New York City council with nothing better to do

[liqidtouch]

Go ahead you pricks and waste my gid dam money that im paying you so you can have 7 hr discussion like this:::::::::::

Mister Softee: Noise code nothing to grin about

NEW YORK -- The City Council got a lot of static Wednesday from businesses resisting the plan to toughen the city's noise ordinance.

But at least one proposal offered at the four-hour hearing may be music to New Yorkers' ears.

Mister Softee's vice president, Jim Conway, said the company is willing to compromise: It would turn off the jingle when its ice cream trucks are parked.

Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), chair of the Environmental Protection Committee, who ran the hearing, liked the sound of that.

"I think we've got to preserve the right of children to have ice cream and to know when the ice cream man is coming."

But the council is going to have a much harder time convincing other businesses on the code overhaul.

The wide-ranging bill, championed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, would be the city's first major revamp of the Noise Control Code in some 30 years as it touches on nearly every business that produces some kind of noise.

Gennaro said the process will take time. "It is a very, very complicated bill, very very broad in scope," Gennaro said.

The proposal, spearheaded by the city's Department of Environmental Protection, is an attempt to tackle the top source of complaints to the city's 311 service by redefining what's noisy and who can be fined, and making it easier to enforce the rules across the board.

David Tweedy, the environmental agency's acting commissioner, said many groups were invited to offer input into the legislation, but many of them representing restaurants, nightclubs, bars, construction companies and unions weren't pleased with the 87-page bill.

David Rabin, the owner of the Manhattan hot spot Lotus and president of the New York Nightlife Association, said he objected to the idea that Environmental Protection or an officer could write a ticket for noise violations without using a decibel meter.

"In the real world, the current code is a joke and this is worse," Rabin said.

[crobarphil]

Speaking as a New Yorker and not a crobar employee, I think that the entire idea of this stinks to high heaven. I have heard about Bloomberg wanting changes to the noise code and it just sickens me considering the ban on smoking indoors.

I would have to say that at least half of the complaints must be from people who live near bars or clubs. You force the people to go outside to smoke. Most of these people have been drinking. And you expect them to just stand there outside and be quiet?? If they just reversed the ban on smoking in bars and nightclubs the noise problem would solve itself. It's not like people have been getting louder, they have just been forced outside where they can become a problem for residents.

And it's just sad to me. Nightlife is one of the most vibrant parts of the NYC economy. And it doesn't just help the owners of those establishments, it's also a major source of taxi revenue. Thankfully most NYC people are intelligent enough not to drink and drive, so they take taxis to and from most night spots. Between the smoking ban, this noise BS and the constant rumors of a change in the required closing time for bars and clubs, the city is just giving the message that they don't want these places open.

It also galls me that the defense is that they want to increase the "quality of life" for residents. I can't see there being much quality in a lot of people's lives if they are forced to stay home at night. And I have seen plans like this backfire first hand. When I was in college the residents of the town got the city to have all bars close at 1am instead of 3am. So instead of people leaving the bars to go back to campus in several groups between 1am and 3am, everybody left at 1am. This caused an even bigger noise problem and the city had to change it back to 3am.

I just hope the city wises up to the consequences of passing laws like these.

[liqidtouch]

dont worry

im sure theres going to be a speach at one point soon with the major payer saying something in short

"Oops im sorry we messed up and now we will be using your tax dollars to fix it"

happens all the time

we end up paying for everything including their mistakes

Do you know the reson we pay taxes?

cuase the government keeps screwing up and coming up short on expences

so where does the money come from? yes its yours and my pocket

My question in all of it is

If the government cant balance their books properly and end up still owing more and more

why the hell are they after me for not getting my finances in order?

why are the credit companies sueing people like us when its the government that started the whole mess?

[majinbuu]

whatever..that music is maddd annoying one of those trucks sat on the corner of my street..right outside my window and i heard that song for hours...it made me go crazy!

before i knew it i was throwing things out the window at the truck!

[liqidtouch]

wouldnt it just be more pleasing to hear a warm recorded voice like 6 times repeat

"ICE CREAM MAN"

"ICE CREAM MAN"

"ICE CREAM MAN"

"ICE CREAM MAN"

"ICE CREAM MAN"

then pause for a few mins - and do it again

but this only goes in two repetitions

either way this runs much deper then this "alleged" quality of life crap

i dont understand why kids get tickets for laud stereos but a harley can sit on a corner revin with friends and just be asked to leave?

This is the ordinance for loud stereos

1st offence - $250 fine and appear in court

2nd offence - $500 fine and appear in court

3rd offence - 24 hrs in jail cell - appear in court - $1500 fine

are you kidding me?

[majinbuu]

if you havent noticed...theres alot of noise outside. it would be nice if kids with loud stereos dont blast them where ever they want. those fines are designed to deter people from having more than one offense...