For the past ten years, we have been living in the country, where we didn’t need to lock our doors and the loudest sounds were coyote serenades. For the next six months, until we move to Portland, we are back in the city.

We rented a house in a working-class neighborhood; a different area of the same neighborhood where we lived 10 years ago. It seemed quiet and safe at the time. I spent a few evenings moving and unpacking stuff with no noise and no problems. We did notice that there were junker cars parked in front of our house; my husband politely asked that at least one of them be moved so we can park in front of the house. They said they would; it hasn’t happened yet. My husband also saw the police serving some kind of papers there.

The night we moved in, the party next door started at 9:30 PM and went to the wee hours of the morning. Booming rap music, cars squealing in and out, people outside in front of our house being loud… I finally got to sleep about 1 AM with the help of earplugs and a loud fan.

The next morning, the rap music was still booming, so loud it sounded like we had a radio on in our house. I went out, in my pajamas, to get our dogs in and saw two of the neighbors in their yard. The guy looked at me and said “Music too loud?” I said yes, it was. I then asked, quite politely, “Do you have parties like the one last night very often? It was pretty loud, and we were really tired.”

I then got about 10 minutes of verbal haranguing that they owned the house, they party all the time, new people keep coming in and complaining, go ahead and call the police, they won’t do anything, they can party when they want, we can’t tell them what to do, etc. etc. He would not shut up and I couldn’t say anything- I finally just went back in the house.

A few minutes later, a man who was so drunk I could smell him through the window (and remember, it was still morning!) came up to the door and continued talking about the parties.

Later that day, I found out that a rape had been committed on our block – and, from the description, it was at their house. The rapist was a known gang member, who was a friend of the family and had been invited over in the past.

So, great. I have possibly dangerous and definitely noisy neighbors next door. I am scared of retaliation should we report them (my husband is often out of town on business trips and I am then alone) and they are not the type for successful mediation- they obviously have no conception of the rights of others.

Any ideas of what we can do, or is it just 6 months of suffering?