Partygoers dropped the noise by a few decibels each of the past four weekends, East Lansing police reported Monday.
Decreasing complaints is music to the ears of some residents and community leaders who grumbled at a city council meeting two weeks ago about noise-related problems. The 30 noise complaints reported last weekend was the lowest total of any weekend this school year.
That weekend weather was the coolest of the school year, and it was the first weekend without a home football game.
Kevin Glandon, ASMSU director of community affairs, said the reasons for both the increase and decrease won’t disappear anytime soon. ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
“We need to focus on what might cause this rather than worry about what the numbers are on a particular day,” he said. “I don’t know if it shows that there was originally no noise problem, but it shows that maybe people were too hasty with conclusions the first time. If there was a big problem in the beginning we wouldn’t be seeing these declines now.”
There were 482 noise complaints between Aug. 15 and Oct. 7 last year compared to 656 this year. At the city council meeting, Councilmember Bill Sharp said unruly parties could lead to a riot. But the latest numbers, he said, is an indication that residents are “going in the right direction” when it comes to partying.
“Maybe our message got out to the noisy party people,” Sharp said while questioning whether permanent residents would agree that noise has decreased. “There is still a lot of noise, and a lot of parties, and a lot of calls and complaints.”
East Lansing police Capt. Juli Liebler said she isn’t confident that will change.
“There will always be noise in East Lansing,” she said. “It’s a by-product of alcohol use. But I think we can continue to educate more people and hope that they’re respectful. We have a mix of permanent residents and nonpermanent residents, and it’s hard to find a happy medium.”
To Jean Golden, East Lansing deputy city manager, the pattern is nothing new.
“I live on the edge of a student-rental neighborhood, and I see this increase and decrease every year,” Golden said. “It’s nothing different from last year.”
The city must work closely with MSU, the community and student organizations to deal with the noise issue, Golden said. “It’s important for the community to keep a perspective on the noise and this puts the situation into a better perspective,” she said. “We need to keep consistency in our efforts.”
Tom Wibert, East Lansing’s deputy police chief, said he expects the number of complaints to continue to decrease or remain the same for the remainder of the fall.
“I like to think that everyone knows from education and the media that this is an issue that they need to be aware of and people are more respectful,” he said. “The increase may have been a case of people moving into neighborhoods and not knowing what’s expected of them. We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing because it seems to be working.”
Kendra Snyder can be reached at snyderk6@msu.edu.
