Ahh the good ol' days...

But neverfly, see what is happening after the globalisation, our trust on neighbours becoming slowly deminishing. What can be done !!, its a real question.

It's nothing new actually.
Rome had a similar problems.

I lament it as well.
I remember the good ol days when not only you knew your neighbors, but you could even not HAVE ANY.

There isn't anything that can be done. And for many city folks- they have no problem with it.
I'm just a Mountain Man IN a city.

Depending on your definition, you can still have no neighbours. Depends on where you're willing to live and how close you count "neighbours." Depending on that latter definition, there has never been a time when you could choose not to have neighbours.

My mom knows her neighbours. My sister is in her neighbourhood association, a thing we didn't even have back home. And yesterday, on my way back from a walk, I had a nice chat with a couple of people I don't know who were sitting out in the sun in front of their apartment.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Gillianren I completely understand what you are saying but...

You obviously have not lived In the Mountains...

When I said a time when you could Not Have Neighbors- I meant it literally

If you travel far enough, there's someone living there. That person is your neighbour. Pioneers referred to having neighbours, you know.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Oh yea... I've got some great suggestions for you. I've had my fair share of ace hole neighbors, all of them were kicked out. I had some fun along the way, but the best and final answer is A) Call landlord and complain. B) Call police and complain. The reason for A is that B will ask, did you do A. A will say to do B. This covers both bases.

If your neighbor gets ticked and says anything to you about it, call the police and report what your neighbor said. When they ask you why you are reporting something so trivial, say because when the snot hits the fan you'll tell me I should have called and reported this. Cops hold a low rank in my hierarchy of humanity but they have a job, and that is to hold civilization together, so despite their arrogant attitudes, they are still your servants and must deal with any barbaric behavior.

Be persistent. Report everything to both the police and your landlord.

Now for the fun stuff. I had an ape living upstairs from me for a while. He had a girlfriend who had some kind of bug up her behind that was related to me and I never quite figured out what it was, but I think she's the type that dates apes because they're excited by bad boys being bad and she instigated problems to see him in action. I used to hear them fight about her flirting in bars, so she probably had some psychological need to see him behaving badly.

Anyway, he and she were making lots of reproductive noises at about 3am the first time I called the cops. I had been nice... a couple weeks earlier I had left a note where they could see it with ample warning about the noisy behaviors that bothered me and what the consequence of continuing would be. That sent him through the roof and he did nothing but make excessive noise every chance he got. I waited for the perfect opportunity and hit him where it counts (figuratively). The cops thought I was a tool for calling because my neighbor was making happy up there, but the cops opinion is not my concern.

Needless to say, I hit this guy at a real bad time. He was extremely ticked off about it. The next day he waited in his vehicle, and his girlfriend in hers, for me to leave for work. He said some nasty things to me, I just looked his way, said absolutely nothing as I continued walking to my car, and I just smiled from ear to ear. I drove straight to the police station and reported what happened. He made threatening remarks one more time, which I reported again, and after the cops talked to him that time, the problems ended.

The guys that lived up there before him were even worse, but they were idiots and it was easy to get them kicked out. It only took one visit from the police to shut them up, and my call to the landlord was a "one of us has to go" discussion. They lost... after all, I'm a respectable quiet guy who pays his bills.

Anyway... let's get to the real fun stuff. I have an old stereo system, 3 foot tall speakers with 12" woofers; the ideal weapon in the apartment dweller's psychological warfare arsenal! The first pair of guys that lived up there were treated to ear-splitting Iron Maiden, one song, repeated over and over again. I did this during the middle of the day when the people downstairs were at work. It was so loud I could hear them yelling to each other over the noise. I, of course, arranged the speakers so they pointed upward.

That was fun but also has the potential for bringing the cops to your own door, so it isn't necessarily recommended. An idea that struck upon me though was to connect my computer to my stereo system which allowed me to play anything I wanted at high power. I experimented with very low frequency sounds and found some combinations that made the building resonate. The only way I can describe it is to imagine standing next to a very large semi-truck that you can't see. I put one speaker toward the front of my place and the other in the back. I had both tracks out of phase so that as you walked around the sound changed due to interference. In some places it sounded like a truck, in others a helicopter. It was almost impossible to tell where the sound was coming from. It was nerve wracking and a bit eerie.

I also recorded strange tracks with multiple laughs from different women, mixed them up, added echo and other effects, then played that when I could tell there was woopee going upstairs. I felt certain that the sound of a woman laughing would have some kind of psychological affect on the guy even if he knew where it was coming from. I also played cow noises when his girlfriend was up there alone and stomping around. As I mentioned earlier, she did things to instigate problems and walking around with lead feet while he was not home was one of those things. So she was treated to sounds she was undoubtedly familiar with... those of her ancestors. I also treated her to several hours of a song from one of my daughter's CDs from when she was very young. Imagine "The wheels of the bus go round and round, round and round..." playing over and over and over again. For hours. It would have driven ME insane if I wasn't in total control of it. I knew that if I started to crack I could always hit the off switch.

So that's it in a nutshell... the size of a Dyson Sphere... I can only hope that these suggestions help and you have fun melting the minds of the animals you live among.

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The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

The Brain Science Podcast

Sounds like you're the kind of neighbor that needs to get kicked out.
I certainly would try if you lived next to me and behaved that way.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

You must have never lived in Army Barracks

There are times when War is declared and once begun- hard to stop.

Respect among neighbors can be a very rare thing in apartments. Depending.

I have, though only shortly, but that's besides the point.

Behavior acceptable in one place in not necessarily acceptable everywhere, and behavior as described by FriedPhoton should not be acceptable in a regular apartment block.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

Depending on what? Depending on whether you were taught as a child to respect everyone who doesn't show you a reason not to? I've lived in apartments or dorms for most of the last, oh, thirteen years, and I've had two serious problems, both with roommates, and a string of minor ones with the idiot freshmen in the next building over. When I've known my neighbours--off and on through the years--I've gotten along quite well with them.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

great shots by gillianren, (shots=points)

sometime I found some people unnecessary blame their neighbours when their commodity or any thing if stolen or missing, they start unnecessary eyebrow expansion towards their neighbours, for which sometime we are sole responsible for missing anything, it is due to our mistake we lost that thing, but as per our natural tilt, we start to blame the neighbours (left/right/front and rear neighbours). But in apartment system there are front neighbours and side neighbours, is it right.

Secondly I have observed 2 man, take for example me and one neighbour is standing in the front porch of the home, we are looking each other,(without speaking, not participating any kind of welfare of each other, not laughing, no smile) what will be the reaction, it will continue on the very next day, later day after tomorrow, it will remain,because what we decide, that we think, and whatever we think that is predecided in the mind, that not to speak. sometime it is better to keep mum rather than quarreling. The quarrel requires a cause, and that cause gives the reaction, and later the speech may become so harsh, and relations goes in dolldrum.

You are entitled to your opinion. I could have made the post much longer and gone into detail about the months I put up with these problems, or with the first pair of morons that lived above me how often I mentioned things that bothered me, and that despite my patience and my attempts to relate how I felt about the constant disruption to the peace in my home the problems continued unabated. Even after I'd talk to these guys and they'd tell me they would be more careful and apologize they would go right back to the same behavior within a day or two at most. What they were trying to do was keep me from calling the landlord. Their apologies were simply attempts to manipulate me.

I live in a three-flat and the second floor is mine. People on the third floor have to walk through the second floor when they come and go. The stairwells are very noisy, the doors make the building shake if not closed in a respectable fashion, and as I mentioned, I can hear most of what goes on upstairs. These guys had a minimum of two parties a week. One, during the week, was a poker party, and on the weekend they always had parties with large numbers of under-aged kids that would get wasted. I not only had to put up with all the music, yelling, banging, chair dragging, stomping, and on occasion a whole body would hit the floor with an enormous thud, but I also had to put up with all these kids running up and down the stairwells while laughing, yelling, or messing around. None of them knew how to talk. They all spoke at a volume I would consider just short of yelling. They had lead feet when walking up the stairs and sounded like they were under a barely controlled fall on the way down. Regardless of which way they went, none of them had the motor coordination to do anything but slam (SLAM!!!) the doors.

Then, of course, were the large groups of wasted kids driving into and out of the parking lot, and at times simply loitering. Without fail, if I was not home, both my parking spots would be taken, leaving me none.

So, that being just the start... how rude do you think I was when I was finally pushed too far? How polite would you have been? Are you going to tell me that you would simply move? At what point would you have begun to try to give them the hint that you had no intention of continuing to put up with their excessively immature behavior? And what would YOU have done?

Let me know if I need to continue with the next neighbor after those guys were kicked out... there is plenty more I could relate.

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The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

The Brain Science Podcast

Friedphoton, I have done the same when I wasnt able to take any more! The 2nd neighbour from hell I had was a woman who had 5 plus guys a night for a fee and was in breech of her tennancy agreement. It was only when the police were investigating her did the council finally move her. I had my car trashed and her family and regulars came onto my property and were threatening me, I ended up throwing one guy over my boundry wall and pushing the other over the gate, they thought that because I was a girl they could push me around but got a bit of a shock. Normally I wouldnt challenge anyone alone in the street as I am not a agressive person but they were in my garden and were lifting their fists to hit me and yelling like idiots at the same time. The Law in the UK a totally different to the USA and are pretty ancient, they have just started to change it in the last three years but have a long way to go.
I did enjoy playing rock music so loud that my pictures fell of the wall, and I could hardly hear her banging on the wall. Then the next day I played opera for hours on end in the house as I worked on the motorbike in the garden. I even downloaded some rave to treat her to on the weekend when she was at her peak entertainment time and I went out on the bike for 6 hrs. Ironically when she moved out the council put in another couple he was a drug dealer and beat the hell out of her, I had had enough by then and sold my house, the whole street was starting to change for the worse and people like myslf were selling up to get out.
Sometimes its the only way to exert some kind of payback for the torture you have been getting, playing music and getting the police involved but it can back fire if your not careful.

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Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.

Varium et mutabile semper foemina.

I agree, in some cases it could backfire on you in a bad way, but that really depends on the impulsiveness and lack of rationality the person you are dealing with has. If the person is insane or close to it, it might just be better to move, but most people aren't that bad and even if they'd like to get even with you they will probably forget about it or move on to the next conflict with someone else and not bother you. The best deterrent is to keep calling the police and reporting what they do if they confront you in anything resembling a hostile manner.

While I applaud you on your ability to give the morons that came into your yard the boot, my standard warning on these matters is to let the police handle it. The first two guys I mentioned would not have been a huge worry to me if I had ended up in a fight with either one at once, but both would have been difficult, and the next guy, as I said, he was an ape and I would have been an idiot to consider getting physical. The thing to keep in mind is that once you get physical the police will no longer think of you as the victim, you'll be part of a problem. We don't live in barbaric societies and it is the job of the police to put an end to barbaric behavior. Civilization has its benefits and one of those is that you should not have to worry about taking abuse from anyone regardless of their physical stature compared to your own. (And the opposite is true as well, nobody should have to worry about taking abuse from you... even if they richly deserve it. )

On a side note: You remind me of my sister. As I mentioned in a post on another thread, the neighborhood we grew up in had a 5:1 boy:girl ratio and she fit in with the guys with little trouble. She was an excellent baseball player. She was a pitcher and way back then girl pitchers were unheard of. She damaged a lot of young male egos because she was quite good. She too rides motorcycles now, or at least she did, I haven't seen her in years.

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The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

The Brain Science Podcast

The last confrontation I had was with two women who were racially abuseing me and thereatening me with violence, which I just kept my hands to my self,I didnt lower my self to their loud foul language slanging match, I just walked away and reported it to the police. But they wont prosecute as there was two of them and they have denied it, but they have been arrested and warned not to come near me or my property or to continue their race hate toward me or they will be prosecuted and it will carry a custodial sentance. It still worrys me that they can get away with it and the threats, but I have been given the support by the police and other agencys in the area but it doesnt remove the hurt and the threat. I wont be moveing and I am still proud that my family is German and English even though I dont advertise it or shout it from a big bell. They had been asking some of the elderly people who I help in the neighbourhood about me and decided to have a go for reasons still unknown to me and the police!!!!. Its ignorance and smallmindedness that makes people do things like this but it was unexpected and I never thought grown adults would say the things they did.
I havent seen the thread where you put in that I reminded you of your sister, and if you havent seen her for a while ring her or email her give her a nice suprise.

__________________
Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.

Varium et mutabile semper foemina.

I have a hard time understanding this sentiment. If even half of what he said is true, he is clearly the victim of bad neighbors.