The local paper for the Upper er East Side MININ THE MINING MUSICAL MUS HISTORY HI OF O THE VILLAGE < Q&A, p. 17
THE NOISE THAT NEVER SLEEPS
Protesting the Trash Transfer Station
2014
OURTOWNNY.COM
OurTownEastSide @OurTownNYC
In Brief Hungry New York City children will be able to get free meals this summer. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that children 18 years and younger can go to 1,000 sites for a free meal this summer. The program will run from June 27 to August 29. De Blasio announced the program at P.S. 111 on West 53rd Street in Manhattan, with an assist from a team of future NBA draft picks. Ten players in town for the NBA draft Thursday night played with students and stressed the need for exercise and good nutrition.
Residents living near the construction site of the former Ruppert Playground report unceasing noise BY MARY KEKATOS
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FREE SUMMER MEALS FOR NYC KIDS
NEWS
UPPER EAST SIDE Sixty-seven and a half decibels is approximately the sound that a washing machine makes. That is the sound level in George O’Connor’s apartment at 225 East 93rd Street, but he doesn’t have any appliances running. If O’Connor opens a window, the reading is 79.5 dB next to an open window. That is about the sound of highway traffic at 30 mph, but he doesn’t live near a highway. Now, imagine hearing sound at these levels for close to 11 hours per day. That is the noise stemming from construction occurring at 203 East 93rd Street, right across the street. Residents say that from 7:15 a.m. in the morning until 6 p.m. at night on weekdays, they hear the continuous noise of jackhammers. On weekends, construction begins at 9 a.m. “I can’t read, I can’t watch television, I can’t do anything because it’s just so loud,” O’Connor said. Formerly the site of Ruppert Playground, a 36-story rental building is being built in its place. The lower eight floors will house commercial and retail space while the upper floors will host 320 residential apartments. Construction has been ongoing since early May, and O’Connor, who lives in an independent senior living center, is among the many residents who simply cannot escape the noise. “We’re not going to work. Yeah, you can leave your apartment for one or two hours, but you can’t just keep leaving,” O’Connor said. “You know, this is a senior living center; you can’t live like this.” “This continuous sound is disrupting the activities of the person at home,” explained environmental psychologist and noise expert Arline
WEEK OF JULY
COUNCIL CONSIDERS BAD MORTGAGE BUYBACKS
Members of advocacy groups Pledge 2 Protect and NYCHA for NYCHA joined with supporters of nearby Asphalt Green for three days of protests outside the site of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station. The de Blasio administration has affirmed its commitment to reconstruct and revive the defunct garbage station, and local residents continue to fight against it. “Marine Transfer Stations are an obsolete system and don’t help the city meet key goals of the Solid Waste Management Plan: they will not give relief to communities overburdened by trash issues, but will create new health and environmental harm,” said Sean Wood, a Pledge 2 Protect board member, in a statement. Photos courtesy Pledge 2 Protect
City Council members and housing advocacy groups called on Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday to join them and help homeowners at risk of foreclosure, proposing the use of eminent domain to buy back underwater mortgages. At a news conference, council members Donovan Richards, Mark Levine and I. Daneek Miller said eminent domain could be used to buy back mortgages from homeowners who owe more than their houses are worth. Under the proposal, the city would purchase the mortgages from banks and refinance them to match home values to prevent foreclosures, said Robert Hockett, a law professor at Cornell University Law School who helped draft the plan. Eminent domain would be used only for contracts that could not be modified without government intervention, he said. Association executive director Ismene Speliotis said AfricanAmerican and Latino homeowners have been disproportionately affected by underwater mortgages because they were targeted for private-label securitized loans. She said these loans are the most likely to default.