By Gus Saltonstall
Disco appears to be alive and well on an Upper West Side block, but not all of the neighbors on the street are happy about it.
West Side Rag has received multiple complaints about a nonstop disco ball in the window of 345 West 86th Street, on the north side of the street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, that is casting a flashing light onto the apartments across the street.
“There is an apartment that recently put a flashing disco ball in its window and has it on 24 hours a day,” a tipster, who wanted to remain anonymous, wrote in an email to West Side Rag. “At night, the light flashes in the windows of all the apartments across the street all night and is extremely disruptive.”
“We have tried contacting the non-emergency police number, and they said there’s nothing they can do about it because no law is being broken,” the tipster continued. “The disco ball was on 24/7 for several days, roughly a year ago, in late December 2024, but then went off for many months until it came back on this week. Why does it need to be right near the window where it bothers hundreds of residents?”
WSR visited the block on Thursday afternoon and evening to see if we could spot the disco ball ourselves, which we did.
Neighbors say a nonstop disco ball in a window on West 86th Street is causing “extreme disruption” for residents across the block.
“We have tried contacting the non-emergency police number, and they said there’s nothing they can do about it because no law is being broken.” pic.twitter.com/ZTARnNuybu
— Gus Saltonstall (@GusSaltonstall) December 5, 2025
Earlier on Thursday, the Rag spoke to three doormen on the south side of West 86th Street, between West End and Riverside, and while two of them hadn’t noticed or heard about the disco ball across the street, the doorman at 334 West 86th Street, mentioned that a resident on one of the higher floors had complained recently about the light because he had “a child with special needs” who was bothered by the flashing.
The Rag also spoke to two building employees on Thursday at 345 West 86th Street, where the disco ball is located, but both said they hadn’t fielded any complaints about the flashing lights or even knew about the issue at all.
We will update this story if more is learned about the disco ball.
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I don’t suppose any of the claimants have ever heard of shades, drapes or blinds.
Or disco guy could be respectful that millions of other people live here too. Should we also defend the person upstairs that tap dances from 3am – 5am?
311 is a mostly useless number. 911 is on its way to becoming equally as useless.
I agree that this is annoying and would want something done about it but people can also put blinds on their windows to minimize the effect? Understood that one should not be forced to have their blinds closed at all times because of this, but at night when you are sleeping you can do that, at least for the short term.
You can still get light flashing through or on the blinds. What a freak this person is, I bet the neighbors have some nightmare stories to tell.
Contrary to what some other folks here are saying, I think the disco ball owner is not being a good neighbor and it is S/HE/THEY who need to put up heavy drapes.
Why are we using this publication to amplify non-events?
If it were a noise problem, we could talk about amplifying . But this is a visual problem – somebody on West 86th Street has no insight.
A little disco never hurt anybody
Everyone get yourself a 10,000 lumen flashlight and aim it right at that window. Apparently it’s legal. Also contact building management and make a complaint to HPD and DOB.
If any of the complainants needs help putting up curtains or blinds, perhaps WSR can give them my email. Happy to help a neighbor!
Why didn’t they simply walk across the street with a nice note delivered to the doorman who could give it to the resident?