Disgruntled Hell’s Kitchen resident sues building manager over Lincoln Tunnel noise

It’s a classic story: retired New Mexico state senator dreams of the Great White Way, moves to Manhattan to realize his theatrical ambitions, finds Manhattan to be very noisy, and sues his Hell’s Kitchen building manager because, to loosely quote Broadway legend Cole Porter, it’s too darn loud.

As the New York Post reports, politician-turned-playwright Joseph Carraro’s high-rise rental faces West 42nd Street at 11th Avenue, overlooking the scenic Lincoln Tunnel entrance. But it’s hard to get the creative juices flowing, what with the constant “horns bleeping and sirens blaring from firetrucks and police,” as the suit alleges.

He also complains of “thundering and shrilling noises” from 8 a.m. construction inside the building. The noise is so bad, in fact, that the former senator has gone to the ER, where he was diagnosed with “a breakdown of body function because of extreme exhaustion,” ­court papers say. (In all fairness to Carraro, he’s not the only one to complain about the building’s construction noise.)

Now, he’s suing the building’s manager, George Laitsas, for $114,375, and also accusing the leasing company of pulling the old bait and switch, moving him into the 42nd Street side of the building instead of the idyllic 43rd Street side he’d initially been promised.

“Being from New Mexico, their selling point was for me to look at the river,” Carraro told the Post, explaining why he took the Midtown digs in the first place. But after one day in the apartment, he decided the situation was so untenable he didn’t even buy furniture—instead, he’s been sleeping on an air mattress for a month, waiting to be let out of the lease. (Who among us hasn’t been there?)

Certainly, it doesn’t hold a candle to his place in New Mexico, which, he told the paper, has “a pond, swimming pool and is on a golf course.” While one wonders if perhaps this set him up for disappointment with life along the West Side Highway, Carraro says he hopes his case will prevent others from ending up in similarly noisy situations “while they still have time and money left.”

Laitsas has yet to return the Post’s calls for comment.

• Man sues because apartment near Lincoln Tunnel is too noisy [New York Post]