Their homes are shake, rattle and rolling. Rockaways residents living near the $3.7 million Beach 94th Street Amphitheater say live music at the venue has made life a living hell since it opened last year.
“We’re in our homes with our doors shut, our AC on and our TV on, and it’s insufferable,” said Joe O’Sullivan, 59, a retired FDNY firefighter who lives less than 300 feet from the amphitheater with his wife, Helena. The couple captured video of their home’s interior shaking from the thumping of dance music blaring from the Soulful House Brothers festival on July 28. “It was my medicine cabinet shaking, and all the stuff in it.
It was weird. I couldn’t believe,” Helena said. “We’ve had construction done over the years since [Hurricane] Sandy, and we’ve never had that.
“You can only call 311 so many times,” she added. Since opening in May 2023 , there have been at least one hundred music-related 311 calls near the amphitheater, which is run by the Parks Department and can hold at least 300 people, although residents said they have not done any decibel readings of the noise. The venue has been a popular stage for local musicians such as French-language rockers Les San Culottes and the Rambones, a Ramones tribute band Locals said just a quarter of the dozens of events held at the amphitheater are “beautiful, outstanding, tear-jerking [performances] .
. . that do bring people together.
” “The other 75% keep people away because it’s so loud, you can’t exist in the vicinity of the space and have any conversation,” said Erin Silvers, 45, who lives three houses away. “My dog goes into hiding for days at a time. It’s like the Fourth of July at all hours of the day.
It’ll start at 10 in the morning and go til 10 at night,” she said, noting “it’s much louder this year than it was last year.” Neighbors cried that the city has ignored the noise they’ve been making — but giving the performers carte blanche with their performances. “The Parks Department isn’t regulating the performers, they are letting them go wild,” Joe O’Sullivan said.
When Parks’ Rockaway Administrator Eric Peterson was asked one night by frustrated residents to shut off huge speakers being powered by generators, in violation of the event permit rules, he allegedly told fed-up residents, “‘It’s a dance party, come join the party,'” according to Joe O’Sullivan “I said, ‘I’ve got it in my living room and I’m not enjoying it and want it to stop,'” the frustrated resident recalled. “He refuses to enforce the laws of the permits, the rules.” Peterson has not served the community, said Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), whose district covers the Rockaways.
“When he is contacted, largely by residents and our office, he has either been arrogant or flippant or condescending and has told residents complaining on the block to sit back and enjoy the music,” she said. The situation has gotten so bad that the Rockaway Beach Civic Association held a vote of no confidence in Peterson on Aug. 1 and called for his removal.
Judd Faulkner, a Parks Department spokesman, said that the agency is aware of the noise complaints stemming from the amphitheater and “working on solutions which will allow us to closely monitor activities at this space while still providing the cultural events that this space was intended to host.”.
