It’s five o’clock in the morning and the sirens are already blaring. The red, white, and blue flashing lights pierce through the windows. One street south, you can hear the cheers and roars of a sports bar that has sponsors from colleges throughout the East Coast, all while happening on a Wednesday. Across the street, you hear the hammering noise and loud barks of construction workers as they begin their day shift. Unfortunately, it’s a daily occurrence.

Many people who live in Kips Bay have to suffer from the factors of noise pollution, and the cost of living in the neighborhood goes against what the comfort factor for the residents. Noise pollution, although loud in most areas in Manhattan, is most particular in Kips Bay. The reason is due to the abundance of sport bars, which draw crowds during major sporting events. Tying this with the excessive number of hospitals in the neighborhood, police precincts, and firehouses, Kips Bay is a hot spot for noise pollution.

To keep a massive metropolitan city afloat and running smoothly on a daily basis, it is no question that there needs to exist construction in order to maintain its function towards to public. Without construction exists a city filled with potholes and problems. However, it does come with a non-monetary based tax, a noise tax. With day and night shifts, Kips Bay is to be a hot spot for construction zones. Sometimes, there do exist easy fixes, but most of the time that is not the case.

One particular street, 25^th Street between 1^st Avenue and FDR has been in construction for the past year, with no signs of it being remotely complete. “Construction is taking a toll on the traffic,” construction worker Matthew O’Connor states, with his broad shoulders and helmet still resting firmly on his head, covering his face from the dirt that has already traced down to his ripped jeans and boots. In addition, the Brookdale Hunter College Campus is scheduled to be demolished in 2017, turning the campus into a parking garage for garbage facility trucks, thereby creating an entire street of Kips Bay under construction.

Construction plan lasting well over a few years.

In terms of decibels, construction in the area of 25^th Street between FDR and 1^st Avenue is around 95-100 decibels. As a comparison, ninety decibels is the equivalent of a motorcycle and 100 decibels is the equivalent to a helicopter. The noise pollution of construction zones in Kips Bay has a roaring effect in the community for both dormitories and apartment residences. In addition to the loud noise, the entire strip of 25^th Street between FDR and 3^rd Avenue has at least one major construction zone lasting longer than a year, causing massive backup in traffic. This is particularly not good considering that there are three hospitals in those surrounding areas.

Seen on 25th Street between FDR and 1st Avenue, entire sections of Manhattan’s grid has been shut off for construction.

Bellevue, New York University Hospital and VA Medical Center all are in the Kips Bay area. This means that for every three streets and two avenues, on average, there is at least one hospital and/or medical center. The obstruction that construction zones have made has already created an issue in the fairly large amount of hospitals and medical centers around the community. Most times, ambulances are stuck in traffic, partly due to these construction zones. This only furthers the issue of noise pollution. Now, instead of a Doppler effect that lasts about twenty seconds, there is a longer time frame for the ambulance to accelerate towards and away from one’s place of origin. On a given weekday, pedestrians can hear the jackhammer of a construction zone and the blaring siren of an ambulance. Also, during the evenings on weekends, you can hear the din of sport bars and also the ambulances.

Regardless of time, ambulances always exist, and that creates enormous amounts of noise pollution. The abundance of ambulances and medical centers only worsens the contribution of noise, although it is for the benefit of the community. “I understand people get annoyed by it, but ambulances are part of everyday New York life,” firefighter Janusz Lewandowski states. Although it is true that ambulances help the community, it can also be said that ambulances, or the abundance of such, cause such noise pollution that it irritates the residencies.

The main issue with Kips Bay’s noise pollution is that it is very difficult to resolve. There are numerous hospitals within the area, as well as construction zones. All of these factors of noise pollution have a commonality of being very difficult to remove from a community. Of course, whenever somebody is injured, they need an ambulance, whenever somebody needs help, they need to call the police, and wherever there exist potholes, there exists a construction team ready to fill them up. The main reason why all of these contributors to noise pollution exist is for the greater good. Each of these entities helps the community, and therefore can have difficulty being removed. However, there is one contributor to noise pollution that is not exactly a benefactor for the community- public businesses.

Most public businesses around Kips Bay are fairly quiet, but one particular type of business stands out from the crowd. Sport bars have been commonly known to cause a stir in noise complaints within Kips Bay. Local resident Nora Baberian, in her early sixties with golden, curly hair, petite in size, in her second language states that, “It could be three in the morning and people would still be cheering and screaming. I can’t move out; I’ve lived here for decades and my apartment is rent controlled.” Bringing clarity to the topic, some residents stay not for the lifestyle, but for the bargain. For some, the headache of noise costs less than the apartments in which they live.

One specific sports bar, Tonic, is notorious for its loud music that plays late at night during Fridays and Saturdays. On a given weekend, the decibel frequency can peak at around 110 decibels, which is the equivalent to the noises of rock concerts and chainsaws. This means, on any given Friday and Saturday, and sometimes even during the weekday if it just so happens there is a major sporting event taking place, the dynamic of a rock concert can take the place of the sounds from the bar.

Tonic displayed in the middle of Kips Bay, with three floors of din every Friday-Sunday.

What possible solutions can arise because of this conflict? There can be set guidelines for each type of business, such as permitting for noises above a certain decibel range. Certainly, some businesses in Kips Bay create a nuisance for the community, making it a difficult place to live. As for now, the buildings that house fire trucks and ambulances still remain, but the construction zones will die out as more will blossom. As for now, there are no plans to decrease the noise pollution in Kips Bay.