Quiet Communities’ Jan/Feb 2026 newsletter announces a refreshed website, new resources, and a full 2026 webinar schedule, along with a relaunch of its YouTube channel. It highlights a Naples, Florida noise‑camera pilot to enforce vehicle noise limits, and Quiet Princeton’s successful push for a seasonal ban on gas leaf blowers through collaboration, education, and incentives for electric equipment.

Author and artist Nicole Kelner describes how her work as an artist-in-residence with Quiet Communities helped shape her understanding of the connection between noise and climate change. While documenting New York City's quietest places for her upcoming book, Kelner learned through QC that many of the loudest everyday sounds come from fossil-fuel-powered machines, and that the shift to cleaner electric alternatives also means a quieter future.

Jamie Banks, founder and president of Quiet Communities, joined KUNC's In The NoCo program to discuss Denver International Airport's campaign to reduce noise levels for travelers. Banks spoke about how exposure to noise can trigger stress responses in the brain and body, and how creating a calmer, more peaceful airport environment could help ease the anxiety of travel.

We mourn the passing of Dr. Arline L. Bronzaft, our cherished colleague, mentor, and friend, who died peacefully on October 29, 2025, surrounded by her family. A pioneering environmental psychologist, researcher, and author, Arline’s groundbreaking work from the 1970s onward transformed our understanding of how noise harms learning, cognition, and health.

Quiet Communities’ November/December 2025 newsletter celebrates a year of “quiet victories” in advancing noise reduction and outlines ambitious 2026 goals, including building new alliances, expanding educational resources, and deepening public health and environmental advocacy.

The article presents findings from a Quiet Communities survey on the impact of pickleball noise on nearby residents, authored by QC founder and president Jamie Banks and scientific advisory council member Kathleen Romito. The research, presented at the 189th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, calls for evidence-based guidelines for court siting and noise control that balance recreation with residents' health and well-being.

The New York Times obituary honors the late Dr. Arline Bronzaft, a pioneering environmental psychologist and member of Quiet Communities' scientific advisory council, who spent five decades researching the harmful effects of urban noise on health and learning. The piece highlights her landmark 1970s study showing that students in classrooms near elevated subway tracks lagged 11 months behind their peers in reading, and her instrumental role in revising New York City's noise code in the mid-2000s.

In a posthumously published op-ed for Streetsblog New York City's "Car Harms" series, the late Dr. Arline Bronzaft, a member of Quiet Communities' scientific advisory council, argues that car and truck traffic is the primary source of urban noise pollution and a serious threat to public health. She calls for stronger enforcement of New York City's noise code and highlights recent progress including noise cameras and congestion pricing, while urging the city to do more to hold selfish drivers accountable for the harm their noise imposes on others.

This edition of the QC newsletter shares recent progress in reducing harmful noise through new grants, educational videos, and a Quiet Hours™ restaurant pilot; announces QC’s Candid Platinum rating and new T‑shirts; highlights a grassroots success making a retirement community dining room quieter, and more.

In this article, Neil Donnenfeld makes the case for restaurants to offer "Quiet Hours" — designated times with reduced music, TV sound, and table-clearing noise. Drawing on his personal experience with single-sided deafness and noise sensitivity following radiation treatment for a benign tumor, Donnenfeld notes that about a third of the population has a condition such as hearing loss, PTSD, tinnitus, or neurodivergence that makes loud restaurants untenable. He argues that Quiet Hours come at no cost to restaurants and could drive revenue by attracting the 46% of diners who say they'd be more likely to eat at establishments offering a quieter option.

In a detailed interview for the Clamor newsletter, Jamie Banks, founder and president of Quiet Communities, and Rick Reibstein, an environmental lawyer who chairs QC's legal advisory council, offer practical guidance for people fighting noise in their communities. They discuss the patchwork of local noise regulations left by the 1981 closure of the EPA's noise office, the limitations of the decibel as a sole measure of harm, strategies for evidence gathering and engaging local officials, and QC's successful campaign to transition municipalities and school districts — including the entire Los Angeles Unified School District — from gas-powered to electric landscaping equipment.

This edition of the QC newsletter previews fall events on quieter landscaping in Wilmette, IL, vehicle noise reduction in Naples, FL, a creative workshop with artist-in-residence Nicole Kelner, and a success story from Vermont. It also highlights an August membership drive to strengthen advocacy for quieter communities.

Airplane cabin noise—mainly from engines—can cause discomfort and potentially harm hearing, even at levels considered safe. Prolonged exposure may lead to fatigue and health issues. Experts recommend using earplugs or noise-canceling headphones and choosing seats away from the engines to reduce impact.

The article details the City of Knoxville’s noise camera pilot program which discovered that excessive car noise was often violating the city’s noise ordinance.

In a Grist feature on how fossil fuel-powered infrastructure drives noise pollution, Jamie Banks, founder and president of Quiet Communities, discusses the organization's lawsuit against the EPA to enforce the still-active 1972 Noise Control Act, as well as QC's work helping municipalities transition to electric landscaping equipment. Mary Tatigian, a registered nurse and advocate with Quiet Florida/Quiet Communities, shares her experience living under Naples Airport flight paths and her long-term vision for quieter communities through cleaner technologies and better public transit.

This Quiet Communities newsletter launches the first “Bid for Quiet” fundraising auction and invites new members, celebrates Howard County, Maryland’s first-in-state AGZA Green Zone® park certification, and promotes member-only events on noise law and ordinances.

This Quiet Communities newsletter highlights a major milestone as Los Angeles Unified School District achieves AGZA Green Zone certification across 800+ campuses, eliminating fossil fuel-powered landscaping equipment.

QC President Jamie Banks and board member Dr. Michael Osborne join a panel on Maine Calling on Maine Public Radio to discuss the causes of noise pollution and how it affects our health.

A Quiet Communities member event. We were joined by Dr. Michael Osborne, a preventive and nuclear cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Osborne's research focuses on understanding how chronic stress—including high levels of noise exposure—affects the body and contributes to heart disease.

This Quiet Communities newsletter celebrates LAUSD’s landmark move to fossil fuel‑free, AGZA Green Zone–certified landscaping across more than 800 campuses, creating quieter, cleaner school environments and a national model. It also highlights upcoming events for International Noise Awareness Day, a film screening and author talk on noise, new resources like Ear Peace Foundation’s children’s book on hearing protection and aviation noise symposium recordings, survey results showing gas-powered leaf blowers as a top concern, member programming on noise and heart health, and recent advocacy and media work on airport and gun range noise.