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I might not be liked anymore by some neighbours, but it was really satisfying.
My parents have always been at the forefront of trying to keep/make our neighbourhood a liveable place for those who live here. There was a time when neighbours would report any problems to my parents and my parents would forward them to the council every week.
The last time my parents were up in arms about something was when the Aboriginal Art Museum wanted a permit as an event location, being allowed to serve alcohol and use their garden as party space. Since most people living on the block sleep at the back of their house (too noisy at the front), nobody was happy with this. The AAMU did get a permit, but it was very limited and as a result the inside of house blocks in the city center were designated as quiet spots for residents.
Since then some neighbours living in the row of apartments behind us come to us for any complaints they have and want us to solve them. This ranges from noise complaints (some unreasonable), to trash being dumped, people parking illegally. When they come we tell them to report to the council themselves, and they go all huffy. This has been going on for over 20 years!
Yesterday one of the biggest complainers came about the new headquarter of a company in the old AAMU building. I was surprised that they hadn't come by about the light issues. But apparently the company wants to organize cooking classes at the headquarter (they have shops that sell a lot of cooking stuff). They want to stop that because they think it's basically the same as a cafe in their opinion. They also want to object to the basement being converted to meeting rooms. The basement is at the front and won't cause any problems for them, if at all.
They wanted my father to take up the problem, again. My father wasn't in the store and I refused and told them that we were moving soon so we have better things on our minds than fight something that will probably never be a problem. And again they got all huffy and stomped off. My parents were happy I did this. And when the neighbour came back in the afternoon to try and convince my father and complain about me my father blew them off.
I've been annoyed with their attitude for years and my father being too friendly to properly blow them off. So it was very satisfying to do it myself.
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