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Noisy, noisy Dot
By adamg on Fri, 10/28/2016 - 9:03am
The Dorchester Reporter sounds the alarm: Dorchester is Boston's noisiest neighborhood (while neighboring Mattapan is the quietest), based on the Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Report Card.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
East Fenway
Should be at the top! The student noise is horrible.
I'm kerfluffled
Going by the Final Scores:
Dorchester 45,3
South Boston/Waterfront 31.6
East Boston 22.4
Chinatown 22.3
How did they determine Dorchester was noisiest?
Boom-boom cars
With rattling trunks
It's in the article
Spot checks of noise. Just about anywhere in east Dorchester you're going to hear background traffic noise from 93, red line trains, commuter trains and (depending on the wind pattern) flights coming in to Logan. That adds up to quite a bit. It's something that you can live with as the price to pay for the convenience of living in the city but there is also more that could be done to mitigate it and that should be looked into.
It's funny
How different types of noise bother some people and not others. I grew up near an air force base, and so noise from planes don't bother me - it was like we didn't hear it after a while. I also don't mind the sound of highway traffic, because we also lived right near a highway :).
I like the sound of train whistles.
Personally for me the noise that gets me is people talking loudly (where I live that's mostly students) and also cars/parties blasting loud music with a thumping baseline. But everyone is different.
Selective deafness
When I was in college one year I lived about two blocks from a major hospital and so I quickly learned to tune out ambulance sirens. I didn't have a car at school and when I was home for Christmas I was driving and realized there was an ambulance on my tail with lights & sirens going and I hadn't noticed. It was probably only delayed for a second or two but it shocked me at how it just didn't register in my brain at all.
What?
n/t
Dot: ear plugs for all or, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em
I appreciate the work and the Dot News article - it was hard to find that table on the sound site.
Yes, where I live in Dorchester we have a noise problem: parties, motorcycles, car alarms, music, neighbors on their patios past 10pm, fireworks!, utility trucks repairing/ripping up stuff at all hours, construction! I can't tell if everyone else hates/notices the noise as much as I do, so it's satisfying to see all the complaints. It's a funny place to live, though, as there seems to be seasonal or cyclical noise - each house gets their little turn at making noise (birthday parties, festivals, dad's out of town, etc.), except for the habitual car alarm/door slamming/shouting offenders which I now wake up to even when they don't happen.
I wish the data had accounted for seasons as things obviously get noisier in the summer when folks are outdoors and windows are open (at least I couldn't find it in the docs). We do have some flight path noise, but nothing like when I lived in JP, so I'm glad about that.
Light pollution
Oh, and can we please start a similar conversation about light pollution?