Photo credit: Karolina Grabowska
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies
New Yorkers deal with noise every day, whether it’s from traffic, construction or airplanes. Over the years, this noise has taken a toll on their mental and physical health. Scientific and medical research has clearly demonstrated that noise adversely affects our health and well-being. Most of the noise that New Yorkers experience comes from outdoor sources, as they walk the streets or travel on the city’s public transit system. Unfortunately, too many New York residents are also impacted by noise in their own homes.
Some of these impacts could be lessened. Neighbors could turn down the volume, music venues could lower the sound levels and certain events could happen indoors rather than outdoors — such as shooting ranges. Even if a shooting range is outdoors, the sounds emanating from the shooting range could be lessened.
In Jason Cohen’s BronxTimes article, we learn that the New York Police Department is moving most of its Rodman’s Neck shooting range indoors. Residents living near the range, some of whom are police officers, are pleased that an indoor range will be opening. We also learn that locals were promised that the current range would be “baffled,” or fitted with sound-proofing infrastructure, but it never happened. Residents living on City Island have been “plagued” by loud gun shots for years, and are hoping that the future shooting range will be completely soundproofed.
With all the knowledge we have about the adverse effects of noise on health, as well as the knowledge of how to lessen noise impacts, did it really have to take so many years of mayoral promises of soundproofing (dating back to Mayor David Dinkins in the 90s) to finally get an indoor shooting range? Let’s hope that construction will be done quickly.
