city noises
New york is loud. I always notice it most when I visit Asia - I remember how in Japan, the subways were shockingly quiet (both the train itself and its passengers), but even the ambulances were quieter than the ones over here. I wonder if anyone has done a study on hearing loss in different countries; I feel like new yorkers would top the charts. I remember reading somewhere that noise pollution takes a bigger toll on our bodies than we realize. I can’t remember if that was a legitimate peer-reviewed statement, but I’d believe it: nothing shoots my blood pressure up like five cars and a garbage truck piled up outside my window, honking in harmony. Or the squeal of the train trying to slow to a stop. Or the ding dong of the NQRW doors closing. DING DONG (someone’s backpack got caught). DING DONG (someone’s holding the door). DING DONG (a tourist is getting bruised by the doors). DINGDONGDINGONDGINDOGN STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS. That shit has got to have taken out at least a handful of hearing hairs. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I can’t be the only one walking around with airpods on noise cancellation and nothing playing.
But there are good noises too, noises I’ll miss when I leave this street and zip code. I’ll miss the clip-clop of the central park horses going to work and coming home (I wish they could all retire to the burbs). And the sound of one dog letting out a bark, setting off a conversation among the neighborhood pups. The sound of happy concertgoers belting together in the streets, walking back towards the subway (even if it’s while I’m trying to fall asleep). Bits of strangers’ conversations that ping off the U-shaped walls of my building and echo through my window. Sounds that other people hear as disruptive, but I know as home. City noises. Stockholm syndrome?