Recently I went down the road at 3 a.m. to ask a group of students on a porch if they could keep their music and voices down. So as not to wake up neighbors who are senior citizens, graduate students, infants and small children, or people who need to get to work at 6 a.m. (all of whom live a short distance from their apartment.)

They responded at once, and one offered to take responsibility for making sure we were not disturbed again. In effect, he would be the monitor of noise for his friends. That is not an easy role to take on, but is much appreciated by me. And it makes me wonder if such a role could be assumed by individuals in the bands of young party-seekers who roam the streets in the East University neighborhood in the middle of the night, talking very loudly, yelling and screaming, waking up neighbors as they go. They move on to new pastures, apparently totally unaware of the havoc they have caused to would-be-sleeping residents.

Whether or not you appoint a ‘noise monitor,’ I urge any readers who recognize themselves in this description of late-night walkers to imagine their own parents or grandparents being disturbed in this way. Think: ‘What would my grandparents think if I was roaming their streets making this amount of noise?’

Another weekend is coming up. Toning down your late-night noise will go a long way to show respect for your fellow citizens and make this writer, at least, very grateful.

Grace Ball

Resident of Lancaster Avenue

 

 

Published on September 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm