City dwellers and suburban homeowners alike are seeking solutions to muffle the constant stream of sound in their homes.
Jonathan Prager is a 40-something Manhattan comedian in search of silence.
"His last apartment, he said, was a living hell. He could hear the squeak of his neighbors' faucets, the ring of their phone and the clatter of the plastic marbles their child would drop on the floor....(He has a house in Connecticut, but he said he found no peace there, either. There are lawn mowers and leaf blowers and a neighbor's pool with a noisy filter.)"
"Like many before him, Mr. Prager was learning that domestic sonic bliss might be attainable, but at a price. Quiet has always been a luxury in cities. In New York, "neighbor noise" competes with outside noise to make noise complaints the No. 1 reason people call the city's environmental complaint line.
And quiet is now the consummate domestic prize in the ever-expanding exurbs, where family members rattling around in cavernous great rooms and pursuing separate amusements - their TiVo'd movies, their pinging Xboxes, their YouTube-blaring computers - are driving one another crazy."
FULL STORY: The Dream of Absolute Quiet
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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.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions