In the European (and not only) family suburbs, the city noises and usual urban chaos have been pushed away in favor of a quiet living for more or less wealthy middle-class families and some older couples.
Commuters in the morning, playing children in the weekend: this is the soundscape of the quiet, family suburbs, right?
Actually not. Their soundscape is the continuous machine humming of ongoing maintenance: from the unavoidable garbage and grocery supplier trucks early in the morning to the daily rotation of lawn mowers and leaf blowers along neighborhood gardens.
Ongoing maintenance, as we know, is always after ongoing rejuvenation: from the moving trucks that carry the lucky ones to the even wealthier suburbs to the non-stop drills of another kitchen/bedroom/bathroom renovation.
The sound of things being constantly trimmed and straight edged for inhabitants that are not actually there, adults that are in the city working, kids that are in other suburb’s schools, older relatives that never really visit: this is the quiet, family suburbs’ soundscape.
