This is my exact situation. I live across the street from two auto repair shops and it is spectacularly annoying to be woken up early in the morning by people blowing horns, grinding metal, or having inventory replenished by loud trucks.

I am fully in favor of mixed development and would love to live above a coffee shop, restaurant, bodega, retail store etc. I am not in favor of living next to a place where assembly or manufacturing is taking place (or any other industrial behavior). Either the type of business needs to be somewhat regulated or the hours in which commerce can occur need to be better regulated to encourage people to do things like replenishing inventory in the evening as opposed to early in the morning.

Its part of city life. I lived across the street from a fire house. On one corner was a bar and laundrymat. Up the street was a taqueria, body shop and corner store - a block over was EFF. Behind, an artifact of the neighborhood’s blue collar past was a metal fab shop. The rhymic cur-chunk of the punch presses often put me to sleep on a saturday afternoon only to be startled awake by sirens.

At the time it suited me fine. It is clear to me though that we still need suburbs. For some at certain points in their life they need the quiet. We have too suburbs though. I think many folks could live in denser environs.

Its backwards that cities are more expensive than suburbs. Density should lower costs. High populations should lower costs. There should be both economies of scale and network effects. I think, to the writers point, we regulate the wrong things.

Cities don't have to be loud. My neighborhood in Tokyo is the one of the quietest I've ever lived in but minutes from places that are denser than literally anywhere in the United States. Not having giant streets, as well as nuisance zoning [1] pretty much solves that problem.

[1] http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html

But then in suburbs your boomer neighbor will be riding his gasoline lawnmower outside your window at 7 am on a Saturday. Or he'll be paying his gardener to push leaves into his neighbor's lawn with a leaf-blower (a device that ought to be banned by law) instead of using a fucking rake.

>spectacularly annoying to be woken up early in the morning

If by early you mean "slightly before the start of bushiness hours".

Nobody is waking up at 6am to turn wrenches at 7. Yeah, I guess if they start up at 7-8am that puts a damper on your ability to sleep in until 9 on weekdays but is that really something you find yourself wanting to do all that often? An automotive shop sounds a heck of a lot better than any establishment that is open late. I say this as someone who lives baseball throwing distance from a small business that maintains a fleet of excavators and trucks. If you live in a relatively developed area something is going to be making noise, garbage trucks, delivery trucks, nearby construction, etc.

Most shops I know open at 7:30, which seems reasonable on a Wednesday, but super obnoxious Saturday morning if they start work before their official opening.

It may surprise you to learn that not everyone works a 9-5 office job.