[ceras]

> There are prices to pay for living in city centers

These are the prices we pay today in the US, but they don't have to be. Other countries like The Netherlands and Switzerland take noise pollution more seriously and show it's possible to have quieter cities. Even among huge cities it's possible: Tokyo is much quieter than NYC.

We don't need to make people choose between living in dense, efficient spaces vs calm and quiet. Making urban living more comfortable is a net benefit: the people that live there will be happier, people that wanted to live there but avoided due to noise will now have that option, and people outside of cities would be unaffected. Why accept this as just the way it is when plenty of other cities have shown it can be better?

This video shows what it's like when a city takes noise more seriously (in this case, the whole of The Netherlands). It focuses on cars, but apartment noises can be handled too with building codes. https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8