Recent articles on uncomfortably loud environments in New York and Los Angeles raise an interesting question - is noise pollution a necessary part of city living or is it a health hazard that should be addressed?
The rise in attention to the impact of noise pollution on those living and working in America's biggest cities was kicked off by an article that appeared on July 19 in The New York Times detailing what reporters found when they measured noise levels at 37 restaurants, bars, stores and gyms across
the city. According to reporter Cara Buckley, "loud noise has become a fact of life in the very places where people have traditionally sought respite from urban stress" and from the sampling of establishments that The Times visited, reporters "found [noise] levels that experts said bordered on dangerous at
one-third of them."
A couple of days after the article was published, Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The Times, addressed the noise issue on his twitter feed: "Still shocked since returning to NY by noise pollution--subways, sirens,
restaurants. Not a sign of big city grit, but an urban blight." The next day he tweeted a follow-up, "Why is NY so glorious on summer weekends? Partly the quiet. Noise pollution is the next ecological challenge for the city."
More recently Nate Berg has published two pieces in The Atlantic Cities focused on the impact of noise on transit commuters and outdoor concertgoers in Los Angeles.
Do these articles represent a newfound sensitivity to the sounds of the city as more people embrace urban living, or a profound shift in the decibel levels city dwellers are inundated with on a daily basis? Will urban Americans raise their voices in protest of an emerging public health hazard, or will the concerns identified by the authors above be lost amongst the din of the urban news cycle?
FULL STORY: For L.A. Residents Fed Up With Helicopter Noise, a Final Straw
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.