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Maybe the OP should have said high-density rather than urban, but they are often used as synonyms. Other downsides, which don't always occur but are more common in denser environments:
1) More traffic noise
2) Less windows into the home
3) More outdoor lights that can shine inside into your bedroom but out of your control
You can have loud inconsiderate neighbors anywhere -- cities, suburbs, or small towns. It's unfortunate, but the best way to ensure tranquility in a city -- or anywhere else for that matter -- is to pay a high price for housing. It's no coincidence that people who pay a lot for apartments in the city or houses in the suburbs live in quiet neighborhoods. Paying a lot is no guarantee, but the odds will be in your favor.
You can have loud inconsiderate neighbors anywhere - but it is way worse in cities. You might have 10 apts on your floor and they are all within 30 ft of your door and above your apt. Even if you are in a 50 x 100 zoned area you are going to have way less contact with any house beyond your direct neighbors.
I lived in NYC for many years and no matter where I lived there were always bad neighbors on my floor or above my apt.
This has more to do with the type of development. In flat, open spaces sound can carry some distance. If you have a 150' buffer of dense forest between homes, it's fairly quiet. Remove the trees and you may be able to overhear your neighbors conversations.
This has more to do with the type of development. In flat, open spaces sound can carry some distance. If you have a 150' buffer of dense forest between homes, it's fairly quiet. Remove the trees and you may be able to overhear your neighbors conversations.
Put up a house 10 feet away from yours, and you'll hear more than in either situation above. You will not hear your neighbors' conversations half a football field away, even in open space, and it's a little hard to have 150' of "dense forest". You might hear someone yelling in the backyard.
Y'all never lived in the country downrange from a guy who liked shootin tin cans from his back porch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nei
LOL
You experience that somewhere?
One Thanksgiving, I was visiting my aunt, who lives on several acres, out in the country. I joked with her that, for all the hyperbole about Youngstown's gun crime, I heard more gunfire at her house in one afternoon than I heard in all my time living in the city. She laughed and said that a neighbor likes to practice-shoot.
My mom lives in a rural area and you can hear gun shots from target practice. That is still much less intrusive than high density housing noises. IMO.
It all depends on what you're used to. City noises fade into the background and you learn to ignore them, the same way your mom ignores gunshots. Ignoring gunshots in a city or suburb is a bad habit...not too healthy in the country, either.
I can very much relate to your current feelings. I have lived intercity in apartments ever since leaving my parents. I have always preferred the dense city lifestyle for the most part- I mean, as an Urban Planner, you almost have to.. BUT..
About a year ago, I left an apartment in a very dense downtown area that i had lived in for a few years. By the time I was leaving, I wanted to live in the middle of nowhere for a while. But once I actually moved, I just moved to a less dense city and followed a job there rather than taking a job in a small rural town. So I never really did decide to move away from the intercity apartment. I was sick of all of the concrete, the lack of trees and grass and personal space. I wanted places in which to walk alone to clear the mind. And where I would have had to travel outside of the city for that.
Now, that I live in a smaller city, where I do have that nature nearby and areas where I can walk in relative solitude if i desire, other issues have made me feel just as you are explaining you feel. I can hear my neighbors and I try to be conscious of my noise levels- i even feel bad riding a bike roller inside, thinking that it drives the downstairs neighbors crazy; I don't throw toys for my dog to catch inside. etc.
But I know that I won't actually move out into a more rural area until either I feel unsafe because something happens like I get robbed walking my dog or an intruder goes into my house as I sleep or start a family in which the extra space and a yard would be nice.
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