hey everyone, i've been reading this blog for a few months now, and finally joined. i've been living in fishtown for about two years, bought my house in may of 2002, and i'm looking for some advice about a reoccuring problem. there's a pretzel joint named furfari's pretzels a few doors down from me on the 2000 block of frankford ave. yes, they make those lovely soft (hard) pretzels, and from what i understand they've been here a long time. this issue here is that they start making their pretzels at about 2:30 in the morning, and they leave the front doors open all night. fine, i like pretzels, you like pretzels, but these people scream at each other all night long (i'm not exaggerating, they SCREAM at each other, "f this, f that, etc") and their machines are a cacaphony of grinding metal. i attempted to speak with them when i first moved in, to let them know that a few of the abandoned houses on the block now have people living in them, maybe they could close the doors...yea, that helped, "you wanna call the f'in cops, go ahead f'er!" a friendly neighborhood greeting. so i have called the cops on numerous occasions, but to no avail...the cops buy pretzels there every day! anyone have any suggestions? these people keep me up every single night!

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www.honeymoonmusic.com

First, kudos for doing the right thing and going to the employees first.
Next, I'd suggest going to management/ownership.
If that doesn't work, then it's time to get the city involved...

Noises – from clubs, bars or factories
Health Department – Air Management
215 823 7583

This is taken from a list published a few years ago by one of the newspapers. (I think the Daily News. Maybe the Star.) It has appeared in a variety of forms since then. It's currently on the FNA site @ http://pages.ivillage.com/fishtownneighbors/id6.html (titled "Useful Numbers"). I might put a version of it up on http://fishtown.us sometime in the future.

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http://fishtown.us - Live in, work in, or care about Fishtown? Then visit fishtown.us!
http://summerfield.org - Summerfield's Website

Ok, so I assume you're acclimated to the general background of urban sounds- cars, sirens etc

Ok, as to the screaming -

You've got 2 points of attack here
1) stop them making the noise,
2) stop you from being woken up by the noise.

1) stop the noise
To get them to change? that'll be difficult, you'd have to get some fairly consistent neighborhood pressure on them - the problem is it's hard to get neighborhood opinion against them with few people in the neighborhood- it's an uphill battle, but it can still be done.


1) stop the noise
The machines are an even harder matter - it's probably going to be difficult to get newer quiter machines- until they're ready to upgrade the business- that's always difficult to do.

It could be that the machinery isn't well cared for, out of alignment, poorly serviced etc - that's something you might just call the owner,
ask if they'd thought of that - upgrading equipment, servicing equipment.
-- add in something that resonates with the business aspect rather than a complaint aspect.

You can't do too much to help there, aside from keeping an eye out for somebody that might want their noisy 2nd hand equipment - and thus get them thinking about buying newer, more efficient, quieter equipment-

Well, the main suggestion, short term, is to reduce the effect their sound has- that can be ear plugs, white noise CD, yoga before going to sleep, jogging before going to sleep-

It's amazing how soundly you sleep when you're tired, relaxed or both.
For example, about 3 years ago, I did a 110 mile canoe trip from Pottsville coal country down to Boathouse Row in Philly - It's a neat event, arranged by one of the river groups. You paddle the entire navigible length of the Schuylkill River- paddle all day, at night you camp in a tent in whatever riverfront park they can find. The last day, just outside Philadlephia, you camp at Flatrock Park- just off the Gladwyne exit-
close to the river, but even closer to the noisy Schuylkill Expressway,
and right beside the CSX mainline freight line.

It's amazing, all the people who were just starting couldn't get to sleep because of the noise- all the people who just spent all day paddling the canoe slept right throught the CSX freight train barrelling through at 50 mph-

Another thing-

invest in a set of the foam ear plugs - that will "soften" the sounds - they usually drop things by 15 or 20 decibels and that's enough for you to ignore annoying sounds -

That can be a problem in itself if you need a loud alarm to wake up,
but there are ways around that - if light wakes you up, put in light on a timer along with the normal alarm clock, if smell wakes you up get a little krupp coffee pot that automatically turns on-


Believe me, I know about blocking out sound, I had roofers putting on a new roof right at the same time I was cramming for the bar exam and
trying to take timed tests -

It should have been a problem concentrating with a gas air compressor running outside the window, guys yelling, pneumatic hammers all day-

I found that I could mask the noise and be able to study by

1) put on a white noise CD
2) block the sound
I used ear plugs 29 db foam earplugs (with the roofers direclty overhead, I put on those 20 db hearing protectors as well- but that's with guys running a pneumatic nail gun directly overhead)
3) learn a little meditation, relax, focus, center, do a little stretching


So, for the short term I'd suggest trying a mix of those things,
exercise to fatigue, put on the white noise, get a shower and relax,
put in earplugs, see how it works.

Hal

I second the earplugs, at least as an immediate fix; they've helped me keep my sanity many times over the years. That's how I was able to get any sleep when I lived in an Animal House-style frat in college. And later, living in an apt in QV with paper thin walls...upstairs neighbor hosted Dance Party USA up there pretty much 24-7. And more recently, with an assisted living facility being built across the street from me for the past year.

Thanks for the ideas guys, i found one that will be a permanent fix. one of my roomates moved out of his room in the rear of the house, bam, room switch and no more pretzel noise.

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www.honeymoonmusic.com