Politics
New Yorkers Who Live Next to a Stadium Say They Can’t Take It Anymore
Noise complaints by residents of Forest Hills Gardens, an enclave in Queens that hugs Forest Hills Stadium, have led to legal wrangling and petitions.
Today we’ll look at Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, where concerts have taken the place of the U.S. Open, to the dismay of some residents. We’ll also get details on a new lawsuit that seeks to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the November ballot in New York.
Alan Fierstein, an acoustic consultant, monitoring noise levels near Forest Hills Stadium in Queens.Credit…Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times
The noise meters were on again over the weekend in Forest Hills Gardens, an enclave in Queens that hugs Forest Hills Stadium.
The neighborhood had been quiet since late June, free of the concerts that regularly fill the 100-year-old stadium — and anger residents who say that noise spills out and disrupts their evenings. That changed on Friday, when the Australian rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard began a two-night gig.
“The thunder, the rattling, the shaking windows — this is what people are complaining about,” said Alan Fierstein, an acoustic consultant hired by several residents to measure sound levels in their homes during the concert. At one house a little less than 600 feet from the stage, he said, the music regularly violated the city’s noise code.
The homeowner, Douglas Gilbert, said that during some concerts, “the windows rattle constantly for two or three hours.” He said that he had noticed doors shaking, and that during a concert last year, a chandelier in the front hall jiggled.
