SPECTACLE, NOISE POLLUTION and SECURITY

It is July 4th and the fireworks on the Hudson River are spectacularly exploding.  Earlier today, the bike path on the Hudson River Park Greenway was closed and the entire bikepath downtown filled with police activity cordoning off the area in anticipation of the MACY's fireworks.  New Yorkers love a good firework display.  The sound of fireworks in New York City however have a very different impact on many residents.  Since September 11, 2001, the sound of fireworks has conflated with the sound of war in a tactile way.  Despite the rationale of festivity and celebration, a sense of ominous foreboding creeps into the home at the sound and ricochetting of explosions.  This ongoing issue of sound anxiety triggered by fireworks for downtown Manhattan residents really surfaced when Rupert Murdoch's wedding bash on the New York waterfront right after September 11, 2001 concluded with a riotous firework display on the river that shook buildings, triggered off alarms and woke up sleeping babies.  For many of us, the implications of the United States's strategy of "shock and awe" and perpetual state of orange alert in New York City left no room for humor at the hideous display of uncivic insensitivity by Murdoch's crew.  Since then, fireworks invoke security anxieties- downtown New York is viscerally affected by the sound of fireworks.  Buildings shake.  The walls quake.  The sensation evokes the impact of buildings falling down.  It disrupts our quality of life outside special events like July 4 and Gay Pride celebrations, which are annual city rituals. Private firework displays of greed and wealth should not be permitted to disrupt the shared public air spaces of dense cities like New York City after September 11.