Noise complaints by noise type and Council district. 2014-2018 and 2018
All noise complaints to 311 over the five years from 2014 through 2018, grouped by council district and broken down by type of noise. There were a total of 2.02 million noise complaints to 311 during this period; across 9 different types of noise. The second graphic is similar, but only for the year 2018. Not quite sure how to read this graphic? Scroll down for an explanation.
How to read this heatmap
The number on the left of each row represents the council district. The columns represent types of noise complaints to 311. The color in a cell represents the number of complaints of that type from that district. The legend/temperature scale on the right shows the relative numbers. Light blue represents fewer, and red means more numbers of noise complaints. Glancing down the column for “Noise – Residential”, you can see that almost all districts have a problem with it. Followed by noise from the street/sidewalk or commercial establishments, and a residual category of “Noise”(which would be noise of a type not covered by the other eight.) Vehicular noise seems to not be a big problem, but as I discussed elsewhere, people not filing complaints does not mean there is no problem. I think the typical NYer’s attitude to honking is some combination of shaking their head, cussing, flip the bird, and keep walking.
These heatmaps can help identify the more problematic types of noise complaints within your own council district, as well as how noisy it is compared to other council districts. All three districts in Staten Island (49, 50, and 51), for example, don’t seem to have much of a problem with noise.
Below is a similar graphic, but relating only to 2018. Overall, when it comes to noise, the five-year and the 2018 heat maps look very similar. If you look closely you will see the reds are deeper reds in 2018, with long tannins and a hint of berries (are you awake check). There were a total of 435,405 noise complaints to 311 during the year, across the 9 categories of noise.
311 data from NYC Open Data.
