Noise!

The jackhammer at Park & Seventh started at 7:30 a.m. today. It apparently set off a car alarm a few minutes later. Then workers at Connolly's property next door resumed the hammering, sawing and drilling on a garage door replacement project. Along came a PMUA truck with its preternatural moans and screeches to add to the cacophony. Around noon the landlord's landscapers arrived with mowers, blowers and trimmers. About the same time, the DPW began blowing all the trash from the perimeter of Lot 7 to the inside, where a rumbling street sweeper swept it up.

And people wonder why I like to write at 3 a.m.!

The Connolly crew fired up its equipment a week ago Sunday at 7:30 a.m., drawing the wrath of a rather imposing tenant with a choice vocabulary. Fearing a repeat performance this past Sunday, I tried last week to find out what the city allows. Inspections sent me to Building. Building sent me to the City Clerk. Maybe it was under Morals and Conduct, a staffer mused. Thanks to Rashid Burney, I was able to look at the Municipal Code online and locate the rule. But the language was ambiguous.

"No person shall on Sunday and upon any other day of the week between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 A.M. operate and use tools or equipment in conducting any excavation, demolition, erection, alteration, repair or other construction within one thousand (1000) feet of any dwelling or business property which shall make any loud or disturbing noise, except in case of urgent necessity in the interest of public safety and then only upon obtaining a permit from the Department of Public Works."

Was this a definitive prohibition against noisy work on Sunday? And if so, who do you call at that hour to make them stop?

It's hard to type with your fingers in your ears.

--Bernice Paglia