Noise complaints are on the rise in NYC, and they are turning deadly
NEW YORK — A string of deadly encounters that started with complaints over loud music or offensive noise highlights a growing problem across NYC: Complaints about noise have exploded since the pandemic.
Loud noise and music are common disturbances for New Yorkers — but the conflicts can turn deadly. At least four recent killings have been tied to disputes over noise, with the most recent episode involving a 27-year-old Bronx dad who was killed in a dispute over loud music with a neighbor last week.
The victim’s fiancée and mother of his two young children said they had made complaints to 311 and building management about the neighbor’s noise, but nothing changed. The couple had just put their 5-week-old infant to sleep when blasting loud music started to shake the walls of their apartment.
The victim got dressed, walked across the hall to confront the neighbor about the noise. As he walked away, the neighbor allegedly stabbed him in the back.
There have been nearly 40,000 noise complaints called in to 311 this month, and roughly the same in the past few months, according to NYC Open Data. Noise complaints have boomed since the pandemic, with this year’s winter months seeing a roughly 40% rise in 311 noise complaints compared with the same time frame in 2019.
Arline Bronzaft, an environmental psychologist, said a variety of reasons may be to blame, including more time spent at home, working from home, outdoor dining, loud cars and helicopter noise.
“Noise can really drive people to be aggressive — have there been arguments? Yes. Are people pounding the ceilings until the noise comes down? Absolutely,” Bronzaft said.
“People react psychologically to sound that’s intrusive,” she said. “They get angry about the sound, they get upset. And then when you start showing those kinds of reactions, your heart beats faster, your pulse rate increases, circulation is altered.
“Psychologically, you’re stressed.”
“In New York City, neighbor noise is a serious problem, because we do have apartment buildings and people do live close to each other ... and things changed during COVID, when people started to work from home,” Bronzaft said.
Rachel Miller-Bradshaw, a board member of the Fordham Hill Owners Corp. and resident of City Council District 14, which logs among the highest numbers of 311 noise complaints in the city, said that she’s noticed more noise since the peak of COVID-19.
“It’s a major issue,” she said. “Every New Yorker, regardless of socioeconomic status or neighborhood you reside in, has a right to a serene living environment, at least outside of normal business hours, and after the pandemic things definitely did get worse.”
“It’s really declining the quality of life here,” Miller-Bradshaw added, noting that she knows people who’ve moved from the city because of noise.
There have been several other high-profile homicides sparked by noise complaints in the past few months.
In December, a runway model living in a Manhattan homeless shelter was stabbed to death in a sixth-floor hallway by her roommate in an argument police said was over loud music. The roommate surrendered to police and was charged with murder.
Just a day later, a 39-year-old Bronx man was shot to death by a housemate over noise complaints in Pelham Gardens. The victim and the shooter lived on separate floors of the house and had clashed over noise for a while before the shooting.
In January, another dispute over loud music resulted in a deadly stabbing in University Heights in the Bronx. A man became enraged over noise from the apartment next door — and then stabbed his neighbor twice before killing her friend, police said. He surrendered with a chilling smile to police right after.
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