I came across this news snippet today, regarding noisy downtown living. I’ve wondered about this as Austin grows and builds all of our downtown condos. This article says that downtown residents in St. Petersburg FL, which “has turned into a trendy boomtown full of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and new residents”, are fed up with the noise.
It’s something to at least think about if deciding to live in a downtown urban setting. Here is a link to the story:
Hey Steve,
This article makes me laugh! You do not live downtown if you want peace and quite. That’s simply not why people move downtown. You live downtown to be near other people and to be near the action. If you want it a little quite, I suggest in the upper floors of one of these high rise condos. When you are 20+ floors up you can’t hear what is going on the ground outside if the windows are closed. When I was looking at the Hilton condos 27+ stories high, even with the windows open the traffic noise from I35 is just a low humm (like what you would hear when the air conditioning is on). You can’t really hear it if someone is speaking to you.
Steve-Great post. We’re living through a similar scenerio here in Madison, WI. There’s been a boom of downtown “redevelopment” in which many empty nester suburbanites are moving in to high rise condo buildings downtown. What I’ve seen is their desire to try and make this area much like the suburbs they moved here from. For example, they’re trying to make the bar time earlier, they come out in droves to protest any new restaurant or bar that is trying to get liquor license granted. The latest was the city approaching the owners in 1 building to ask if they would grant permission to the Madison Festivals committee to allow the annual “Taste of Madison” to run past the 8 p.m. end time due to a home college football game being played late this past weekend. Needless to say, the powers that be in these ex-suburbanites said NO.
It amazes me that these people feel they have the power to control the way of life of an area now that they are a part of it. It will be an interesting future.