The noise started in early November.
It was described by residents of North Brooklyn Heights as a mechanical chirp or a sharp repetitive whistling sound. Some people think this is a car alarm; others, motor noise. It seems to move around in a strange way, depending on where you stand.
Whatever it is, because it lasted a few days, and then a few weeks, it slowly drove people crazy.
"The noise is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Highlander Victoria Owens wrote in an email to the Brooklyn Eagle. "It is everywhere on the street. I can hear it in every room of my house, all windows are closed, and it interferes with sleep at night and the ability to concentrate and work efficiently during the day."
Owens joined the Brooklyn Heights discussion group on the NextDoor app and found other angry neighbors. It turns out that noise is a topic in the town.
"Has anyone else heard a strange, constant, annoying noise somewhere near the scaffolding of Gristedes and Pineapple Walk?" Michael Sterchak wrote on November 4. "This is a kind of high-pitched'zee-zee-zee-zee...'"
"I've heard it since Tuesday," Wilson Burrows wrote. Lisa Luther thinks this is a resounding fan. To Nadine Corbin, this sounds like a car alarm. Helen Spirer is sure it is in the Pineapple Walk area.
This noise was also noticed in the Brooklyn Heights blog. A person named "MikeMike" described it as an uninterrupted "fan/bell", while "Pineapple" said it sounded like an alarm that started "when the Gristedes scaffolding was raised."
Residents of the Henry St. 75 co-op apartment north of Cadman Towers complained to Mary Egrie, the property manager of Cadman Towers. Egri asked Super Julio Davila to investigate. She reported that the cooperative was not the source of the voice.
"I filed my first 311 complaint on November 5th-they closed it, saying they couldn't find the source," Wilson Burrows told the Eagles. "Honestly, it doesn't sound like anything I've heard before—especially because the sound changes depending on where you are."
NextDoor members have heard of Cobble Hill’s “piercing” apartments, which can ultimately be traced back to poorly designed balcony railings. Some speculate that the noise may be caused by the scaffolding above Gristedes.
Burrous called the scaffolding company. The company insists that noise has nothing to do with their structure. On November 6, she persuaded the 84th branch to inspect the scaffolding. "The police won't be able to enter until Monday, but hopefully once they can shut down anything," she told NextDoor neighbors, who had formed a working group at this time.
However, the police did not reply to her on Monday. Burrous said that she called again and "had a pleasant conversation with the dispatcher," and the dispatcher complained that the noise in her own apartment was too loud.
Burrous even created a Tiktok account called "thebuzzbkheights" which contains videos about noise. "Unfortunately, it didn't take off," she said.
Owens said the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) is the only organization that takes noise complaints seriously. The BHA searched several buildings and ruled out the MTA building as a source of noise. They also contacted local officials and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). However, DEP inspectors “did not find that the noise was loud enough to issue notices of violations, and they were unable to find the source,” Owens said.
"At this point... it feels like sound will always be a part of our lives," Burrous said. "In the end, everyone is a suspect-MTA, street lights, neon lights above Gristed, parking lot."
On November 10, Taray Gill, assistant property manager at Cadman Towers, sent an optimistic email.
"We have narrowed the scope to the New York University dorms. We have high hopes that the dormitory administrators will be able to spot problems and resolve them before today," she wrote.
But the source of the noise was not the New York University dormitory, and the problem was not resolved that day.
So far, the management of Cadman Tower has become irritable because their inboxes are flooded with increasingly sharp complaints. Many neighbors insist that the noise comes from construction on the third floor deck. The management took some community buildings to supervise the third floor to prove that the noise did not come from there.
"At this point, we have spoken to every building that is super adjacent to Cadman and have been talking on most of their roofs. The only building to be investigated is the Plymouth Café," Egri Write to the working group. "Another possibility is the new MTA construction trailer parked on Henry; we tried to talk to the people there but did not cooperate."
NextDoor members reported that the mailbox of Cadman Towers was full and further emails were rejected.
Doba Potoskey enters the story
On November 11, a member of the NextDoor team sent a text message to Toba Potosky, who has been chairman of the board of Cadman Towers for 16 years. (Potoski stepped down to run for the city council in March last year.) The person who asked not to be named told him that she thought the mysterious voice might come from a cooling fan near Gristed. Potoskey walked to the area to listen, but soon realized that this suggestion would not work.
"Gristed has no cooling fan," he texted back. "It seems to be coming from the roof of Clark Street Station or the MTA trailer parked on Henry Street outside the dormitory."
"Toba, I shared your number with a few people nearby," the person replied.
"Ouch!" Potosky thought. In the coming days, "Oy" will become his theme.
Potosky called Super Davila and Egrie, not knowing that they had been involved in the noise problem for more than a week.
"They are struggling. Especially Julio, because the noise has always been in his apartment," Potoskey said. "I told them confidently that I would find it...Oh!"
Potosky is an audio engineer, responsible for an early morning TV show, usually wake up at 3 in the morning to work
"However, I woke up early the next day, took my iPhone, and started recording sound and video," he said. "I'm sure I can find the nasty chirps at that time in the morning. I started from where I stopped last time, and again above Gristed. The sound seems louder because the neighborhood is quieter.
"From above the supermarket, it still sounds like it came from across the street. I walked downstairs to the student dormitory and the MTA trailer, but the sound seemed to move. In fact, no matter where I went, the sound seemed It's all coming from the opposite direction. Plymouth Deli? No. Peas and pickles? No. Gristeds? No. MTA trailer? No."
Davila and Egri told Potoskey of the "unpleasant meeting" with local residents. noise. "It became very hot and the police were almost called in. Ouch!" he said.
Egri felt that she was the first to receive the anger of her neighbors. She said, "There are angry, annoying people calling, sending emails, breaking into my office, and swearing."
Cadman Towers spent “a lot of time searching for us and all nearby buildings,” Egrie said. "We set up and participated in numerous meetings with MTA, community committee liaisons, etc."
On November 17, Davila sent a drone to fly over the cooperative building. The next day, he walked around with GoPro, trying to check every corner of the scaffolding. Two high-tech attempts failed to locate the noise.
The breakthrough the community has been hoping for happened on November 18.
Potoskey received a text message from his wife Ronnie. "Get home soon. Stop and see if'X' [Name Conceal] is back from the trip."
"Tenant X" is a resident of Cadman Towers, who went on vacation a few weeks ago. X is an old friend of the Potoskey family, and Ronnie secretly suspects that X is somehow related to noise.
Potoskey recounted what happened next:
"After a while, someone knocked on my door and I was groping for the key. It was Ronnie. "We have the key for X, don't we? She asked.
"I knocked on [Tenant X's door], but there was no response. I asked Ronni if she thought something was wrong. She said she was not sure."
"Standing in the corridor of our lifelong friend, we heard a faint chirp from outside the door. "What sound is that? "Ronnie asked.
"X did not answer the door. I dialed X's cell phone number in the hallway. There was no response. Okay, I think. This may be one of them. Let's go in."
"I have opened the door. The humming sound is loud. Very loud. Very, very loud... The sound is harsh. I walked to the terrace and unplugged the Bird-X Super 100."
"My phone rang. X was the one who answered my call."
"Did you realize that you have been torturing Brooklyn Heights with your Bird-X pigeon-driving Super 100 sound machine?" I asked.
"X's first reaction was:'Nonsense.' My answer was: "Not nonsense. seriously. Torture. How long has this been? "
"I set it up before leaving. Two weeks," X said.
Ronnie Potoskey took a photo of the unit. It shows a Bird-X Transonic Pro small animal repellent system, which is priced at $35.49 at Target.
The device is installed on a high balcony, and the noise and noise emitted are very high, and only hearing-sensitive people can hear it. According to Target’s product description, Transonic Pro “combines sound and ultrasound” to eliminate pests, with an effective area of 3,500 square feet.
Researchers who study ultrasound say it poses a growing problem in urban space. Young people, some adult women, and other people with sharp hearing may be irritated or even nauseous by the noise.
Potoskey called the building management and told them that they finally solved the mystery.
"Mary and Julio met us in X's apartment," he said. "I turned the machine on and off so they could hear it.... Julio saw that the box was for rat poison. We don't have rats."
"Julio called me and said Toba had noticed the noise, and he was entering the elevator at the time," Owens told the Eagles. "I called Wilson and she filmed it from her fire escape. I watched it on the street and almost cried."
"The next day, Ronnie received flowers and various other gifts and gift cards," Potoskey said. "No surprise. She has been my hero for 30 years."
In retrospect, BHA’s Birnback said: “We couldn’t find the source of the noise, which made me a little crazy, even though it’s definitely not as crazy as someone who lives 24/7.
“When the source was discovered, the BHA had already obtained the help of three city agencies, an incoming city council member, and numerous construction directors and nearby residents,” she said. "I am very grateful to everyone who helped out, and of course Ronny Potoskey who ended the legend for everyone."
Owens said that these opposition groups "gathered many people in the vicinity together." “I’ve met super-rich people in almost every building nearby. Some people are really committed and want to help. It’s great.”
IPS News: The City Council passed a law unanimously last week to ensure that all city employees are automatically informed that they may be eligible for public service loan relief-whether under federal or state programs-and believe that student loan relief may change The long-term economic future of millions of American employees dedicated to public service.
Strengthening black-owned businesses: This Thursday, the "New York Christian Times" hosted "Renaissance: Rebuilding Black Businesses in 2022."
IPS News: New York Attorney General Letitia James is continuing to work to prevent the dismissal of the lawsuit brought by the National Rifle Association.
“Building a true recovery for our city requires forward-looking investment, prioritizing fair growth, especially in wealthy communities that have not historically been required to provide a fair share of New York City’s growth. The Gowanus Community Plan passed by the City Council today represents North Korea. A positive step towards this vision. It will create thousands of affordable housing, new open spaces, important investments in schools and transportation, etc."
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https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2021/12/06/search-for-mysterious-noise-in-brooklyn-heights-turns-into-massive-crowdsourced-investigation/
Brooklyn Daily Eagle and brooklyneagle.com report Brooklyn online 5 days a week, 5 days a week, and their motto is "Brooklyn all the time." Eagle's history can be traced back to 1841, and it is the only daily newspaper in New York City dedicated to Brooklyn.
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