Solution: Ban The Reverse Beep; Let The Stupid Dogs And Baby Strollers Fend For Themselves
It wouldn’t be a frustrated spring-fall night of sleep without the beepbeepbeep of the carting trucks:
Posted: June 20th, 2008 | Filed under: Grrr!, Quality Of LifeVeronika Conant considered abandoning her midtown co-op after years of being awakened by privately owned garbage trucks, crunching refuse at all hours of the night and early morning.
“The day after I moved in I wanted to move away,” said Conant, who instead of packing her bags invested in double-paned windows. “It was just unbearable. I couldn’t even hear the 11 o’clock news on the television I was trying to watch –that’s how bad it was.”
Privately-owned garbage trucks that bang, grind and beep while they pick up commercial waste and construction debris have become an unwelcome alarm clock for a growing number of New Yorkers, according to city Department of Environmental Protection data. These noise complaints have shot up 40 percent in the past year.
The department said the spike in noise complaints is due partly to the growing number of residential units sprouting up in formerly commercial areas, including parts of lower Manhattan and midtown.
. . .
While the Department of Sanitation picks up residential garbage during the day, the private carting industry picks up commercial garbage and construction debris after hours, when city streets are less congested.
The private-carting problem is largely found in Manhattan, where a number of community boards said the noise is chronic, and a few boards are investigating a recent uptick in complaints.
The boards, at least one City Council member and environmental department investigators have successfully convinced businesses that use these carters to schedule pickups earlier or to use the same company to limit the number of pickups.
One East Side community board drafted a resolution last month, asking the City Council to prohibit private carters from picking up garbage and construction debris between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The noise code now restricts the level of carting noise to 85 decibels within 50 feet of a residential building between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. That’s about the amount of heavy traffic generates. That number will decrease to 80 in 2012.