Noisy Neighbors
Okay, so in this case, we’re the “noisy neighbors.” We recently moved from Manhattan into a brownstone in Park Slope. Our new place has outdoor space (that we pay a premium for) and we’re definitely planning to utilize the space during the summer months. My husband and I both work until 7pm so the only…
Okay, so in this case, we’re the “noisy neighbors.”
We recently moved from Manhattan into a brownstone in Park Slope. Our new place has outdoor space (that we pay a premium for) and we’re definitely planning to utilize the space during the summer months. My husband and I both work until 7pm so the only time to take advantage of the backyard is in the evenings as we tend to travel on the weekends. Over the past week we have been out back gardening (trying to beautify our new outdoor space) until about 10pm and one weeknight we had friends over until just before 10pm. I would say that 99% of the time it will just be me and my husband out back and when we’re out there we often play music, but at what I would consider a reasonable level (for example, I can’t hear it when I enter the apartment and close the door). Coming from Manhattan, we’re used to playing music and in most cases being some of the quieter people in our old building. We understand that we live near a lot of families with young children now and we’re trying to find a balance between enjoying our outdoor space and being respectful of our neighbors.
We received a complaint from one of our neighbors that we are being too noisy and that music is meant to be kept indoors in our new neighborhood. As I said, we want to be respectful of our neighbors and certainly don’t want to start off on the wrong foot, but we also want to enjoy our space. When we signed the lease on our apartment nodoby mentioned a “music indoors” rule.
So, here’s my question, is playing music at reasonable levels until 9 or 10pm disrespectful? If so, what would be a reasonable time to play music until?
We would like to come to some sort of arrangement with our neighbors where we stop playing music at some designated hour, but that we still have a right to play music until that point in time without complaints or dirty looks on the street. We think that requesting that music stay indoors at all times is somewhat unreasonable. Would love to hear your thoughts…
It’s funny, I guess I do take myself really seriously! I can’t play my music loud when i’m in my garden, i’m just too embarrassed — I feel like I’m one of those a-holes in the convertible trying to draw attention to myself.
Having said that, I blast my music in my house, and I’m sure it must carry through the walls. That kinda goes for sex, too. 😉 I figure if it’s behind closed doors, none of your business, but outside — that’s public space.
Okay, so Norah Jones is out…any other suggestions? 🙂
I really do appreciate all the comments, I’m trying to get a sense of what the general acceptability levels are so this is very helpful.
I go to bed early and I find it rude when neighbors play music outside past 9pm. Someone else posted a similar comment above, but when I wake up at 5:30am, I often feel like giving it back to these neighbors, just out of spite. But I don’t, because I don’t want to punish my other neighbors. I grew up in Brooklyn and the cops were called to every teen party. Now I’m the cranky old lady who wants to call the cops.
OP: you just made my point, exactly. I absolutely HATE Nora Jones. I’d rather listen to death metal or babies crying than Nora Jones — which to me is the equivalent of chinese torture, except it’s little drops of cheesy wishywashiness.
If you were playing her crap, I wouldn’t just write you a note, i’d friggin shred your tires. (I assume you have a prius or beat up old defender/landcruiser out front to go with that record).
Ok now I’m being snarky.
Where did you play your music when you were in the city? On your roof? Fire escape?
I say just play your music, but keep it low. I think you have to have the speakers close to you and the sound low enough that if you walk to the far end of your garden area you won’t be able to hear it. That’s what I do and haven’t had any complaints. Of course, we can hardly hear the music ourselves 🙂
8pm on regular nights, 10pm on party nights. A lot of it does have to do with children, and believe me, if you had children, you would know what I mean, there are books written on the subject of babies and small childrens’ sleep. I would like to strangle you if your music woke my kid up at 9pm after it took me an hour to put them to sleep.
There is no rule saying you can’t play some music, but please be respectful of the other people surrounding you.
By the way, I would never play music in my backyard unless I had a party.
get an ipod
You are all insane and take yourselves way to seriously. Exception being the girl who posted this – you sound like a reasonable and considerate individual. Tunes until 10 are fine.
Enjoy.
By the way, welcome to the neighborhood! 🙂
Sorry Brooklynnative, we’re not your noisy neighbors…unless sound travels REALLY far in the Slope 🙂