New York City is nicknamed ‘The City That Never Sleeps’ – it is a bustling community full of culture, life, excitement, and therefore, noise and noise complaints. In this research, I aim to answer the question: When and where were New Yorkers having loud parties in 2024?
To this end, the dataset “311 Service Requests from 2010 to present” was sourced from NYCOpenData. The data documents complaints made to 311 either by phone, mobile, online, or other by people in New York City. These complaints vary widely from potholes in the street to animals being neglected, to illegal parking in front of fire hydrants. However, for the presenting research, I am only looking at complaints described specifically as ‘Loud Music/Party’. Other complaints were included in the dataset in order to standardize the percentage of loud party complaints. Additionally, only complaints made from January 1st, 2024, to December 31st, 2024, were gathered. The variable ‘Incident Zip’ and ‘Borough’ were used to visualize where the complaint incidents took place. Lastly, the geographic data of ‘Latitude’ and ‘Longitude’ were included to assist in creating maps in Tableau.
It is important to note that this dataset represents a record of people complaining about certain instances. It is not an objective representation of the actual number of loud parties taking place in New York City. Rather, it is a representation of instances that bothered another person enough to make the complaint to 311. Additionally, it is important to note that by just looking at 2024, we cannot fully assume seasonal trends but can make inferences about that year only.
To further visualize when and where loud parties are occurring, the following maps show the total number of loud party complaints by zip code. Darker colors denote more party complaints. The maps can be manipulated to show complaints made within each quarter of the year of 2024.
This first map shows something quite striking – in quarters 3 and 4, there is an incredibly disproportionate amount of loud party complaints made in the zip code 10466 in the Bronx. Could this be only a handful of parties with hundreds or even thousands of complaints? Could it truly be an area where people are partying that often? Are there specific holidays during those months that contribute? Though this shows a very interesting phenomenon, it does not allow us to visualize the smaller variations of the other zip codes in other boroughs, as 10466 has manipulated the scale. To this end, the second map excludes 10466 as an outlier, allowing us to see pockets of loud party complaints in areas such as Harlem and the South Bronx as well as central Brooklyn.
It seems through this research that folks in the Bronx had many loud parties in 2024 and/or felt bothered enough to complain about loud music. Additionally, it is clear that throughout the city, people are partying in June, September, and October the most. This information may be useful for new families looking to move to quieter neighborhoods. However, it also may be useful for business owners, looking to target areas that are more lively. There are many questions that remain for further exploration: Why is zip code 10466 such an outlier? Does weather and temperature correlate with this trend? How do these complaints compare to total populations in the boroughs?
