The Campbell family had recently become irritated with their neighbor’s, the Liens, late night weekend gatherings on their back patio. “It was frustrating because at first, we thought it was a onetime occurrence,” said neighbor Katy Campbell. “Then, it seemed like every weekend they were having friends over, and were up late listening to music and hanging out. It’s not that big of a deal, except we have a baby, so we need her to sleep, and we need the sleep.” The Campbell couple knew what they had to do, but it was going to go against the grain of how almost everyone in Stapleton prefers to solve neighborly disagreements.
In Stapleton, if you have a disagreement, the norm has been to post the issue in a public forum, such as one of the Facebook sites, Next Door, or Big Tent. Typically, this is done in a passive-aggressive fashion. “We have seen how a lot of people handle these small disputes and how they can escalate quickly,” said Jon Campbell. “Something small immediately becomes something big as comments become nasty and people take sides. We decided we were going to try something new.” The Campbells decided to go over to the Liens home and address it with them politely. “We wanted to let them know that we knew they weren’t trying to be disruptive,” said Jon. “We just needed to see what we could do in regards to having it a little more quiet after 9PM. It was nothing personal, and we wanted to keep it that way.”
The Liens appreciated hearing from the Campbells directly. “We have seen how these things are normally handled,” said Alex Lien. “We were glad to not have our photos or a video of us posted on a site.” Melissa Lien felt the same way. “We felt bad they hadn’t addressed it sooner,” said Melissa. “From our standpoint, moving a gathering inside is not that big of a deal, especially if it keeps us from having a silent feud with neighbors. Plus, there’s a chance another neighbor felt similarly, so we were glad to have someone address it with us face to face.” The Liens and Campbells had success with their brief one on one discussion regarding a neighborly matter. Maybe this success story will be enough to have other Stapleton neighbors try a similar approach.
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