Late Night Street Noise Divides Morris Heights Neighbors

“It’s unbearable. Sometimes it won’t stop until three or four in the morning,” Maria Acevedo said. Acevedo lives in Morris Heights. After 10 p.m., her neighborhood seems split into two groups, the people who go to sleep and want a peaceful rest, and those who enjoy the nightlife on the street. While lights are out in some apartments and the windows are dark, other neighbors come together and set up chairs on the sidewalk. They turn up the volume on their speakers and sit talking and laughing for hours. 

That means in Morris Heights, the night doesn’t truly end, it changes shape. Some find relaxation in the quiet of their bedrooms, others in the rhythm of music and conversation outside. 

But what feels like community to some has become a disturbance to others. Maria Acevedo lives a few minutes from Burnside Avenue with her 8-year-old daughter in a building that faces the noisy middle of the night scene.  

I have to get up at seven,” Acevedo said. Her concern reflects the feelings of others in the neighborhood who cherish their rest. “It disrupts our sleep and makes the mornings harder,” she said.

The top 311 complaint in Morris Heights and Mount Hope is for “street/sidewalk” noise complaints. There have been 159 noise complaints since August 2024, according to the New York State Comptroller. Throughout the Bronx, there has been a slight increase in noise complaints in the past year without a solid explanation of why. Those accused of making noise in Morris Heights and Mount Hope can explain it clearly.

 it seems cultural. Antony Ramirez likes to sit in front of the deli near his apartment on University Avenue with his friends and kids on the weekends. “I moved here a few years ago and there were still other people outside. I’d come down sometimes to sit with them,” he said in Spanish.

Antony and others see the late night, early morning gatherings as a form of release from the pressures of the day.

To him, these nights aren’t about being loud, they’re about being together. “It’s how we relax,” he said. “Everyone’s tired from work or school, so we sit outside, talk, and forget about the stress.”

Ramirez says those evenings bring comfort. It’s a way to feel part of something and remember that life continues even when the daylight ends.

Walking through the neighborhood, it’s easy to see both sides. One street corner glow brightly with music and voices, while the next is silent, you hear only the hum of passing cars.