Polluted Soundscapes: Lived Experiences of Transportation Noise in The Ironbound

Abstract

Transportation noise pollution disproportionately burdens low-income and minority communities in the United States. Yet, existing research has primarily focused on quantitative analyses of noise distribution, leaving how overburdened communities themselves experience and conceptualize noise as an environmental concern largely unexamined. I conducted a qualitative case study of the Ironbound neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, a working-class, predominantly immigrant port neighborhood bound by highway, rail, and airport infrastructure, which has long been recognized as an environmental justice (EJ) community facing disproportionately high environmental burden. Analyzing 15 semi-structured interviews with Ironbound community members, this study finds that transportation noise in the Ironbound is not uniformly understood or collectively addressed as an environmental concern due to a set of unresolved tensions in how residents conceptualize the pollutant: (1) participants simultaneously carry symbolic associations between noise and belonging whilst also understanding noise as a source of frustration and harm; (2) participants describe noise pollution as background noise whilst identifying concrete disruptions in daily routines and physical and/or mental health; and (3) participants acknowledge noise as an environmental concern while the issue remains institutionally unaddressed. These tensions render noise difficult to identify and prioritize as an EJ issue, situating noise pollution at the bottom of a “hierarchy of burden.”