One fantasy some people have is...being rich enough to enjoy a QUIET HOME. No neighbors being uncouth.
Ah yes, if you're RICH, you can afford to live among CLASSY people...
Today's headline underscores just how relevant Lennon's lyric still is: "GIVE PEACE A CHANCE."
The problem is worse than ever thanks to something called AIRBNB.
The story? Light heavyweight "Krusher" Kovalev is living in a home that apparently has been unsold for a year, but is now being leased to anyone who can pay the high price. And how do you afford the high price? Sub-lease the place for porn movie shoots and/or wild parties.
Meet you after the break...
Modern times are only making an age-old problem worse. How does one defend against loud parties when the tenants are not even tenants? They'll scoff at the cops IF the cops show up, scoff at a ticket (which is unlikely to even be written), and continue the abuse until they find someplace else to target.
In posh neighborhoods from Long Island to Beverly Hills, it's not uncommon for big homes to be leased for a one-nighter "rave," with people getting on social media and cell phones to give out the time and place. It's a form of audio terrorism. Neighbors have no idea if the event will get totally out of control and there will be violence...as opposed to drunken idiots propositioning dog walkers or slipping through open windows searching for more fun.
The police will say they have better things to do than send officers to quell a noisy party. Or, they MIGHT have better things to do, so let the officers stay at the precinct eating donuts. "Quality of life" is not a priority in this increasingly noisy, obnoxious and hedonistic world. Let's make that NOISIER, MORE OBNOXIOUS, MORE HOPELESSLY HEDONISTIC world.
Years ago, Johnny Carson had his hands full, and his ears full, because his neighbors, Sonny and Cher, could not or would not control their barking dogs.
The sense of "entitlement" among the rich is just as irritating as the boorishness of the poor. BOTH love their NOISE and don't think they're having a good time unless they are shouting at each other, laughing like hyenas, and blasting the music. Why have a party in a disco when you can turn your home into one?
Tony Randall knew he was one of the lucky ones. He lived in a solidly constructed old building on Manhattan's West Side. The walls were so thick he didn't hear his neighbors, and they didn't have to hear his opera records.
While New York City apartments technically must comply with the "warrantee of habitability," and the quiet enjoyment of one's apartment, as boisterous fictional Ralph Kramden could tell you, "a man's home is his castle..." but more often it's his prison. He's stuck trying to sleep while the floors or walls throb to a disco beat. He's stuck listening to barking dogs and bawling babies.
The notion of SOUNDPROOFING is dismissed as absurd, and something only neurotics need. Meanwhile scientists and psychologists have proven how dangerous unwanted sound can be. It raises stress and blood pressure. It creates anger and depression. It makes people irritable and unproductive at work. The natural environment is a quiet one, with noise, such as THUNDER, coming as a danger warning. That's why noise triggers such an adverse reaction in most normal people. To put it mildly, noise annoys.
Now that AIRBNB has become so popular, the indifference to noise is getting even worse. The excuse of "letting off some steam on the weekends" now includes "what's wrong with making some money by throwing a party?"
Kovalev, fortunately for him, was in the hospital recovering from a knockout loss at the time his home was converted into a disco. His neighbors were the ones suffering the all-night headaches.
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