NO NOISE, PLEASE, WE'RE NEW YORKERS!
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign to affect New York’s quality of life has reached now the length to contain noise in the megametropolis. The plan is Bloombergian Big, like the ban the Mayor brought in earlier on smoking in bars and restaurants, too, in New York.
Among the proposals is the one to order people they should silence jackhammers in use by covering them with ‘noise jackets’. Another is of a tighter regulation of rattling of air conditioners. Further still, the NY police is to dispense with use of ‘noise meters’ in order to control noise caused to public (like in music played by a group of persons or by an individual in car stereo, by barking dogs and in carmufflers). Instead, the cops are to judge whether any of such noise is within legally acceptable limit by employing a ‘common sense’ standard.
As from table the proposals are translated to terms of living they may be causing noise, in turn. But, meanwhile, here is imagined the response of the people in New York to their irrepressible Mayor.
"Yes, sir, noise does not relate to New York life, and does not go with our work culture. Even a hail can be too loud to bear. Jackhammers banging away is out. So, yes sir, we shall deafen them, rather than have them deafen us. And, ah, the rattling air conditioners. Eerie reminder of New York's fretful summer, we shall plug the rickety rattle just like we banished the puff. And yes, sir, what’s music, if it is not soft and soothing, whatever pop preaches.
“Yes, sir. No noise, please, we’re New Yorkers!
“But look at this, sir.
“We, the New Yorkers, weren’t shattered when three year ago on that fateful September day the famed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were blown up and the flaming steel girders fell many a occupant. Several hundred men and women, many a bread earner of families, were blown to bits. When people out at work slept the night out on icy sidewalks and simmering marble steps of buildings in September cold in New York. We did not moan, nor meander. We walked back to work. So did the Wall Street traders, although their offices were in ruins.
“Like the World Trade Center the New York Stock Exchange has stood for the whole wide world as the symbol of the American dream. For over 200 years running. Nobody in New York ever grudged anyone realizing that dream. Men and women in New York, young and old, know not to sit back but to strive to make that dream come true for themselves.
“Yes, sir. No noise, please, we’re New Yorkers!
“New York is ethnicity and affirmation. People have come and keep coming here from all parts of the world. No one in New York has minded another from wherever he or she is come. No one feels swamped or suffocated. All are welcome as New Yorkers. We dream the world the same as we walk the streets the same, whether to work, or simply to stand and stare.
“Truly, sir, we, the New Yorkers, are the heritage; the American heritage.
“And, finally, sir. The City has given us the most. In mobility of life especially, so that we can make as much out of our life as possibly we can.
“So, yes sir, as you say, we will banish noise. For no noise, please, we are New Yorkers!”
Among the proposals is the one to order people they should silence jackhammers in use by covering them with ‘noise jackets’. Another is of a tighter regulation of rattling of air conditioners. Further still, the NY police is to dispense with use of ‘noise meters’ in order to control noise caused to public (like in music played by a group of persons or by an individual in car stereo, by barking dogs and in carmufflers). Instead, the cops are to judge whether any of such noise is within legally acceptable limit by employing a ‘common sense’ standard.
As from table the proposals are translated to terms of living they may be causing noise, in turn. But, meanwhile, here is imagined the response of the people in New York to their irrepressible Mayor.
"Yes, sir, noise does not relate to New York life, and does not go with our work culture. Even a hail can be too loud to bear. Jackhammers banging away is out. So, yes sir, we shall deafen them, rather than have them deafen us. And, ah, the rattling air conditioners. Eerie reminder of New York's fretful summer, we shall plug the rickety rattle just like we banished the puff. And yes, sir, what’s music, if it is not soft and soothing, whatever pop preaches.
“Yes, sir. No noise, please, we’re New Yorkers!
“But look at this, sir.
“We, the New Yorkers, weren’t shattered when three year ago on that fateful September day the famed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were blown up and the flaming steel girders fell many a occupant. Several hundred men and women, many a bread earner of families, were blown to bits. When people out at work slept the night out on icy sidewalks and simmering marble steps of buildings in September cold in New York. We did not moan, nor meander. We walked back to work. So did the Wall Street traders, although their offices were in ruins.
“Like the World Trade Center the New York Stock Exchange has stood for the whole wide world as the symbol of the American dream. For over 200 years running. Nobody in New York ever grudged anyone realizing that dream. Men and women in New York, young and old, know not to sit back but to strive to make that dream come true for themselves.
“Yes, sir. No noise, please, we’re New Yorkers!
“New York is ethnicity and affirmation. People have come and keep coming here from all parts of the world. No one in New York has minded another from wherever he or she is come. No one feels swamped or suffocated. All are welcome as New Yorkers. We dream the world the same as we walk the streets the same, whether to work, or simply to stand and stare.
“Truly, sir, we, the New Yorkers, are the heritage; the American heritage.
“And, finally, sir. The City has given us the most. In mobility of life especially, so that we can make as much out of our life as possibly we can.
“So, yes sir, as you say, we will banish noise. For no noise, please, we are New Yorkers!”
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