Friday, March 21, 2014

LIC residents discover that factories make noise

From DNA Info:

BluePrint Juice is a runaway hit with the juice-cleanse set but people who live near its Queens factory say noise from the site is putting the squeeze on their sleep cycles.

BluePrint, which sells cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juices at Whole Foods and elsewhere nationwide, runs a facility at 48-55 36th St., where its neighbors say workers empty dumpsters overnight and unload trailers with forklifts as early as 6 a.m.

"The windows are closed right now, but when the windows are open — forget about it,” said Larry Lembo, 63, who has lived at the rear of a building overlooking the BluePrint site since 1974. "It's like it's in your backyard."

Another longtime tenant of Lembo's building said the noise from BluePrint, which locals said moved into the 36th Street a manufacturing zone about two years ago, jars her from her sleep.

"It's something you don't get used to," the neighbor said, declining to give her name.

Lembo took his complaints about BluePrint — whose founder Zoë Sakoutis was named one of Crain's New York Business's "40 Under 40" last year — to Queens Community Board 2 and the 108th Precinct.

Commanding officer Capt. Brian Hennessy said the NYPD hasn't issued any noise summonses at the property, but there have been 22 complaints about noise related to garbage pickups at the site since January, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Hennessy said police have spoken to BluePrint and its waste removal company, Action Carting, about keeping noisy operations contained to more reasonable hours. Both were receptive to making adjustments, he said.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a HUGELY industrial area right next to the Expressway and Greenpoint ave. People will complain about anything....

Ancestor said...

It reminds me of a big headline in one of the local papers a few years ago, "Residents of luxury condos say trains too noisy." It was the 150-year-old LIRR. WHAT!? Didn't you look out the window before you bought it? Or did you just read the glossy brochure and shake the slick palm of the broker? I laughed until my stomach hurt. But the real kicker was Joe Connelly solemnly saying, "Oh, we'll speak to the railroad about this. It is intolerable." That is when I knew we had all gone through the looking glass.

Anonymous said...

No matter the zoning, there are design standards, particularly when the "M" zone abuts a residential; zone. People SHOULD complain. And the City should respond. As an aside, is this plant getting any kind of tax incentive? When tax dollars are supporting a problem like this it certainly fuels the anger...

Anonymous said...

Its more NIMBY crap from gentrifiers. LIC is still one of the thriving industrial neighborhoods.

Anonymous said...

So people have lived the neighborhood since 1974 and they've just noticed that it's a noisy industrial area? I guess they prefer the decades when it was a quiet haven for hookers and druggies? Boy, the world sure is complicated now.

Anonymous said...

I Smell a Van Bramer photo op approaching...

Anonymous said...

"It's something you don't get used to," the neighbor said...

Pure BS, lived on Francis Lewis Blvd between Hillside and Jamaica during the 50s through the 80s. When the windows were first opened up in the spring in took a week or two but you did get used to it. During the summer, window fans covered the noise and if you have AC, the windows will stay closed.

My 2nd floor bedroom window was about 25 feet from the street.

Anonymous said...

The fucking leaf blowers just started again this morning at 7:00 AM!!!!

Can't we at least prohibit them on weekends? And move them to at least 10:00 AM on weekedays?

Anonymous said...

Dumb fuckin' hipsters!
Move back to Maryland!