, brokers are posting here trying to cover their ass. It's become a full time job for them to troll the blogs since LIC real estate went into the shitter. As if sniping on Queens Crap is going to change that.
Yep, as I said, brokers are posting here trying to cover their ass. It's become a full time job for them to troll the blogs since LIC real estate went into the shitter. As if sniping on Queens Crap is going to change that.
Ah hell, let them. and tell them to bring along the 'bhoys and ghels' that run the boro.
More turkeys means better huntin'.
Have the residents tried ear stopples - those waxy things you can buy in a drugstore? I always carry them in my toiletry bag when travelling and sleeping in noisy hotel rooms or campgrounds. Works like a charm.
Even during cold weather, measures were taken to reduce the noise, such as switching dual mode trains to electric and positioning trains with two engines farther away. During the warmer weather more of the engines can be shut down while they sit in the yard.
I never heard anything about any group formed across Queens to deal with railroad issues. Show one bit of proof that this group offered to work with LIC residents and was turned down. Even so, when the LIC residents are seeing results from professional, mature communication, why throw in with rabble rousers and haters?
Why don't you try to, you know, stop hating and being bitter?
Go to the petition that was started about the noise. See "contact petition sponsor". 2 invites were left there as well as a comment on LIQCity inviting them to join CURES, which has been written about extensively in local papers as well as in the Daily News.
"Even so, when the LIC residents are seeing results from professional, mature communication, why throw in with rabble rousers and haters?"
Why do you assume CURES is full of rabble rousers and haters?
"Why don't you try to, you know, stop hating and being bitter?"
Maybe you should take your own advice.
I never heard anything about any group formed across Queens to deal with railroad issues.
It might help if you pulled your head out of your ass and realized that there was an entire borough that is home to 2.2 million other people attached to your piece of noisy real estate. It's amazing how some of you folks brag about where you live and look down on others who live more modestly than you. This screams "new money" and is generally looked down upon by truly successful people.
The result was the formation of CURES, a coalition made up of ten leading civic groups, including, among many others, Citizens For A Better Ridgewood, the Glendale Civic Association, and the Maspeth/Middle Village Task Force. Arnold and Parisen were chosen to co-chair the coalition.
Elected officials, too, are taking the coalition seriously. CURES has reached out to or is working with an impressive list, including the offices of Congressman Anthony Weiner, State Senator Joe Addabbo, and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley. Assemblyman Mike Miller is also working on the project.
Arnold said that support, coupled with available funding for infrastructure improvements, new technologies and new, widespread perceptions about the environment have combined to create a fresh opportunity for change.
CURES has a three-pronged agenda, being carried out for the time being through meetings and work with local leaders: to improve public health, public safety, and hold railroad companies more accountable for their actions. Arnold conceded it’s a tall order, but said the goals are more realistic than ever.
My God! What horrible "rabble rousers and haters"! Working with elected officials? How DARE they! I can see why the tower people wouldn't want to join them.
The head complainer on this board sounds like he's in his own little world.
Yeah, why wouldn't you want to join a group like that if you are truly an advocate for changing the status quo and not just what happens in your own backyard? Sounds like a positive effort is being made.
I steered a Sunnyside guy toward CURES this past weekend.
Strength in numbers, people.
Now that's a different approach. Instead of just whining about their own backyard, these 2 ladies engaged other communities in order to expand the effort to make it better for everyone who lives near a railroad. Kudos to them. We could all learn from their example.
People from Forest Hills & Kew Gardens are joining this group as well.
I'd prefer that it remain a grass roots efforts, when you get mixed in with a larger group the needs are often subjegated and prioritized. LIC has been pretty successful in gettign its need addressed. I don't see the benefit in joining some other group unless they can bring something to the table that isn't there.
CURES is a grass roots effort.
This sounds more like "I got mine and don't care if you get yours" mentality that we've come to expect from the westernmmost part of the borough. They bitch about it and expect results but will turn around and tell you to move to Long Island when others bitch about the same thing elsewhere.
CURES looks like an organization of civic groups. What civic group in LIC was invited? Someone posted a comment on a petition and then got upset that everyone in LIC didn't jump in? And you wonder why it has not been as effective as the people in LIC in dealing with the city and state agencies?
What civic LIC civic group is working on it?
The invite was sent to the people that were working on issue, who chose not to identify themselves. how else were they supposed to be contacted?
This sounds more like "I got mine and don't care if you get yours" mentality that we've come to expect from the westernmmost part of the borough.
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ah ha, the western part of the boro is still treated like a shithole, only the Tower People and bike nuts are listened to, everyone else is kept in the dark.
I'm sorry, I know its the internet age, but you don't invite someone to join a cause by posting something in the comments section. That's just stupid. If its really is an organization they should be doing outreach. If the NYT can find them to write an article so could they. Sounds sort of like a half-ass operation from the description of it.
Can't read?
They weren't counting on leaving a message in the comments section. They sent a message to the petition author. They never responded.
You never said which civic organizations in LIC fought the trains.
So? Who are they? Can't answer?
You call others "half-assed" then complain that they aren't grass roots enough. The 2 Marys that run the group are the most organized people I have ever seen in action. They know their stuff.
It's your loss, really.
"If the NYT can find them to write an article so could they."
The NY Times wrote an article about the 7 train fans. CURES is about the LIRR and its noise, emissions, etc.
Dude has bad reading skills, it seems. And he probably went to one of the "good schools"!
You'd think the petition author would respond or at least direct an inquiry to whoever should respond. LIC condo dwellers don't like contact with the unwashed masses, I suppose.
"The elderly home and the Citylights building have been there for over a decade,"
No, NUMBNUTS, the elderly building was finished two years ago, probably right before you left Connecticut to move here.
Here's a better question...
Why didn't any of the civic groups in LIC reach out to CURES? Civic people read local papers daily and keep on top of these things.
Answer...because there are no civic groups in LIC fighting railroad noise. It's just a bunch of tower people in One Hunters Point who made bad investments that are jumping up and down about it.
You're probably right. For example, this anonymous tower person would rather come here and argue about how CURES went about trying to contact him rather than join them and become part of the movement.
P.S. A new law on RR noise will likely be passed by the state by the end of the year due to CURES' discussions with elected officials like Addabbo, Hevesi and Miller. They are currently in the process of making sure the legislation does not conflict with Federal regulations. This is something which will make things better for everyone.
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