Dealing with noisy neighbour in an apartment block

[ajoknoblauch]

Street noise, garbage, dog excrement and contamination is common in all large cities. The city government is working to reduce noise and recycle garbage to make this a "slow" city and a "green" city. Everyone has to do their part to make it happen. Education and awareness are vital. It takes time to change old habits.

In California, it's now rare to find dog shit in the street, as almost everybody cleans up after his or her dog. In Buenos Aires, I always carry a couple plastic bags and, if somebody's dog is dumping on the sidewalk, I hand over one of them, adding that "Se te cayó algo."

 

[cruizes]

Welcome to Buenos Aires. No matter who you contact, who you complain to, who you file a report to things WILL NOT change. It is exhausting and definitely not worth my energy any longer. They keep telling me it is the culture YEAH - it's lack of class and respect!

 

[ElQueso]

One of the things I've seen in the areas I've lived in and spent the most time in (Parts of Retiro, Microcenter and Recoleta), is a very large number of people now carrying plastic bags and actually picking up after their dogs. It's been the last year or more that I noticed it. However, I'm not sure whether or not that's because it simply coincides with my apartment movement within Retiro about 15 months ago (from between 9 de Julio and Alem close to the station and villa and now I'm "officially" one block from Recoleta, moved to the other side of 9 de Julio).

Everyone where I live carries bags and picks up after their dogs. I've not seen anything worse than pissing and that usually not in the middle of the walk. We have a couple of signs I've seen telling people to pick up.

It used to be a huge pet peeve of mine. At one point in time, the road that led up to the foreign ministry building (other side of the street from the ministry building) would be full of piles. Now that I think about it, that was going away before I moved out of there.

Recoleta, around the cemetery along Vicente Lopez and down Azcuenega, used to be full of crap. I've noticed that cleaning up as well.

I've also noticed things being quite a bit cleaner. I remember when I moved here, it was horrible. The carteneros used to leave crap scattered around and it would get blown up the street and scattered about. I don't see much of that any more.

Maybe the meme of taking pride in your surroundings is spreading and it will take more time to radiate throughout the city. But will it ever defeat the graffiti?

Now, as to the noise - I find it wherever I've lived and to varying degrees. Always plagued by parties on the weekends in various proximity to our domicile. Even in Garin, in a closed neighborhood, we had some local parties and a ton from the villa not too far away that were quite disturbing. We have an upstairs neighbor who has a son who likes to play futbol in the house with his friends, complete with play-by-play yelled out breathlessly, the inevitable "goooooollllll" and the equally mandated breakage of something fragile. Not to mention feet noise that sounds like a herd of brontosauruses stampeding. There was even a party one time about 6 months ago (the kid was graduating high school - yes, I wasn't talking about a ten-year-old) where the cops came and shut them down and harassed my oldest girl and her friend when they were leaving to go to a club.

But it doesn't happen all the time and I've learned to pretty much ignore it. I can imagine how terrible it would be to have something that was purposefully creating noise for long periods of time. I don't even know how to suggest to go about fixing the issue.

I can relate a quick story about a neighbor of an acquaintance of mine who rents his apartment out temporary. The neighbor didn't like having a temporary apartment across the hall. I don't blame him, I can understand his valid complaints. But his method of protesting was to collect urine and pour it out on the door mat of his nemesis' apartment. My other good friend who manages the apartment planted a pen camera in the indoor plant nearby and caught him doing it. The neighbor was planting the urine and then protesting to the administration that the temporary residents were coming back literally piss-drunk and letting it out before they got in the door.

But I wouldn't really suggest that...

 

[ajoknoblauch]

One of the things I've seen in the areas I've lived in and spent the most time in (Parts of Retiro, Microcenter and Recoleta), is a very large number of people now carrying plastic bags and actually picking up after their dogs. It's been the last year or more that I noticed it. However, I'm not sure whether or not that's because it simply coincides with my apartment movement within Retiro about 15 months ago (from between 9 de Julio and Alem close to the station and villa and now I'm "officially" one block from Recoleta, moved to the other side of 9 de Julio).

Everyone where I live carries bags and picks up after their dogs. I've not seen anything worse than pissing and that usually not in the middle of the walk. We have a couple of signs I've seen telling people to pick up.

It used to be a huge pet peeve of mine. At one point in time, the road that led up to the foreign ministry building (other side of the street from the ministry building) would be full of piles. Now that I think about it, that was going away before I moved out of there.

Recoleta, around the cemetery along Vicente Lopez and down Azcuenega, used to be full of crap. I've noticed that cleaning up as well.

I would agree that this has improved, but it's still a small minority that cleans up after their dogs. Cat people, however, never clean up after their pests, let alone the feral felines they feed in places like the Jardín Botánico (which needs an after-hours Rottweiler patrol).

 

[Redbeanz]

I would agree that this has improved, but it's still a small minority that cleans up after their dogs. Cat people, however, never clean up after their pests, let alone the feral felines they feed in places like the Jardín Botánico (which needs an after-hours Rottweiler patrol).

We see many owners picking up after their dogs. Most, in fact. But the dog walkers don't seem to be as concerned.

 

[cruizes]

Love the old ladies that will let the dog shit anywhere it wants to and then they just walk away

 

[ajoknoblauch]

We see many owners picking up after their dogs. Most, in fact. But the dog walkers don't seem to be as concerned.

I'd say that, even with dog owners, it's still the exception rather than the rule.

 

[TomAtAlki]

I'd say that, even with dog owners, it's still the exception rather than the rule.

I guess it depends on your part of town. I'm in Palermo Viejo and not only do most people (and dog walkers) pick up after their dogs, we now have posts with plastic bags and signs saying to pick up. This was all unthinkable a few years ago. And in a few years, i expect the street to be rid of dog poop altogether. Now it's time to start working on getting rid of the tagging.

T/

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I guess it depends on your part of town. I'm in Palermo Viejo and not only do most people (and dog walkers) pick up after their dogs, we now have posts with plastic bags and signs saying to pick up. This was all unthinkable a few years ago. And in a few years, i expect the street to be rid of dog poop altogether. Now it's time to start working on getting rid of the tagging.

T/

In the Botánico it's still far commoner than I would like (even though there's a bag dispenser right on the landscaped median at Árabe Siria and Cerviño, I've never seen anybody take one). The streets alongside the zoo (República de la India) and the botanical gardens themselves (Árabe Siria between Santa Fe and Las Heras) are the worst.

Tagging will be a tougher problem - spray paint is a cheaper and lesser commitment than a dog, and requires far less thought.

 

[TomAtAlki]

We painted out all the tags on our street a few years ago. Since then we've had to paint out maybe 6 more. We've had no tags in the last year. For whatever that's worth.

T/