Q. The landlord's brother lives in the six-unit building next to ours. This guy drives around the neighborhood at all hours blasting music that vibrates our windows.
In this building, there are drug dealers, with loud parties day and night. People park in the alley and block garages. All day, they drink, smoke, swear and play loud music.
Our block is mostly owner-occupied. Some of us have lived here all our lives. We want to be able to enjoy our backyards. What are our options?
A. Ideally, speaking face-to-face with the partyers to establish some mutual ground rules would be the quickest and most direct method. However, this might not be practical or safe, particularly in the heat of the moment.
A CAPS beat meeting might be a safe and somewhat neutral opportunity to speak to the building owner. Ask your beat rep to invite him. Having stills, videos and audios to demonstrate could help the owner understand and respond to the situation.
If the owner is not responsive, work with your police neighborhood relations officers to craft a plan that involves enforcement of noise and nuisance laws. For instance, any street sound louder than 70 decibels, the loudness of a typical vacuum sweeper when measured 10 feet away, is prohibited.
The music vibrations coming from the neighbor's car might trigger a $300 to $1,000 ticket for noise disturbance. You will need the police or the Department of Environment to stake out the neighbor to nail him. Alley and garage blocking can be handled with a quick call to 911 as it happens.
The music is more challenging. Between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., the partyers are limited to amplified music that when heard more than 100 feet away from the source that does not interfere with normal conversation. The 10-foot decibel level rule also applies. Only the Environment inspector will have a sound meter, so on a 911 call, it will up to police to determine whether the peace is being disturbed.
If there is a church, school, library, or nursing home on the block, ask your alderman to create a "noise sensitive zone" that puts very strict limits on sound levels, making it easy to enforce the quiet. About the use of drugs, or distributing drugs, if the police see it while clearing the alley, there could be arrests that in turn might damp down future carousing.
Write mediator Ed Sacks at Apartment Watch, Homelife, Chicago Sun-Times, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago, IL 60654, or e-mail apartmentwatch@earthlink.net.
