I woke last night at 1 am and then again at 2:30 am because of shouting on the street.
Due to some massive and elaborate scaffolding outside my window — another city hazard — I couldn’t see what was going on, so I crept towards my front door.
My husband was asleep on the couch. He often falls asleep in front of the TV (Parkinsons!) So without back up, I headed across the lobby in my barefeet and pajamas (PJ bottoms and a red tee shirt from the Rethink Church campaign emblazoned with the message, “Impact the Community”).
One of the doormen, E., appeared at my side. Doormen are great back up!
E. said he’d already called the cops once.
It was a drunken party on a stoop across the street.
“Guys,” I yelled, because there were about 12 guys shouting and one woman in a red dress shushing.
“C’mon, keep it down,” I yelled. “We have kids sleeping around here,” I said that. I did. I played the “kids’ sleeping here” card.
E. told me, “A group of people, led by the woman in the red dress, got out of a Columbia University ambulance. They were honking and yelling and left the flashers on in front of the building.” That must’ve been my 1 am wake up call.
We turned to go. The guys grumbled, but began to disperse.
One ran across the street to catch me.
His eyes were glassy. “I was having a party and my friends started destroying the pillar on the steps.” He wanted sympathy. I did too.
“Okay…Be neighborly,” I said. “Quiet the party down. People are sleeping.” I’m a huge fan of sleep (and I’ve written about Mommy Needs Sleep.)
If you live in the country, the sounds of nature, like dogs and birds, may wake you, but here in the city, it’s laughter, yammering, stolen ambulances and vandalism.
To cover your back you need back up.
I woke last night to the sound of thunder. How far off I sat and wondered – Bob Seger
100 Days of Poems and Pics 
I know exactly what you mean. My husband and I were thrilled when we moved to Harlem, New York. The real problem is that we moved next door to a “nonprofit” called The Mama Foundation. The Mama Foundation operates with a complete disregard for the quality of life and health of its neighbors. Housed in a brownstone on a residential block, the Mama Foundation is so noisy that the police have been called several times. The Mama Foundation has also been warned by the Department of Environmental Protection, but it continues to behave with a callous indifference to its neighbors. Youths loiter on neighboring homes, and noise on some Friday nights, Saturday afternoons and even sometimes Sunday is horrible. The only thing that is important to the Mama Foundation is to exploit naive young people and abuse neighbors in its tawdry clutch at second-hand fame. Next time, stick around to learn about the noise!