When living in Boston/Cambridge between 2008 and 2015, every apartment I lived in had serious noise issues, and it wasn't just being able to hear too much from

When living in Boston/Cambridge between 2008 and 2015, every apartment I lived in had serious noise issues, and it wasn't just being able to hear too much from neighboring apartments ... it was also hearing people blast music out of their open windows from other buildings or in shared parking areas. Reporting these noise violations never did anything. The police showed up, asked people to stop, they stopped for 30 minutes then just started up again. After months and months of this at two totally different apartments, I finally just stopped reporting the egregious noise violations, because what's the use? Probably some disruptively loud neighbor started thinking what you thought -- that if no one is actively complaining then it must be OK, when really it was just worse: the mechanism of complaining doesn't actually help solve the problem so it's of no use. It's especially bad in older buildings that have been converted into apartments -- which represents a lot of the inventory in Cambridge and Somerville. Edit: Forgot to add -- city construction noise is also a huge problem, and most cities have specific laws about how much noise construction crews can make and at what times. Inside the permitted limits (even if the limits are actually unreasonable from a human health and well-being point of view) you have no recourse of any kind. For instance, I usually go on very long runs on Friday nights -- it's one of my weekly exercise and meditation habits. So I tend to sleep in on Saturdays to let my body recover. Being woken up by jackhammers at 9 am on every Saturday for an entire summer was a very miserable experience for me.