THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU MOVE TO WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

North Side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn continues with its construction boom. How can I not know it, when I have to suffer the construction noises from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.? In fact, the construction site across from me starts to torture us even at 6 in the morning and extends often its week of work to Saturdays, what appears to violate the NYC regulations. Recently it looks like also the South Side is coming to life. Nothing wrong with it, you might say...Indeed, Williamsburg has already lost its raw, industrial character, so appealing to artists of early 1990-s, and has become now the hipsters' paradise. It seems that there is no space left for new waterholes yet with every new stroll through my neighborhood I still can uncover a new café, a restaurant or a bar which wasn't there a month ago. The bulk of recent constructions are housing projects, majority of them targeting middle or upper middle class folks. However, recently a plan has been filed for a 36-floor commercial Tower to be built at the site of now defunct Domino Sugar Factory, just north of Williamsburg Bridge, on the bank of East River, containing also 392 housing units. Soon, additional towers are planned to be built at the Domino refinery site, creating eventually a three million square feet of commercial and residential space, some for lower income inhabitants. In the meantime, until the last Sunday, the industrial space of the Domino Sugar Factory has been used by Kara Walker for her installation called "A Subtlety", a huge sculpture and a massive "sugar coated homage" to African-American women and to the slave laborers who built the 19th century sugar trade, as described by the New York Times. The installation, which opened in May and closed last Sunday, brought approximately 100,000 people to the old Domino refinery, among them mayor de Blasio with family, Jodi Foster, Julianne Moore and other notable celebrities. Now, the exhibit is gone, and soon, the old buildings will be gone as well, giving space to the new commercial and residential complex. In the meantime, the inhabitants of Williamsburg have to suffer the construction noises on daily basis, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and often much longer. Slowly, I am losing my patience and... hearing. Even though I never dealt as an attorney with the construction noise perhaps it is the time look over those NYC construction noise regulations?

Janusz Andrzejewski, is a New York City based attorney, writing on legal and other community important topics. You can contact him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or by e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com