Mayor Sheila Dixon signed into law a tough new neighborhood nuisance measure last week that had stalled in the City Council since its introduction nearly two years ago.
Under the measure, residents who violate the city's noise ordinances - by acting disorderly, using loud profanity or "making an unreasonably loud noise" - twice in a six-month period could face the threat of eviction.
Many fear it will be used to specifically target college students. but city officials say they are simply trying to promote the creation of a new community spirit.
"[It] reflects that you don't just have a responsibility to your property - you also have a responsibility to your neighborhood," said Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "And it was written directly in response to neighborhood complaints."
According to Adamec, the ordinance was also designed in part as an alternate way to combat the city's metastatic drug trade. It provides the community with the power to report the unruly, late-night street gatherings that often accompany drug dealing and to have the dealers removed from neighborhoods, he said.
In hearings on the noise ordinance, City Council members agreed "unreasonably loud noises" included anything that could be heard from 50 yards away; a door slamming, someone playing with a baseball bat or students hosting a party.
As Adamec admits, "There are noises [that come with living in a city] that don't exist in a suburban environment ... But the ordinance is targeting habitual offenders."
Robert Turning, the coordinator of Greek life, worries the ordinance will be selectively enforced against college students.
He said that students, particularly those in fraternities and sororities, attract an unfair amount of attention for their parties.
"Because our members wear letters and call themselves a group they have a spotlight on them ... they're more recognizable than three women living in a random house having loud, disruptive events," Turning said.
Many students living off-campus have had problems with their neighbors in Charles Village.
Junior Rahul Wagh recently had to leave his apartment in the Marylander, an apartment complex popular among Hopkins undergraduates.
"My neighbor was an old man who would start banging on my walls if I had the TV or stereo on during the afternoon. Sometimes he'd even knock on my door saying that the volume was unbearable even though it was at a normal listening volume," Wagh said.
When Wagh started entertaining friends past 10 pm, the neighbor began involving the police.
After the second police visit, although both times the police admitted Wagh had in no way broken the law, he was forced to relocate.
"Morgan Leasing Company - the company that owns the building - gave me a two-strike warning for the police complaints," Wagh said. "The Marylander has a three-strike policy, so I had no choice but to move out since the third strike was inevitable."
However, the University did not support the eviction provisions that the ordinance contained, citing that these provisions were unreasonably harsh to students.
"We also felt that a city which already has a problem with vacant housing ought not to be creating more by evicting people unnecessarily," said Amy Lunday, the senior media relations representative at Hopkins.
The University is also discussing the idea of creating a fraternity row as a way to curb the amount of noise complaints.
"If we were able to build a Greek row or Greek village, we could pull groups of students that will be having events out of the neighborhood. It's something that's been on the wish list of the neighborhood for a very long time," Turning said.
As of now, there have been no definite talks about these plans for a frat row.
"We just built Charles Commons, they've purchased the Charles and the Blackstone. The next things passed that are, hopefully, to finish out the freshman quad, relocate the baseball field - then a Greek village-type project will be at the back of that line. It's definitely something that's on the radar but it's pretty far off," Turning said.
Members of the Charles Village Community Association and the Greater Homewood Community Cooperation were contacted for comment. Neither of the groups representing the area knew much about the ordinance.
