Daniel Loehr, writing for Vital City:

In New York City, noise is the number one complaint made to 311, outnumbering the next-closest complaint by more than 200,000 calls per year. And according to the New York State Comptroller’s 2018 report, only 7% of New Yorkers felt positive about the sound of their neighborhood. But the issue of noise receives relatively little political attention. During the four debates leading up to the 2025 mayoral election, for example, only one question was asked about how the candidates would address noise. And the answers were dismal: Two candidates provided no responsive answer at all, and the third (now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani) said only that he would seek to reduce congestion. That is not a bad suggestion, but it was clear that no one running had a comprehensive plan to address the problem. This is the current paradox of noise: It is tremendously important to residents and workers, yet these days it receives little political attention.