Carl Nuechterlein is a journalism junior.Send comments to: superman@aol.com

One Friday night, my friends decided to come over to my house. Myguests soon realized that my house had more available living space tooffer than most cramped apartments, and soon more guests followed.

We enjoyed ourselves until around 5 a.m., when upon hearing ourjubilation, my neighbor (a nice old woman named Dottie) showed up atthe door.

She stood there in her nightgown angered that she had been keptawake, and went on to speculate “I don’t know if there’s any drinkinggoing on here or what?”

The next morning I received a call from my landlord informing methat in addition to complaints he received from Dottie, he also gotcalls from other neighbors.

A sense of guilt and responsibility came over me and I feltcompelled to knock on Dottie’s door the next day and apologize forthe disturbance.

Recently, the College Area Party Plan (CAPP) was brought to myattention by word of mouth from friends who have been placed underclose scrutiny by the police.

Essentially the plan says: If a house has received complaints fromneighbors for parties, and the police visit that house twice in a 30day period, or if at least five neighbors sign a petition, that housewill be CAPPed.

If a house is CAPPed, that house is under a type of probation fora year. If neighbors continue to complain, and the CAPP probation isviolated, the residents of the house will be fined, and anynoise-making possessions will be confiscated, and impounded.

This seems to be a rightful solution to the problem of collegeparties; however, instituting a CAPP on a house is unfair for severalreasons.

First of all, the complaints themselves, are merely subjective.

Does this mean that a house should be placed under a CAPP ifneighbors merely suspect that a party is going on, and call tocomplain about it.

If for example, neighbors see an unusually large amount of cars ontheir street and witness an unusually large number of people comingand going from a house, and assume that a party is in progress, doesthis entitle them to complain to the police department, resulting insanctions against that house?

This essentially leaves the power to decide the fate of a house ofcollege kids in the hands of their neighbors.

A noise complaint is always based on a subjective analysis, and ifa house being placed under a CAPP is done so based on the objectivenumber of complaints, then doing so is unfair unless the noisecomplaint can be objectified by the neighbor.

For example, if they have a decibel meter in their home, just as adrunk driver can be arrested if his or her blood alcohol level hasbeen quantified by a Breathalyzer test, and determined to be above0.08.

So, should residents of a house be penalized only after it hasbeen determined that the noise level exceeded a certain decibellevel?

Another reason that this is unfair is while neighbors may not likethe idea of having 50 or so college kids occupying the house next totheirs during late hours of the night, this is by no means illegal.Neighbors may not enjoy the notion that those same 50 collegestudents are drinking alcohol next door, but the consumption ofalcohol in a private residence is within their rights (assuming theguests are all older than 21).

Similarly someone choosing to play music at late hours of thenight would not be in violation of the law. If no laws were broken,why then are there grounds for punishment?

Beyond all of this, the neighbors in the College Area must realizethat they live only miles from the largest California StateUniversity, notorious for being a party school.

This should be remembered next Friday night when a party in theirneighborhood is noticed. Should we have compassion for people who areannoyed by jet airplanes and other aircrafts flying over their homes,who chose to live next to the airport?

Similarly, should those people who knowingly bought a house builtin the flood plains of the Sacramento area be pitied come floodseason when their homes are washed away ?

Bottom line: The neighbors have a right to live in peace, as theCollege Area students, have a right to have parties. There needs tobe a compromise between the two, that includes the students’perspective.

This column is the opinion of the columnist and not The DailyAztec.