NYC parks dept. put an ampitheater on a sidewalk that has expectedly led to noise complaints

 

NY Post

Their homes are shake, rattle and rolling.

Rockaways residents living near the $3.7 million Beach 94th Street Amphitheater say live music at the venue has made life a living hell since it opened last year.

“We’re in our homes with our doors shut, our AC on and our TV on, and it’s insufferable,” said Joe O’Sullivan, 59, a retired FDNY firefighter who lives less than 300 feet from the amphitheater with his wife, Helena.

The couple captured video of their home’s interior shaking from the thumping of dance music blaring from the Soulful House Brothers festival on July 28.

“It was my medicine cabinet shaking, and all the stuff in it. It was weird. I couldn’t believe,” Helena said. “We’ve had construction done over the years since [Hurricane] Sandy, and we’ve never had that.

“You can only call 311 so many times,” she added.

Since opening in May 2023, there have been at least one hundred music-related 311 calls near the amphitheater, which is run by the Parks Department and can hold at least 300 people, although residents said they have not done any decibel readings of the noise.

The venue has been a popular stage for local musicians such as French-language rockers Les San Culottes and the Rambones, a Ramones tribute band

Locals said just a quarter of the dozens of events held at the amphitheater are “beautiful, outstanding, tear-jerking [performances] . . . that do bring people together.”

“The other 75% keep people away because it’s so loud, you can’t exist in the vicinity of the space and have any conversation,” said Erin Silvers, 45, who lives three houses away.

“My dog goes into hiding for days at a time. It’s like the Fourth of July at all hours of the day. It’ll start at 10 in the morning and go til 10 at night,” she said, noting “it’s much louder this year than it was last year.”

Neighbors cried that the city has ignored the noise they’ve been making — but giving the performers carte blanche with their performances.

“The Parks Department isn’t regulating the performers, they are letting them go wild,” Joe O’Sullivan said.

 When Parks’ Rockaway Administrator Eric Peterson was asked one night by frustrated residents to shut off huge speakers being powered by generators, in violation of the event permit rules, he allegedly told fed-up residents, “‘It’s a dance party, come join the party,'” according to Joe O’Sullivan

“I said, ‘I’ve got it in my living room and I’m not enjoying it and want it to stop,'” the frustrated resident recalled. “He refuses to enforce the laws of the permits, the rules.” 

Who thought it was a good idea to put an amphitheater on the sidewalk??? Also, who is this dickhead Peterson and how did he get his job? But I forget the Mayor Adams kakistocracy is filled with crony dickheads like him.

Noise annoys

 

QNS

A State Supreme Court Justice required the operators of Forest Hills Stadium to reduce their noise pollution in compliance with the city’s noise code before the start of its outdoor concert season.

The stadium, which is being leased to TieBreaker Productions by the historic West Side Tennis Club until 2034, must now obtain a permit from the NYPD to use sound amplification tools during concerts. The April 10 order also required an independent organization to monitor noise levels emitted from the stadium, which the court will need to approve of. 

The order was based on a lawsuit filed against the club by the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, representing a large number of homeowners living around the stadium. In affidavits submitted in the lawsuit against West Side Tennis Club, residents explained how they believed their quality of life decreased as concerts increased in regularity in recent years.

In addition to the noise that residents say causes their apartments to vibrate, local homeowners also explained that concertgoers trespassing on their properties is a major inconvenience of living near the stadium.

Last month, State Supreme Court Judge Joseph J. Esposito sided with the residents and ordered measures to reduce the volume emitted during concert nights. Prior to the Judge’s order, an expert obtained by FHGC found that the overly debilitating noise that residents complained of was 100 times the legal limit for residential areas set by the city. 

“There was no evidence of record that playing of music louder than permitted by law was a significant and necessary part of the stadium’s operation and income,” read Justice Esposito’s order. 

The expenses associated with noise monitoring will fall on FHGC, not the stadium. However, the independent agency will provide noise readings after each show for both parties.

While some nearby residents have said that they do not mind the concerts, given that residents closest to the stadium receive free concert tickets and other perks, those who led the lawsuit were content with the judge’s decision. 

“Our community was forced to sue the West Side Tennis Club after the club and its for-profit concert operator, Tiebreaker, brazenly refused to coordinate with us over the use and closure of streets, noise levels, concert logistics and TRIPLING the original number of events they promised when concerts returned to the stadium ten years ago after a halt of over a decade,” said Forest Hills Gardens Corporation Board of Directors President Anthony Oprisiu in a statement.

 

Noise annoys and kills

NY Daily News 

A string of deadly encounters that started with complaints over loud music or offensive noise highlights a growing problem across New York City: Complaints about noise have exploded since the pandemic.

Loud noise and music are common disturbances for New Yorkers — but the conflicts can turn deadly. At least four recent killings have been tied to disputes over noise, with the most recent episode involving a 27-year-old Bronx dad who was killed in a dispute over loud music with a neighbor last week.

The victim’s fiancée and mother of his two young children said they had made complaints to 311 and building management about the neighbor’s noise, but nothing changed. The couple had just put their 5-week-old infant to sleep when blasting loud music started to shake the walls of their apartment.

The victim got dressed, walked across the hall to confront the neighbor about the noise. As he walked away, the neighbor allegedly stabbed him in the back.

There have been nearly 40,000 noise complaints called in to 311 this month, and roughly the same in the past few months, according to NYC Open Data. Noise complaints have boomed since the pandemic, with this year’s winter months seeing a roughly 40% rise in 311 noise complaints compared with the same time frame in 2019.

Arline Bronzaft, an environmental psychologist, said a variety of reasons may be to blame, including more time spent at home, working from home, outdoor dining, loud cars and helicopter noise.

“Noise can really drive people to be aggressive — have there been arguments? Yes. Are people pounding the ceilings until the noise comes down? Absolutely,” Bronzaft said.

“People react psychologically to sound that’s intrusive,” she said. “They get angry about the sound, they get upset. And then when you start showing those kinds of reactions, your heart beats faster, your pulse rate increases, circulation is altered.

“Psychologically, you’re stressed.”

“In New York City, neighbor noise is a serious problem, because we do have apartment buildings and people do live close to each other ... and things changed during COVID, when people started to work from home,” Bronzaft said.

Rachel Miller-Bradshaw, a board member of the Fordham Hill Owners Corp. and resident of City Council District 14, which logs among the highest numbers of 311 noise complaints in the city, said that she’s noticed more noise since the peak of COVID-19.

“It’s a major issue,” she said. “Every New Yorker, regardless of socioeconomic status or neighborhood you reside in, has a right to a serene living environment, at least outside of normal business hours, and after the pandemic things definitely did get worse.”

“It’s really declining the quality of life here,” Miller-Bradshaw added, noting that she knows people who’ve moved from the city because of noise.

Kill that noise

 

Queens Post

Queens Council Member Robert Holden introduced a series of bills Thursday aimed at improving the quality of life for New York City residents.

The bills aim to combat everything from noise pollution to sidewalk obstructions—to the unauthorized towing of vehicles. The legislation would also require film crews to provide more notice when they plan to occupy public streets.

Holden introduced 16 bills in total and said that many of the bills address unruly behavior that has contributed to rising crime. Crime is up 40.5 percent citywide for the year through April 10, compared to the same period a year ago, according to NYPD data.

“With the trend of legalizing or ignoring, and thereby normalizing behaviors that diminish our city’s quality of life… it’s time to take measures to bring balance to living in New York City,” Holden said in a statement.

Holden introduced legislation designed to combat disorderly motorists blasting out deafening music from their vehicles.

One of his bills would increase the civil penalties for motorists who blast an unreasonable amount of noise from their vehicle via a personal audio device. The new penalties would range from $200 to $2,100, depending on the number of violations committed within the preceding two years.

Another bill would target raucous motorists who attach speakers to the exterior of a vehicle. Violators would be hit with a civil penalty of between $100 and $225 for a first offense increasing to as much as $575 for a third violation.

Holden has also introduced legislation that targets business owners who pump out loud music from a commercial establishment. He has a bill that would reduce the acceptable level of noise.

Holden, whose district covers Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood and parts of Woodhaven and Woodside, said that noise pollution is a serious concern among his constituents and his bills aim to clamp down on the problem.

“We know that unreasonable noise late at night is not only a nuisance but a threat to New Yorkers’ health,” Holden said. “All New Yorkers are entitled to the quiet enjoyment of their homes.”

Holden’s other bills take aim at film crews operating on public streets. The crews, he said, often disrupt small businesses by taking valuable parking spaces.

Queens sex machines

 

Patch 

  "Sex mayhem" is driving at least one Queens resident to distraction.

"For the love of God, stop these sex addicts," the 311 complainant wrote. "O to the R to the G to the Y. If you know how to spell and read that is orgy."

This report of a boisterous outer-borough bacchanal is one of hundreds the city's 311 system received regarding raucous reproduction in New York City over the past year.

The city's official helpline received 277 complaints between Feb. 19, 2021, and Feb. 9, 2022, from people scorning orgies and bemoaning the sounds of moaning, according to records obtained by Patch.

Queens logged 103 complaints — the most of all the boroughs — with Manhattan second with 66, Brooklyn third with 55, Bronx fourth with 48 and Staten Island fifth with four.

The most clamorously amorous appear to partake on a seemingly quiet road of residential houses on the coast of Jamaica Bay, although some residents expressed skepticism the reports were valid.

"This cannot be real," one local told Patch on a private Facebook group message.

Yet someone logged 56 sex noise complaints for Cross Bay Boulevard against an orgy of "hippies" — who sometimes dress up as Freddy Krueger, Pennywise and the Easter Bunny — with an alleged fondness for the theme music of professional wrestler Velveteen Dream, data shows.

"They're still here causing a sex mayhem," their alleged neighbor declared one morning at 6 a.m. "Thought it was too cold outside for an orgy party. Doesn't stop this guy."

Auburndale noise terror

 

 QNS 

 Hundreds of Auburndale residents and small business owners rallied on Saturday, Oct. 16, for the shutdown of a rowdy neighborhood lounge that has been disrupting the quality of life in the area for the past eight months. 

Residents were gathered outside of Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC), located at 192-08 Northern Blvd., where they voiced their frustrations about inappropriate illegal activity occurring at the lounge. 

Ever since Kloud Tequila Grill opened, Tsourapis says her family’s life has been a “living nightmare.”  

“We can’t sleep because of the loud music and screaming until 5 a.m. every day. The constant noise, drag racing, garbage and sexual activity right outside of our home is affecting our health and neighborhood safety,” Tsourapis said. “Even though they’re operating without a liquor license, none of our many 311 complaints or calls to the police have made a difference. City Hall must shut down Kloud Tequila Grill now."

 According to residents, the incidents at Kloud Tequila take place on a daily basis, seven days a week, much of it occurring from midnight to 3 a.m. over the past eight months.

Despite numerous complaints to government agencies and law enforcement, residents say nothing has changed. 

The Auburndale Northern Association has launched an online petition for an investigation into the bar.

Dosung Andrew Jung, who represents one of the many small businesses on the block, said they’re concerned about the way Kloud Tequila Grill is conducting their business.

“Every day, we find garbage, vomit, empty liquor bottles scattered around the block,” Jung said. “Our safety is put at risk with drag racing by intoxicated patrons. Our quality of life is ruined with unacceptable noise from Kloud and sex acts inside parked cars at night. We demand City Hall shut down Kloud now!”

 Change.Org

We demand an immediate investigation into Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC), located at 192-08 Northern Boulevard, Queens, NY 11358.  

We support the local residents and small business owners in the neighborhood surrounding the block between Northern Boulevard and 45th Avenue (north-south), and 192nd and 193rd streets (east-west) in Queens, New York, who have suffered greatly from the actions of Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC) on a daily basis, seven days a week, from midnight to 3 o’clock in the morning, over the past eight months.

Reported incidents include illegal sale of alcohol without a license, sale of alcohol to intoxicated patrons, loud music, littering and vermin, public urination, the construction of unsafe building structures without a permit, drag racing and drunk driving, violations of COVID-19 executive orders, public sex acts, etc.  We believe many of these incidents constitute serious violations of New York State and City Law, are potentially life-threatening, and must be immediately addressed.

Despite numerous complaints to government agencies and law enforcement over the past eight months, nothing has changed. 

We have documentation of these incidents, including dozens of 311 service requests, and can provide much more, including photographs, video, and eyewitness testimony.