The Sound of Softee: New York complains about ice cream jingle

September 6, 2018 By Bridget Belfiore Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Despite noise complaints regarding Mr. Softee trucks, this one on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights was totally silent yesterday. Eagle photo by Mary Frost

Share this:

Many New Yorkers are still giving the cold shoulder to Mr. Softee’s familiar tune.

Roughly 1,279 complaints were filed throughout New York City between August 2017 and August 2018. The highest complaints were listed in Captain Tilly Park in Jamaica Estates, with a 200 percent increase since last year. The ice cream franchise has also left a bitter taste in the mouths of families in Brooklyn neighborhoods, such as Sunset Park and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Localize.city, a website with vast information on all New York addresses, analyzed 311 complaints. They found that there has been a 20 percent decrease in discontent since last year. Yet this decline does not indicate that all New Yorkers are feeling sweeter toward Mister Softee.

Localize.city data analyst David Slutsky remarked, “It’s apparent that ice cream trucks know their audience and are targeting parks and playgrounds — but families might not be totally cool about that.”

To prevent such dissatisfaction among communities, New York City regulations ban trucks from playing music while stopped, and they are forbidden to loiter for more than three minutes at a location.

It seems that even a strong sweet tooth may not be enough to endure the endless sound of Mister Softee.