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Comment by tayo42 | Hacker News Reader

Lately I've come to the conclusion that peace and quiet really is a luxury to have. Most people I don't think get to experience it. You need to have money to have it so you can live somewhere nice. Other wise your stuck living in apartment buildings, crowded cities, next to noisy neighbors. Go to busy shared spaces (ppl stop playing radios out doors!) or staying in shitty hotels.

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> Lately I've come to the conclusion that peace and quiet really is a luxury to have. Most people I don't think get to experience it.

It absolutely is. I got the chance to live in a quiet neighborhood near the ocean for a few months and I think back fondly to the level of calm during evening walks there. It felt downright _nourishing_ to my psyche.

This is contrast to living within line of sight to San Diego Airport with the first airplane taking off at 6:31a. In addition to waking me up it would also trigger a significant amount of stress - not a great way to start the day.

Cities are not designed for anything resembling healthy living currently. I hope this changes soon.

It's almost criminal that houses are built so close to the airport. I have a few friends who live downtown in that area and it seems like hell.

Indeed. I understand it's a multi-faceted issue given the economic development the airport has provided (and continues to provide), but it seems health and wellness externalities were not priced in fully. Now that the airport is built and housing density only continues to increase - where does this lead?

From the wikipedia article:

> SAN is in a populated area. To appease the concerns of the airport's neighbors regarding noise and possible ensuing lawsuits, a curfew was put in place in 1979. Takeoffs are allowed between 6:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. Outside those hours, they are subject to a large fine. Arrivals are permitted 24 hours per day.[47] While several flights have scheduled departure times before 6:30 a.m., these times are pushback times; the first takeoff roll is at 6:30 a.m.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_International_Airpor...

I've taken off later than 11:30 PM, i think realistically 12:30 is the cutoff, especially on very busy days. I remember hearing that the first month of lockdown was blissful because there were so few flights coming through.

My apartment complex fire alarms go off once a week due to one smoker or food burning in a single building which then causes every building to start alarming. This week, they are doing testing which means that an entire building fire alarm will go off for every individual unit they test. There are 1000 units here and almost 100 are in my building. I have heard the fire alarm go off nearly 100 distinct times and I don’t even register fire alarms as being useful anymore. These people hate me and want me to die in a fire.

That genuinely sounds like hell - hoping you get a calm environment soon.

There are plenty of poor people with peace and quiet in rural areas.

I’m not so sure about that, nature is often loud AF. Agriculture, too.

Short of living near a fast moving river, nature is rarely as consistently loud as living in a city. Rural living, away [0] from rivers and highways (mainly interstates) is remarkably quiet and often very affordable in most of the country.

[0] This doesn't even have to be very far away, and noise can be substantially reduced with a fairly small group of trees between you and the noise source.

Have you experienced it? I live rural and actually close to railway/highway but the comparison to urban noise is not even close.

Lol yes. I'm currently avoiding opening up doors/windows because the cicadas are sufficiently loud that I've had ringing in my ears every night for the past week.

Then I see the downvotes on my earlier comment and wonder just what image people have of rural living. Last year I didn't get a wink of sleep on an overnight camp because bullfrogs went hard out the entire night.

Also I'm not sure how this became a binary comparison of the densest urban environments or the sparsest rural retreats. The suburbs exist and that's actually where most people live.

Single examples don't refute the statement that many poor rural areas are quiet. However, if many poor rural areas are quiet, then the assertion that quiet is a luxury is contradicted.

I agree with that take

I've lived through all the spectrum of apartments from modest to exclusive and luxurious. One thing does not imply the other, it's a matter of luck + how (un)civilized are the people surrounding you.

You've obviously never lived in a penthouse or a private residence on a 20 acre property. Noise pollution is not an issue in those situations.

Depending on where that 20 acres is, you can get it for less than the price of a coastal-city closet.

You'll have a hard life ahead of you, though.

Yes, one of the things that blew me away about luxury apartments in NYC is the level of soundproofing - both in the windows as well as the thickness between floors/ceiling (a foot plus, iirc).

You're right, haven't experienced anything beyond 10M. I guess at the very top you don't have these issues at all.

What do you mean by it's a luxury? That it's nice? or rare? or should be rare?

I think rare in the sense that few can afford to have it.

Part of the problem is that those who don't appreciate it will see how nice a quiet town in the country is, then move from the big city to that town and destroy the very thing they originally enjoyed.

Or bring a bluetooth boombox into the wilderness and play it so it can be heard for a mile away.

I'm sure that every country have tiny villages with cheap land. Buy enough land, build a house in the center, grow some trees around and you'll have peaceful house.

Of course there are other issues with that lifestyle which is why it's not adopted widely, like no work, issues for children, issues with healthcare, but for some people it could work, IMO.

> no work, issues for children, issues with healthcare

There's the rub, no? You need to have a lot of money saved up to not have to work which makes it a luxury. For most people, they need to live near work, which is mostly in or near dense noisy cities.

I'm basically FI and could do that, but the problem is I'd be leaving everyone I know to live alone in a middle of nowhere. Granted, a pretty and picteresque middle of nowhere, but still, it sounds like a recipe for misery. That's why I endure living in a loud and smoggy city...

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