You Can Always Move or, Who Died And Made You King?

I am getting increasingly annoyed at the newspaper stories about people complaining about the high noise level around their apartments.

Admittedly, I am a person who happens to love noise.  I am perfectly capable of tuning it out, and I can sleep through a nuclear war, so it's not on my list of things to complain about.  When I was apartment hunting, I kept having to explain this over and over to real estate people, who took one look at me and said, "You'll want a nice, quiet place."  No.  No, I won't.  A nice quiet place would make me absolutely crazy.  I live alone, and I spend a lot of time alone, basically out of choice...I'm quite fond of my own company.  But I like to know that life is going on around me.  Right now I have a yappy dog who lives on my floor (I just heard him in the hall making a few remarks), and a gent whom I think is next door to me who plays the drums at midnight.  This is just fine with me.  As are the large family parties that occasionally take place down the hall.  I think this is great...it makes me feel at home.

I do, however, know that there are a lot of people who just hate this sort of thing, and that's their prerogative.  Who said we should all be alike?  The only thing I ask them to do is THINK ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU MOVE, for God's sake.

There was a story in the paper today or yesterday about a building where the residents are up in arms about a rooftop party that goes on next door to them.  These people moved into an apartment on Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, which is a large street that runs straight across town and contains a whole lot of restaurants and bars and shops and things.  And on Saturday night traffic tends to jam up on it and horns honk.  Did it not occur to these people that if they're living on a street like this they are not living in a gated suburban community?  Same with people who move in above a bar.  Did it somehow escape their attention that there was a bar right next door to the door they were walking into to see that apartment?  Did they think somehow that the bar would obligingly lower its noise level because they were now in residence?

Look, if you want to live right in the middle of things, you're going to have noise.  If you don't like noise, find another street to live on.  There are lots of nice quiet streets in New York, honest.

Now, if you've been living in a nice quiet apartment for a while and they decide to open a bar right under you, that's a different problem.  Now you do have a basis for complaint.  But NOT if they were there first.  Sheesh.

Love, Wendy (who has her radio going and is happily listening to that nice dog, too)