Shhhh! Pipe Down!
Operation Silent Night is a quality of life program initiated by Mayor Bloomberg in 2002. The neighborhoods hardest hit by OSN are all uptown. The premise of Operation Silent Night appears innocent enough but it is actually a controversial topic for many uptowners. One reason — officers are allowed to perform stop and frisks for minor violations, which some people consider a violation of civil liberties. Others say the crackdowns have allowed police access to the real criminals who are guilty of felonies like drug possession and assault.
Topping the target list for Operation Silent Night is a section in upper Manhattan’s Hamilton Heights, which has been blitzed with at least 56,000 tickets and about 3,500 busts in four years.
Hot on its heels is Inwood, where cops have written more than 41,000 summonses and made about 6,200 arrests.
Third is Washington Heights, with about 41,000 summonses and about 3,000 arrests.
One WaHi neighbor said:
“You wouldn’t know it by how loud this neighborhood is,” he said. “They should start giving out more tickets up here.”
Source: New York Post
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Ha…funny how my neighborhood came in first! In this regard I’ll be the first to admit my opinion is biased. I am in no way excusing such behavior, though. The fact that there is a lot of loud music uptown and other elements of noise abuse is a cultural issue at the core. I know that growing up, it was quite common to have parties on friday & saturday nights in my building and have the music thumping. However, there was a concensus among those on the particular block that this was ok. Speaking for Dominicans here, this is a custom we have brought over from overseas. In DR it is common to have music playing in front of businesses, at little kiosks on the corners of streets or along highways even (and I know…this is not DR…i get it). Couple that with the harlem hiphop mindset (which I admit I am guilty of sometimes) where you have to FEEL the bass things can get quite messy if not audibly unhealthy.
In my particular building I’ve had the same neighbors since I was a kid and we’ve always had an understanding. I’ll have my boys over on a friday/saturday and often (though not always)the music will be loud. I will never do it any other day because we all have jobs to go to, etc. That’s just how we like it. I should note that this in no way represents all of West Harlem. In fact there are a lot of people who have been living in Harlem for many years and have never liked that particular aspect. But there are a significant number of us who like our music like that. But Harlem is changing. I cannot dispute that. A lot of people who are transplants and those moving in don’t like to have music thumping at all times. It was never part of their culture. However, their voice is just as valuable.
That being said, I do agree that as a community on the whole certain measures should be taken to curb this. I suppose for the sake of civic peace these concerns should be taken seriously. Noise pollution has been taken for granted and there have been findings supporting that it can be detrimental to people’s over all health and quality of life especially in urban settings. The same way smoking was banned from eating establishments and bars, there should be regulations and guidelines.
What I would like to see, though, are clearly stipulated and delineated rules as well as some scale as to what would be considered an infraction of said guidelines. For the sake of a community that gets along, I won’t mind turning down the music a bit.
i moved to harlem from the east village several years ago and i promise you the noise does not compare.
i would like to think im personally responsible for the targeting of uptown, since i call 311 on average once a week because of noise. and there is never any response. the few times i called 311 when i lived in the east village my calls were responded to almost immediately.
if the police are truly planning to start responding and enforcing quality of life laws, i for one will throw them a fucking welcome parade. it will be about time.
to sit in your car with the radio blasting for hours on end is ILLEGAL!!! if you break that law, than you open yourself up for search. if you want to avoid trouble, maybe that’s not the best way to go about it. i dont feel an once of pity for any of the assholes who do exactly that infront of my home constantly. at all hours. if you break the law and you are a menace to your community then you deserve what you get. stop defending those that diminish the quality of life in our neighborhood!!!! we deserve the same quality of life as everyone else in new york! why not stand up and demand it????
Doug, I agree. What about the LES and East Village, that’s the single most nosiest neighborhood and I know for a fact plenty of residents have been complaining about that problem for years. I wonder how many neighborhoods south of 96th are targeted? This just seems like a convienet way to have a reason for stopping and searching young people uptown.
Car stereos should be banned. My building sometimes shakes and it is unfair for anyone to put up with this. I say more fines to everyone with their music blaring!
I’m not sure that the uptown areas are “targeted”. My experience is that it is damn noisy uptown, not from bars but from car stereos, outdoor gatherings, etc.
Do you know why the Uptown areas are targeted? That’s a pretty big disparity seeing how the LES, E. Village area is very loud at night.
Did the article provide any insight into what constitutes a noise violation?
The stop and frisk, in my book at least, crosses the line into a civil liberties violation.