I completely respect your right to peace and quiet in your home. I would never want to disturb that, which is why I am very careful about various aspects of my daily living habits. When my dog barks at people walking near our front door, I shush her immediately or remove her into a back room where she cannot be disturbed by hallway noise. I do not vacuum too late at night, having experienced the frustrations of living below a frequent vacuumer in the past. I do not talk loudly on my balcony, as I know that the courtyard/pool area echo noise quite readily. I also try to keep any noise away from outside walls that I share with neighbors. On the whole, I'm pretty considerate when it comes to noise.
Likewise, I deal pretty well with noise coming from my neighbors' homes. I complain to my friends or family occasionally about it, but I've never called the cops on anyone and in only one instance left a note about the noise. That note was the nicest note that could be written, as it was regarding dogs barking in the absence of the owners, an issue of which I figured they may not even be aware. I was simply letting them know that their dogs bark for the entire time they are away, non-stop, so perhaps they could look into those citronella or high frequency noise bark collars since they are not home at the time. I followed this note up with a more blunt note a few weeks later when nothing was done and the dogs were still barking at 3am on a Thursday, but that feels a bit more justified. Repeated problem and a very late/early hour of the day. (Also, please note, that months later, their dogs still bark whenever they're gone. I haven't bothered writing another note, nor have I called the cops.)
In all other situations, I might groan a little, but then put in my ear plugs and go back to sleep. My next door neighbors work at a club in Hollywood, so their hours are screwy. I get it. I'm not going to blame them for it. I live in West Hollywood in an apartment building with thin walls and a courtyard that echos. If neighbors were partying daily or even weekly, I might be annoyed (don't they have respect for their apartment neighbors), but the occasional party that goes late (or in my club neighbors cases starts late) is fine. I guess I see it as this - part of living in an apartment building means respecting your neighbors. This means that you are considerate in the amount of noise you produce, but you also have some flexibility with the noise that you tolerate from others.
So the fact that one of you called the cops on my party shortly after midnight on a Friday night is pretty frustrating to me. This is the 2nd party I have ever had in the year and a half I have lived here. On the first party, I decided not to open the door to the balcony because of the risk of noise echo in the courtyard, but on this party, I thought, "you know, I have this awesome balcony that I put Christmas lights on - I want to be able to enjoy it this one time for my holiday party." So I did. And my guests loved it. People were inside and outside all night...well, until the cop came.
I guess what is most frustrating about this is that I have this great apartment with a fabulous balcony, and from the response of you neighbors who called the cops, apparently I cannot use it. It's just for looks.
No, that's not the most frustrating thing. The frustrating thing is that I put up with so much noise because I know that's what life in an apartment is like, yet I cannot have more that 3 people over past midnight, even on a weekend. The frustrating thing is that I have spent a year and a half putting everyone else first, and the one time I decide to just enjoy my apartment with my friends, it is interrupted by cops.
And for anyone thinking I was throwing some big rager - there were 16 guests plus me in my home. That's it. No one was coming and going to create noise in the hallway. We had music on, but were in no way cranking the bass, which is not the case of some of my neighbors' parties in the past.
So thank you, neighbors. You have now made me feel uncomfortable in my own home and nervous to invite more than a few people over to my house, especially if we want to go on the balcony. Not because I'm nervous about legal repercussions from noise complaints, but because it means my neighbors don't respect me and my right to have a group of people at my house for a fun night during the holiday season.
Also, you live in West Hollywood, home to a billion bars and clubs. If you want a sleepy lifestyle without noise, you picked the wrong city.
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