Do you remember when you were a kid and the closest thing you had to a cell phone at the time was two cups with a string attached between them? You pulled the string taut, spoke into one cup, and hoped your friend holding the other would he…
Noise is an acknowledged part of urban life - particularly apartment living. Some of it - traffic, garbage collection, people shouting on the street - is external, and is controlled (theoretically, anyway) by zoning laws and noise ordinanc…
Q. I have written several complaint letters to the board and the managing agent regarding a noisy neighbor. They did send a letter to the shareholders about a year ago, but the problem persists. Although I continue to write letters, nothi…
Do you remember when you were a kid that the closest thing you had to a cell phone at the time was two cups with a string tautly attached between them, and then speaking into one cup to see if your friend holding the other could hear you? T…
In New York City, you deal with noise everywhere you go: the subway screeches while pulling into the station; city buses beep every time they make a stop; and millions of people pound the pavement and chat on their phones as they fill the a…
When you live in a multifamily building, however, peace and quiet can be hard to come by. From the guy upstairs who gargles loudly at precisely 6:47 a.m. every morning to the neighbor with the yapping Chihuahua—at some point the soundtrack …
Walls are the only separation between you and your neighbors when you live in a densely-populated area like Manhattan, and sometimes, it feels like privacy goes out the window. People hear their next-door neighbors talking, footsteps f…
Noise is a key quality-of-life problem for almost anyone living in a densely-packed urban environment. Many urban dwellers are immune to it as a result of having lived all their lives in the city—maybe you even grew up next to an elevat…
Q “When I purchased my apartment in Brooklyn, noise was a concern of mine. I was told by the sales team and the builders that noise was not a problem. But now with people moving in, I hear closet and kitchen doors closing, people wal…
I’m a president of a new condo and have no experience running one prior to this. There is an apartment in the condo that consistently has children dropped off. After some inquiry it turns out to be the children of relatives, around 4 or …