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Posted on 06/08/2004 5:25:19 PM PDT by Eurotwit

RESIDENTS of the city that never sleeps have been told to keep quiet or face swingeing fines of up to $25,000 (£14,000). The famous buzz of New York street life is soon to be muffled after Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor, announced a major revision to the city’s noise code. Having banned smoking in bars and restaurants and mobile phones in theatres, the mayor has turned his attention to barking dogs, car alarms, thumping nightclub discos, whirring air conditioners, building-site noise, loud motorbikes, booming bass notes seeping from car sound systems and even the chimes of ice-cream vans.

“This is the city that never sleeps,” said Mr Bloomberg. “On the other hand, all of us need to take a nap from time to time.

“Noise disturbs our sleep, prevents people from enjoying their time off from work and too often leads to altercations.”

As he tried to make his announcement, the mayor’s voice was drowned out by the loud revving of a motorbike. He turned with a smile to the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, and said: “Could you catch that guy?” The new rules will fine dog-owners up to $175 if their animals bark for longer than five minutes after dark or ten minutes during the day.

Miriam Prussman, who lives in Manhattan with her golden retriever, Cody, spoke for the hundreds of thousands of dog-owners who consider the mayor’s new controls too repressive.

“This is out of control,” she said. “What is he going to do? Restrict dogs from having vocal cords?” The jangle of electronic ice-cream van chimes will attract a fine of $350, though the new rules will allow stop-me-and-buy-one sellers to ring bells by hand until 2006. Other street vendors will have to remain silent.

Ice-cream sellers are infuriated by the restrictions. “There is a small percentage of operators who are not considerate,” said James Conway Jr, son of the founder of Mister Softee, which runs 250 ice-cream vans in New York. “They play their song too loud and too long. But we need the jingle. This is our livelihood, and we feel it’s a New York institution.”

Car alarms that wail for three minutes and house alarms that ring for fifteen minutes are also on the forbidden list. Car alarms triggered by anything other than “direct physical contact” with the bodywork will also be banned.

New Yorkers will be forbidden from mowing their lawns before eight in the morning and after seven at night on weekdays, and before nine and after six at weekends.

Managers of building sites will have to reduce noise drastically by employing mufflers on loud equipment and noise jackets on pneumatic drills or face $1,400 fines. The city will grant fewer building work permits for weekends and at night.

Roaring rooftop air conditioners, essential to counter New York’s steamy summers, will be severely restricted.

Currently units emitting more than 45 decibels attract a fine of up to $1,400, but apartment and office towers skirt the law by clumping groups of units together. New rules will ensure that the total noise emitted will be reduced.

Owners of noisy night-clubs, city bars and restaurants are to be given an easier time. Rather than pay a $3,000 fine, first offenders will be given the chance to use the money to insulate their premises. How-ever, the deep bass of dance music emanating from clubs that shakes the air will be sharply curtailed.

Police will no longer need noise meters to measure noisy motorbikes and car stereos. In future it will be enough for the noise to be “plainly audible” and would rely on a police officer’s “common sense”.

The City Hall hotline receives about 1,000 complaints about noise each day, more than any other issue. Since the beginning of the year there have been 119,895 noise complaints. Since January, 305 have called about ice-cream chimes.

The campaign to hush New Yorkers followed Operation Silent Night, a concerted effort in October 2002 by police and environmental health officials to target the city’s 24 noisiest neighbourhoods. Loud premises were closed, individuals were fined and boom-boxes were confiscated.

The offensive led to 3,706 summonses being issued against noise-makers as well as the discovery of criminal behaviour by the offenders which provoked a further 33,996 charges.

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