Community Politics

Fighting City Hall and a roaring A/C generator

By Ariella Allariez

The decibel meter Claus Habermeier ordered online was delivered on July 16, 35 days after a generator the length of a short school bus started roaring outside the New York Police Department’s 9th Precinct on his block of East Fifth Street.

He plans to measure, from different angles of his neighborhood, how much noise comes from the generator that’s been keeping the precinct’s broken air-conditioning system running since June 11.

“It’s basically inescapable,” said Habermeier, a business developer, who lives across the street from the precinct. “And it’s just a little bit crazy because it’s just non-stop. 24/7.” 

The noise keeps some residents from getting a night of peaceful sleep, they said, and disturbs the tranquility they have managed to create in a city already filled with noise.

They’re irritated. They’ve got 70 signatures on a petition they plan to take to City Hall, which has told them that the generator is temporary.

“It’s like a giant mosquito. It’s a persistent, monotone hum, but it also has an [aggravating] aspect to it. It can roar and blare when they are refueling it with diesel,” said Naomi Rossenblatt,  a book publisher who lives in the same building as Habermeier.

Trying to cover up the generator’s ambient thrum, she set up fans around her home. They provide little relief.  

The situation is worse for one of her neighbors. “My upstairs neighbor has an anxiety disorder  and her psychiatrist is willing to write a letter about how this constant frequency is having a very bad effect on her … ” Rosenblatt said.

Eric Nicolas, a professional acoustic guitarist who lives three walk-up apartment buildings from the precinct, said the roar keeps him from recording and rehearsing. “It’s just a ridiculous solution to a problem that’s making the lives of many, many New Yorkers who are good, hardworking taxpayers on that block very, very unpleasant,” Nicolas said.

The noise amplifies and extends further than that block of East Fifth, including to a park several blocks away. 

The petitioners don’t blame the police officers for the generator. They blame the NYPD’s internal bureaucracy.

Residents have already complained to City Councilman Harvey Epstein, their elected representative. They’re considering contacting local TV news stations whose reporters might put them and their concerns on the air.