massive automotive meetups <\/a>are becoming an ever-more frequent nuisance.<\/p>\nThe unregulated revelries are often louder than planes landing at LaGuardia and feature drugs, booze, strippers and wet t-shirt contests, all within earshot of neighborhoods such as Maspeth in Queens, Greenpoint in Brooklyn and Throggs Neck in the Bronx, residents said.<\/p>\n
NYPD officers approaching a vehicle equipped with speakers in Maspeth, Queens. Alicia Vaichunas<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds like a missile being launched at your home from all directions,\u201d said Astoria resident Jay Cane, 40. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou know it will be a long night when the windows are vibrating.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shut your windows and turn on air conditioners and fans to drown out the noise, even in the winter,\u201d the frustrated local said.<\/p>\n
The events, which got their start during the COVID-19 pandemic, often last all hours of the night, as sounds blast from gigantic car-mounted speakers referred to as \u201ckitipo\u201d systems.<\/p>\n
Residents tormented by the noise of the illicit meetups \u2014 which can feature dozens of cars paying to participate \u2014 said the city and cops are having little luck cracking down on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a sense we\u2019re being forgotten by the city because we have exhausted all the options it has provided, and we\u2019re losing hope,\u201d Cane said.<\/p>\n
A Honda car in Maspeth, Queens, with a speaker attached to the roof for a car meetup Ben Tifa<\/p>\n
John DiMario, co-owner of Village Chapels funeral home in Middle Village, said the ruckus
could wake the dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt booms off every surface in my house,\u201d said DiMario, who lives in Maspeth. \u201cIt\u2019s been going
on for so long, and lately, it\u2019s starting earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alfredo Centola, co-founder of the nonprofit We Love Whitestone, said he and his family deal several times a week with intrusive noise from unlawful rendezvous in Willets Point and World\u2019s Fair Marina in Queens, as well as Ferry Point in The Bronx.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a constant and consistent boom, boom, boom overnight,\u201d said Centola, 54. \u201cIt\u2019s the most frustrating experience in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fireworks getting set off at a car meetup in Ozone Park, Queens, earlier this year. Instagram\/shottbyzay._<\/p>\n
Locals said the events\u2019 organizers assemble in Industrial Business Zones and \u201cmixed-use\u201d areas that are abandoned at night. There have been large-scale meetups outside of Vaughn College in East Elmhurst, Queens, and Maspeth\u2019s UPS Customer Center, as well as on Randall\u2019s Island \u2014 within walking distance of NYPD parking.<\/p>\n
The gatherings also feature the illegal sale of \u201cnutcrackers,\u201d a street cocktail made of alcohol and fruit punch, and \u201cendless pot smoking,\u201d neighbors claim.<\/p>\n
In one case, there have been reports of roughly 10 cars equipped with roaring stereos, synchronized by Bluetooth, routinely gathering in Greenpoint underneath the Kosciuszko Bridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is noise three or four times a week when there aren\u2019t events in \u2018Under The K Bridge Park,\u2019 \u201d said Natalia Rzeszutek, 23, of eastern Greenpoint. \u201cIt\u2019s mostly on weekends, but you have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights where this has been a big issue,\u201d too.<\/p>\n
In The Bronx, Friends of Ferry Point Park President Dorothea Poggi\u00a0said these intolerable meetups frequently invade areas around the park, creating \u201ca hot spot for crime\u201d where things sometimes turn violent.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are making big money using the park and the streets as a venue; they aren\u2019t paying the overhead to host a party, but they charge hundreds of people admission,\u201d Poggi said. \u201cThere are drugs and alcohol; they\u2019ve had strippers and wet t-shirt contests; there was even sex going on \u2013 it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
An upcoming epic meetup \u2013 touted as an \u201coutdoor music car show battle\u201d \u2013 is planned for July 13 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Jamaica, Queens. An online ticket-seller lists general admission as $25, while the cost for vendors is more than $535.<\/p>\n
A fire set at a car meetup in Brooklyn. Instagram\/shottbyzay._<\/p>\n
Centola, Poggi and Rzeszutek are all members of the Facebook group \u201cThat Annoying Bass Sound Throughout NYC,\u201d which Cane created to share tips about the illegal noise compromising their comfort.<\/p>\n
When meetups occur, page members request that people place 311 calls in the hope that their reports will be prioritized.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe group was formed by fed-up residents who want to end the underground meetups,\u201d Cane said. \u201cWe\u2019re all waiting for legislation to address these illegal speakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
A car seen doing donuts at a Queens car meetup. Instagram\/shottbyzay._<\/p>\n
Alicia Vaichunas, deputy chief of staff for city Councilman Robert Holden and a candidate for city council herself, lives near a regular nuisance in Maspeth and is active in the Facebook group. She said a Maspeth woman who tried to confront the source of the noise was threatened with a baseball bat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis happens at three or four Maspeth locations alone,\u201d Vaichunas said. \u201cIf the police chase them, they\u2019ll switch locations, and then we have to get the cops back out there again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March 2024, Holden introduced a bill that would have increased civil penalties for unreasonable noise from personal audio devices. He said there has been success in curbing parties in some parks but adds that the NYPD needs more power to mute the meetups.<\/p>\n
An NYPD vehicle getting attacked at an Ozone Park meetup this year. Instagram\/ksoostayoutside<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve been doing on the local level is trying to get the police to confiscate,\u201d Holden said. \u201cI told police Commissioner Tisch that the local precincts cannot handle this; we need a special task force.\u201d <\/p>\n
The NYPD did not return Post requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, a member of Holden\u2019s Common-Sense Caucus, said a new law is needed to prevent illegal car stereos from hitting the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe proposed to make it illegal to operate a vehicle in New York State with a non-factory sound system installed which utilizes an external power supply,\u201d Paladino said. \u201cThis would make these cars impossible to register and inspect and subject them to impoundment if found in use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents and officials hope that the NYPD\u2019s new Quality of Life Division<\/a>, which launched Labor Day weekend, will help muffle the noise-causing car-speaker showdowns.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019d like to see the Quality of Life units roll out in Queens and The Bronx first to address illegal parties,\u201d Cane said. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s a constant headache.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve heard just about enough of this. Ear-splitting, high-decibel street parties fueled by cars with booming sound systems…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,2332,22876,5248,405,403,5226,5225,22877,5228,5227,13047,4413,5305,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-25873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-car","11":"tag-greenpoint","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-noise","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-quality-of-life","21":"tag-queens","22":"tag-the-bronx","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-us-news","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114769660675197309","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}