Peabody City Councilors approved a noise ordinance last Tuesday but the topic at the center of their debate was neighborliness.
Councilors found quick agreement on limiting contractors from starting work too early only to part ways over what sort of restrictions should be placed on do-it-yourself fix-up projects. Some councilors didn’t want to limit the times of day homeowners spend working on house projects. Others said the ordinance gives city building inspectors enough leeway to clamp a noise ban on a project or make an exception.
When it comes to contractors, most of the complaints lodged under the ordinance will probably be resolved with a verbal warning or two because contractors are interested in getting jobs done and, by and large, they don’t want to run afoul of city officials.
But the line separating a neighbor from a nuisance isn’t as clearly drawn. Americans love personal expression in all of its forms, from tattoos to bumper stickers to “doing whatever I want on my property.”
This right to self expression is typically tempered between neighbors by common courtesy and that mix of intimacy and dependence that defines neighborly relationships. Most of the rules defining those relationships are unsaid and certainly unwritten: “I snow blow the sidewalk in front of your house; you mow the strip of grass between the sidewalk and curb in front of mine.”
Sometimes the rules are little more reciprocal: “I ignore the business you run out of your garage; you don’t mind me parking my truck in front of your house.”
Those relationships get tested when neighbors start replacing porches or getting new roofs. But these necessary home repair jobs are usually taken in stride unless their duration or the conduct of the workers doing the job becomes excessive and obnoxious.
Most people want to mind their own business, nod and say “hi” to their neighbors, and talk to them for two minutes about the Patriots or their kids. When relationships go sour between neighbors, the lingering animosity almost always outweighs the initial offense that caused the rift in the first place.
That is when superbly effective elected officials make a mark among the people who put them in office. Councilors or Board of Selectmen or Town Meeting members can talk about ordinances and bylaws, but the real subject they are debating is quality of life. Effective elected officials know people in a neighborhood, they grew up with them or went to school with them, and they are able to listen to problems, step back and point a concise way to a mutually agreeable solution.
The ability to accomplish this kind of resolution once, never mind repeatedly, is an art and at its heart lies the ability to make every person feel valued. Resolving neighborhood complaints ranging from noise to unruly kids to unsightly yards requires someone who can step into a dispute and say with sincerity, “I know you. I know what you are going through and I want you to put yourself in your neighbor’s shoes.”
Sometimes the personal approach doesn’t resolve neighbor versus neighbor problems and that’s when a good grassroots elected official focuses the attention of an entire neighborhood on the offending person and gives them two choices: Shape up or get out.