Dear Editor:
I write this letter at 3:30 on a Sunday morning, after being jarred awake by a group of noisy, inconsiderate bar patrons whooping it up like it was New Years Eve beneath my Washington Street apartment window. Such an event—or, to name it more accurately, with noise pollution laws in fact on the books, a crime—is, far from an anomaly, a regular occurrence here in bar-happy Hoboken. This serious quality of life issue has, in fact, plagued Hoboken since the time of the Russo administration: which, to its credit, at least took practical steps to address it. Because the problem hasn’t gone away, though, and good citizens continue to be startled out of their sleep in the middle of the night, this needs to become a serious political issue again.
Let’s put this into perspective. When Rudy Guiliani became mayor of NYC, he swiftly took care of the “squeegee men.” But tell me what’s worse, a stranger who cleans your car windshield (when you’re already wide-awake) or a band of late night marauders shrieking in front of your window who rob you of a good night sleep? Common sense would say the latter is a far more personally invasive violation, since—as any doctor or health expert will tell you—most human beings require 6 to 8 hours of uninterrupted shut eye each night to function at their psychological and physical best. These noise polluters are, in fact, messing with the health of innocent Hoboken citizens! Shouldn’t our political leaders (if they truly care about us) solve this problem immediately?
In Bergen County there are wealthy towns, take Alpine for example, where multimillion dollar mansions hold sway and bars are, in fact, illegal. If you or I were to visit Alpine in the dead of night and start screaming and cursing on the top of our lungs (a typical Hoboken scenario) no doubt we’d be arrested immediately. Isn’t the sanctity of a Hobokenite’s good night sleep just as sacred? Or, I should say, those Hoboken residents who can’t afford to live in luxury condos tucked far enough away from the bar madness: like in the Tea Building or Maxwell Place? If Jon Corzine, for example, were being victimized by late-night noise pillagers, you can bet the issue would be top priority.
Okay, time for solutions. A small contingent of plainclothes police should be dispatched to troubled bar noise areas to issue summonses and, in some cases, make arrests. Bars need to be part of the solution too. They ought to, for example, make announcements discouraging after hours noise assaults on sleeping Hobokenites; and be charged a surtax to pay for the cops needed to clean up their “noise mess.” If that doesn’t work, the next logical step must be an 11 p.m. curfew; or, restricting late-night bars to non-residential parts of the city. If you’d like to sign a petition to further address this issue, please e-mail me at jfbredin@hotmail.com
John Bredin