While we’ve heard a lot about the folks on the Upper East Side who are living amidst subway construction, stories of those impacted by the 7 line work are few and far better. In its “NY1 For You” report this week, though, the local news station highlighted a couple who have been dealing with the noise since they moved in May. The story though is hardly a sympathetic one.
Renters Anjanette Clisura and Dominic Sinesio moved from California in the beginning of May into the new MiMA building on 42nd Street, but not before asking about the huge construction site right outside their window. “They said that the MTA was doing the 7 line extension but don’t worry everything stops at 6 o’clock,” Clisura said. It didn’t take long for these renters to realize that wasn’t the case. “I’ve hardly slept for 16 nights,” Clisura said.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s construction company has a 24-hour work permit which was issued in November. NY1 contacted the MTA and a spokesman told us the need for overnight work should gradually subside and end at some point in the fall…[A spokeswoman] told us that their realtors only represent to residents the hours of construction they control. She says they can’t speak to adjacent projects.
So essentially, a couple moved into an apartment above a long-term construction site, were reportedly lied to by their rental agent and now are finding that subway work is indeed disruptive. I certainly am sympathetic toward the plight of those who have been living amidst organized (or disorganized) chaos along Second Ave., but people who move into construction areas without adequately preparing themselves for the experience aren’t the types of sob stories over which I shed too many tears.
11 comments
They were lied to by their agent? In New York? Unbelievable!
It’s also unbelievable that the 7 Extension, with its deleted second station and HUGE cost along with a relatively very low transit rider population would have ever been approved just a few years later.
Thinking changes and realities control the outcome.
It’s not clear what you mean by “without adequately preparing themselves for the experience”.
How were they supposed to KNOW that the agent was lying?
His lips were moving.
Ask around. People who flat-out believe anything a real estate agent says without doing their research pretty much get what they deserve.
that’s quite unfair. they didn’t go in blindly, they did ask, they were lied to, what was their situation in CA that they should know how to deal with NY? yes they could have asked neighbors, if they saw any during their apt visit, or the doorman, sure, but nobody “deserve[s]” this.
sorry, for ‘blindly’ read ‘blithely’.
Well, instead of asking if the noise stops at 6pm, just go check out the neighborhood after dark themselves? I’d never rent a place without going there to walk around a bit at odd hours — after all, I’ll be living there.
They’re actually in better shape than the ones in Long Island City who bought condos near the LIRR yard and are now mad about the noise of the engines in the rail yard that’s been there for about 150 yards. Odds are that yard’s not going away, while the new tunnel for the 7 will be almost completely invisible once the work ends a few years from now (which is actually another negative, since by rights, there should be a station entrance at 10th Avenue under the original Mayor Mike plan).
Didn’t you mean a century and a half, instead of a football field and a half?
No, they’re not in better shape. Subway noise is a fact of construction. Train idling is a consequence of steam-era LIRR practices.