Ive here. Lambert thought I should elevate this comment from NY reader jr to a post. I found the second half of his story, the tenant’s refusal to do anything about the unbearable (and correctable) noise level, remarkable. New York City actually has very strict tenant laws. Downloading an app to measure decibel levels is not difficult now. It would be a slam dunk of complaints if the noise was at a “hearing hazard” level. There may also be building codes that state that the maximum level will definitely be slightly below the “hazardous” level. I can’t fathom this manifestation of learned helplessness, especially in a city where complaints, formal ones included, are almost a movement. But as Frederick Douglass wrote:

Find out what anyone will quietly succumb to and you will discover the exact extent of the injustice and wrong imposed on them that will continue until they are spoken or struck, or both.

In any event, a resignation of this magnitude does not bode well for any kind of collective action. If you can’t get citizens to solve immediate problems, how can you possibly get them to solve bigger, fewer problems?

PS. I had a “rat in the restaurant” incident similar to the jr cockroach story many years ago, but I’ll spare you.

little reader, from Link April 22, 2022

So I was recently told by a good friend to try a new pita joint in Brooklyn. I love me some falafel etc. So I hiked through town to pick up my phone call. I was mouthwashed, N95ed, nose flushed in my pocket, but apparently everyone but me thought COVID was over. So I was hanging out and the place was busy and I knew it was going to be a wait.

The line inside was shortened and I took my chance. The food looked good, people were flabbergasted with relish, and phone lines dropped. Seamless orders everywhere. They even have my favorite soda. I am very happy to find a new “place”.

At this moment, under the gaze of everyone, a chubby cockroach decided to take the stage and leisurely walked across the table. I was stunned, waiting to see the reactions of the people around me. I have turned and walked towards the door.

No one blinked. If they were blind, they couldn’t have missed the fu(king thing. Everyone went into “I didn’t see that.” mode, which I could tell because everyone was locked up but kept staring ahead or turning around Turn around or whatever. Only I actually saw this thing fall off behind the counter. The owner was leaning on it and didn’t even flinch. Incredible.

Walking home and returning empty-handed, I recalled a memory. Before I left Manhattan, my partner and I moved from our smaller apartment into a small apartment for only a few months. This was the winter two years ago. My partner went out of state to care for her mother for three full months after undergoing a serious surgery. I am alone in this place. Some of you may remember my rather crazy comments from that time, about Steve Pinker and voodoo superstitions made from human hair. I am lonely and stressed.

It’s nothing compared to my state of mind when the noise started. As the weather got colder, the roof vents of a restaurant downstairs began to screech. The colder the weather, the worse it gets. I called the landlord and they pretended not to know they were the landlord of the restaurant downstairs. I called the city and they pretended to send inspectors and then they wrote a report saying they found nothing during the fake inspection. I have an app on my phone that records decibel levels and it tells me that I have the equivalent of a Shop-Vac running 24/7 out of my window. I stuffed a yoga mat, quilt, foam pad, etc. in the window and it was still numbing. I’m really starting to lose my $hit like in a manic episode and talking to myself.

So I decided to have the other tenants on my side. The noise in the hallway is even worse than in my apartment, it really rings in your ears. It has to drive everyone else crazy, right?

Incorrect. Everyone claims they can’t hear anything. One neighbor looked surprised when I mentioned it. Another said she didn’t notice it until I brought it up, and even as we stood in the hallway, the surrounding air vibrated with its power. Others said something to the effect that they weren’t going to spend a lot of time at home anyway. No one even had a vague interest in doing anything, and I mentioned calling the city in a non-aggressive way and got a lot of noncommittal looks and nods.

Only a little old lady on the first floor knew, or admitted she knew, what I was talking about. She said it’s been going on for years and will never be fixed because it would cost the landlord tens of thousands of dollars to take down the old ventilation system, etc. and replace it. She was safe on the first floor, but she didn’t know how the others put up with it. She used to live on a higher floor, but it, along with some other issues, drove her to the first floor.

I consider myself rather bored and cynical, and I am blown away by this behavior. I can’t handle it. When my partner got home the noise started to subside and she didn’t think much of it until I removed the filler from the window and she was like “D@mn”. The bottom line is that people can ignore almost anything, can justify almost anything, and believe almost anything, as long as it keeps their illusions about stability. their sense of normalcy. Their prime location digs.

This bodes well for trouble ahead. No one is going to do a single thing to help themselves or others if it means breaking the illusions they have paid so much for. Did I mention that all my neighbors, except the little old lady, are firmly in the PMC? It was mentioned above how they could ignore the fact that Biden is a staggering corpse, and he blurted out the illogical fact that nuclear war gave rise to it. I think they’ll ignore more until it really hurts, and then they’ll slam the nearest target. UberEats stops answering calls when they feel hungry or thirsty.