Dealing with Neighbors Who Are Heavy Pot Smokers

[Guest oakwood42]

Isn't this pretty much the same problem that people have had for decades with ethnic cooking?  If you have a multicultural city, you'll have a little bit of everything in your building and every day you will smell different cooking than what you eat.  There's never been much you can do about it, right?

 

I am not sure how this is even a comparison.

[Cardboard]

Just take a large paper enveloppe.

 

Fill it with mustard.

 

Slide it just under their door and drop a dictionary or large book on it.

 

Then hide.

[StubbleJumper]

Isn't this pretty much the same problem that people have had for decades with ethnic cooking?  If you have a multicultural city, you'll have a little bit of everything in your building and every day you will smell different cooking than what you eat.  There's never been much you can do about it, right?

 

I am not sure how this is even a comparison.

 

 

Where have you lived?  Are all of your neighbours of the same ethnicity as you?  Do you live amongst immigrants? 

 

If you are Asian, then the smell of Asian cooking in your building will be a good smell to you.  If you are from the Indian sub-continent, then the smell of Indian cooking will be a good smell for you.  If you are from a culture that consumes fish frequently, you might be okay with the strong smell of cooked fish in your building.  But, chances are you are not part of *all* of those ethnic groups, so probably at least one of them will come across as a disagreeable odour.  In large Canadian cities, there's a good chance that *all* of those groups will be in your apartment building.  Seriously, if you live next door to families from other cultures who are enthusiastic about cooking their regional cuisine, it can be quite tiresome to smell it everyday (or it can be quite enjoyable as the case may be).

 

So it is with pot.  If you are a regular pot smoker, you might not mind the scent in your building, just as cigar smokers don't generally mind the smell of cigars.  But, for almost everyone else, the smell of cigars or of pot is unpleasant and tiresome if it becomes a regular thing. 

 

Now that pot has been legalised in some jurisdictions, it is pretty hard to deal with a neighbour whose unit is a constant source of a completely legal odour.  What they are doing is legal, just as the Chinese family's and Indian family's cooking has always perfectly legal.  If you don't happen to like it, there's not much you can do about it.

 

 

SJ

[LC]

I like this thread...so many diverse methods of dealing with conflict :D

 

BG, you've got to give us an update, this is pretty decent drama for a value investor board!

 

So it is with pot.  If you are a regular pot smoker, you might not mind the scent in your building

 

I remember guys (and girls) smoking crack in the stairwells of my old brooklyn building. You never saw them, but crack is one of those things that you have no idea what it smells like, but you catch a whiff of it for the first time, and you immediately know EXACTLY what it is that you're smelling! Pretty wild.

 

And now I'm getting nostalgia...to me, nothing screams the city like repeatedly slamming a hardcover copy of Ulysses against the shared wall at 6 AM, screaming "Shut the F#(* up!!!", because the cracked-out neighbor's grandmother (sober) is screaming at her 7 year old grandson to "be a man and get dressed!"

 

So for a guy smoking a joint at midnight...I mean c'mon :D

[John Hjorth]

... And now I'm getting nostalgia...to me, nothing screams the city like repeatedly slamming a hardcover copy of Ulysses against the shared wall at 6 AM, screaming "Shut the F#(* up!!!", because the cracked-out neighbor's grandmother (sober) is screaming at her 7 year old grandson to "be a man and get dressed!" ...

 

LC,

 

Personally, I've never really understood your motivation for your move years ago from NYC to Denver, Colorado. I mean : All that snow shoveling in the winters. Well, I think I - at least partly - understand it now. Everything in life is about decision making among alternatives, based on judged pros & cons for the alternatives. [ : - ) ]

[rkbabang]

I remember guys (and girls) smoking crack in the stairwells of my old brooklyn building. You never saw them, but crack is one of those things that you have no idea what it smells like, but you catch a whiff of it for the first time, and you immediately know EXACTLY what it is that you're smelling! Pretty wild.

 

And now I'm getting nostalgia...to me, nothing screams the city like repeatedly slamming a hardcover copy of Ulysses against the shared wall at 6 AM, screaming "Shut the F#(* up!!!", because the cracked-out neighbor's grandmother (sober) is screaming at her 7 year old grandson to "be a man and get dressed!"

 

So for a guy smoking a joint at midnight...I mean c'mon :D

 

The first apartment my wife and I had together before we were married was on the ground floor right next to a bar.  We had a huge fat lady living upstairs from us who you could hear <boom> <boom> <boom> every time she walked.  And she would yell at and beat the hell out of her kids every day.  The couple on the side of us in our building (the bar was the next building) would yell and fight constantly, throw things at each other, and it sounded like he was beating her up all the time.  And when we'd leave our apartment in the morning it wasn't unusual (it was summer) to have to step over a passed out drunk on our front steps.    We didn't stay there that long, just a couple of months and from there moved into a 3rd floor apartment where the people below us were heavy pot smokers and the spanish speaking folks that lived in the building next door would yell stuff at my wife and whistle every time she left the building, but it was a huge step up from the 1st place so we stayed there 3 years until we bought our fist house in the burbs.  I don't miss city living.

 

[Gregmal]

Ive lived in the city for a short period of time. Ive lived, my entire life, typically about 30 minutes outside of it and no further than I am now, which is about 40 miles(70 minutes). My observation is that the further you get from the city, the more considerate, and more friendly people become. I do not necessarily think this means city people are inherently more selfish, just that this is how one must conduct themselves in that type of setting. If anything my time in the city reminded me of college(as does the descriptions of events in this thread). Everyone is in a dorm, and everyone is crammed on top of everyone else. You've people cooking, smoking, blasting music, throwing parties, fighting, screaming, etc. A free for all. Ask someone to quiet down? You're likely going to have an altercation. If you're lucky they'll placate you- only to then immediately go back to doing what they want. While as a single 20 year old I had no problem dealing with that kind of stuff, as a married guy with a family I have no desire to.

[rkbabang]

Ive lived in the city for a short period of time. Ive lived, my entire life, typically about 30 minutes outside of it and no further than I am now, which is about 40 miles(70 minutes). My observation is that the further you get from the city, the more considerate, and more friendly people become. I do not necessarily think this means city people are inherently more selfish, just that this is how one must conduct themselves in that type of setting. If anything my time in the city reminded me of college(as does the descriptions of events in this thread). Everyone is in a dorm, and everyone is crammed on top of everyone else. You've people cooking, smoking, blasting music, throwing parties, fighting, screaming, etc. A free for all. Ask someone to quiet down? You're likely going to have an altercation. If you're lucky they'll placate you- only to then immediately go back to doing what they want. While as a single 20 year old I had no problem dealing with that kind of stuff, as a married guy with a family I have no desire to.

 

My wife and I were both from small towns, so it was culture shock for sure.  A funny story.  We bought a couple of rubbermaid type barrels for our trash to leave behind the building.  So the night before the first trash day I put the barrels on the sidewalk.  I noticed the next morning that the barrels were gone and our trash bags were sitting on the sidewalk. Someone took our trash bags out and stole the barrels.  We were telling some friends we made the story and they all laughed at us and said "What were you thinking? You can't just leave brand new barrels out on the sidewalk in Worcester".  They used to laugh at our small town sensibilities all of the time, like when my wife mentioned that she noticed that at the grocery store a lot of people pay with travelers checks.  Apparently it was food stamps, not travelers checks.

 

But back to the topic we just got used to the pot smell.  Our apartment smelled like pot pretty much constantly for 3 years.

 

[BG2008]

Since my passive/aggressive announcement, I have not smelled pot yet.  But I have been out of the apartment in the last few days.  Someone did aggressively torn my publicly placed letter in half with half of it still on the wall and half of it on the ground.  From the tear pattern, it seem like an aggressive "f*%$ you" down to up stroke.  The responses on this board is interesting in the differences between dense city, suburb and rural settings.  NYC people are known for avoiding contact.  I have been on subway cars where a guy walks into the car and starts announcing that s/he

 

lost their job and is now homeless and needs $10 so s/he can stay at a shelter for the night

is diabetic and needs to scrounge up enough money for insulin

is HIV positive and needs money for treatment

is selling candy to raise money

has children and need to feed them

SHOWTIME, IT"S SHOWTIME (If you lived here, you'll know)

 

And literally no one will bat an eye.  We learned a long time ago that if you make eye contact, they know they "Got You"  I have only given money to people who actually provided entertainment and a guy who had both of his legs cut off and he was literally pushing himself on the Subway car with his arms.  This was at 2AM in the morning.  So we are not the type to knock on 10 of our neighbors door and ask "are you the one smoking weed? can you please stop it?"  Everyone here has a place to be and 10 things that were supposedly to be done yesterday.  God forbid if you stand on the left of the escalator or stopped mid stride to look at a building.  This is the context that we are dealing with.  Frankly, I don't know any of my neighbor's name.  I only know the Super for the property.

 

FYI, I love my apartment as it is a 5 minute walk to the subway which is a 25 ride into midtown Manhattan, there is street parking for my car and I am 2 minutes from the LIE and the parkways.  It is like the most ideal location.  There is literal water damage in my apartment and I haven't bothered the management to fix it because it is a rent stabilized apartment and I would like to stay here as long as possible.  The crap that us NYer put up with in order to have well located housing is incredible!!  Everyone else in the building has been great in the last 8 years as they just leave each other alone.  I will bet money that there are others in the building who are extremely glad that someone finally "spoke up."  This is an issue that is not solely confined to me.  This is likely an issue all over NYC. Frankly, I have visited extremely high end multi-family buildings in Texas, DC etc where in the middle of touring, there is a tenant who is blazing in their apartment.  These are like $3,000 a month apartments.  And the leasing agent is embarrassed as hell and promised me that they won't tolerate that. 

 

So, I will wager $1 (like the guys from Trading Places) that there will be an article in the WSJ in the next 3 years about how the decriminization of weed has led to a lot of neighbor complaints.       

 

[Castanza]

Since my passive/aggressive announcement, I have not smelled pot yet.  But I have been out of the apartment in the last few days.  Someone did aggressively torn my publicly placed letter in half with half of it still on the wall and half of it on the ground.  From the tear pattern, it seem like an aggressive "f*%$ you" down to up stroke.  The responses on this board is interesting in the differences between dense city, suburb and rural settings.  NYC people are known for avoiding contact.  I have been on subway cars where a guy walks into the car and starts announcing that s/he

 

lost their job and is now homeless and needs $10 so s/he can stay at a shelter for the night

is diabetic and needs to scrounge up enough money for insulin

is HIV positive and needs money for treatment

is selling candy to raise money

has children and need to feed them

SHOWTIME, IT"S SHOWTIME (If you lived here, you'll know)

 

And literally no one will bat an eye.  We learned a long time ago that if you make eye contact, they know they "Got You"  I have only given money to people who actually provided entertainment and a guy who had both of his legs cut off and he was literally pushing himself on the Subway car with his arms.  This was at 2AM in the morning.  So we are not the type to knock on 10 of our neighbors door and ask "are you the one smoking weed? can you please stop it?"  Everyone here has a place to be and 10 things that were supposedly to be done yesterday.  God forbid if you stand on the left of the escalator or stopped mid stride to look at a building.  This is the context that we are dealing with.  Frankly, I don't know any of my neighbor's name.  I only know the Super for the property.

 

FYI, I love my apartment as it is a 5 minute walk to the subway which is a 25 ride into midtown Manhattan, there is street parking for my car and I am 2 minutes from the LIE and the parkways.  It is like the most ideal location.  There is literal water damage in my apartment and I haven't bothered the management to fix it because it is a rent stabilized apartment and I would like to stay here as long as possible.  The crap that us NYer put up with in order to have well located housing is incredible!!  Everyone else in the building has been great in the last 8 years as they just leave each other alone.  I will bet money that there are others in the building who are extremely glad that someone finally "spoke up."  This is an issue that is not solely confined to me.  This is likely an issue all over NYC. Frankly, I have visited extremely high end multi-family buildings in Texas, DC etc where in the middle of touring, there is a tenant who is blazing in their apartment.  These are like $3,000 a month apartments.  And the leasing agent is embarrassed as hell and promised me that they won't tolerate that. 

 

So, I will wager $1 (like the guys from Trading Places) that there will be an article in the WSJ in the next 3 years about how the decriminization of weed has led to a lot of neighbor complaints.     

 

There are trade-offs wherever you live. This "dorm" feeling as Greg put is it the exact reason I chose to not live in a big city for any extended period of time. People are annoying all over the place. You're just much more likely to encounter them in a city due to proximity.

 

Personally I prefer to walk outside every morning to see a few deer grazing in the field, over some meth addict sitting on my steps. My wallet also thanks me! But to each their own! Different strokes for different folks  :P

[BG2008]

Since my passive/aggressive announcement, I have not smelled pot yet.  But I have been out of the apartment in the last few days.  Someone did aggressively torn my publicly placed letter in half with half of it still on the wall and half of it on the ground.  From the tear pattern, it seem like an aggressive "f*%$ you" down to up stroke.  The responses on this board is interesting in the differences between dense city, suburb and rural settings.  NYC people are known for avoiding contact.  I have been on subway cars where a guy walks into the car and starts announcing that s/he

 

lost their job and is now homeless and needs $10 so s/he can stay at a shelter for the night

is diabetic and needs to scrounge up enough money for insulin

is HIV positive and needs money for treatment

is selling candy to raise money

has children and need to feed them

SHOWTIME, IT"S SHOWTIME (If you lived here, you'll know)

 

And literally no one will bat an eye.  We learned a long time ago that if you make eye contact, they know they "Got You"  I have only given money to people who actually provided entertainment and a guy who had both of his legs cut off and he was literally pushing himself on the Subway car with his arms.  This was at 2AM in the morning.  So we are not the type to knock on 10 of our neighbors door and ask "are you the one smoking weed? can you please stop it?"  Everyone here has a place to be and 10 things that were supposedly to be done yesterday.  God forbid if you stand on the left of the escalator or stopped mid stride to look at a building.  This is the context that we are dealing with.  Frankly, I don't know any of my neighbor's name.  I only know the Super for the property.

 

FYI, I love my apartment as it is a 5 minute walk to the subway which is a 25 ride into midtown Manhattan, there is street parking for my car and I am 2 minutes from the LIE and the parkways.  It is like the most ideal location.  There is literal water damage in my apartment and I haven't bothered the management to fix it because it is a rent stabilized apartment and I would like to stay here as long as possible.  The crap that us NYer put up with in order to have well located housing is incredible!!  Everyone else in the building has been great in the last 8 years as they just leave each other alone.  I will bet money that there are others in the building who are extremely glad that someone finally "spoke up."  This is an issue that is not solely confined to me.  This is likely an issue all over NYC. Frankly, I have visited extremely high end multi-family buildings in Texas, DC etc where in the middle of touring, there is a tenant who is blazing in their apartment.  These are like $3,000 a month apartments.  And the leasing agent is embarrassed as hell and promised me that they won't tolerate that. 

 

So, I will wager $1 (like the guys from Trading Places) that there will be an article in the WSJ in the next 3 years about how the decriminization of weed has led to a lot of neighbor complaints.     

 

There are trade-offs wherever you live. This "dorm" feeling as Greg put is it the exact reason I chose to not live in a big city for any extended period of time. People are annoying all over the place. You're just much more likely to encounter them in a city due to proximity.

 

Personally I prefer to walk outside every morning to see a few deer grazing in the field, over some meth addict sitting on my steps. My wallet also thanks me! But to each their own! Different strokes for different folks  :P

 

Castanza,

 

Deer, perfect grass fed meat for a keto diet. 

[BG2008]

Since my passive/aggressive announcement, I have not smelled pot yet.  But I have been out of the apartment in the last few days.  Someone did aggressively torn my publicly placed letter in half with half of it still on the wall and half of it on the ground.  From the tear pattern, it seem like an aggressive "f*%$ you" down to up stroke.  The responses on this board is interesting in the differences between dense city, suburb and rural settings.  NYC people are known for avoiding contact.  I have been on subway cars where a guy walks into the car and starts announcing that s/he

 

lost their job and is now homeless and needs $10 so s/he can stay at a shelter for the night

is diabetic and needs to scrounge up enough money for insulin

is HIV positive and needs money for treatment

is selling candy to raise money

has children and need to feed them

SHOWTIME, IT"S SHOWTIME (If you lived here, you'll know)

 

And literally no one will bat an eye.  We learned a long time ago that if you make eye contact, they know they "Got You"  I have only given money to people who actually provided entertainment and a guy who had both of his legs cut off and he was literally pushing himself on the Subway car with his arms.  This was at 2AM in the morning.  So we are not the type to knock on 10 of our neighbors door and ask "are you the one smoking weed? can you please stop it?"  Everyone here has a place to be and 10 things that were supposedly to be done yesterday.  God forbid if you stand on the left of the escalator or stopped mid stride to look at a building.  This is the context that we are dealing with.  Frankly, I don't know any of my neighbor's name.  I only know the Super for the property.

 

FYI, I love my apartment as it is a 5 minute walk to the subway which is a 25 ride into midtown Manhattan, there is street parking for my car and I am 2 minutes from the LIE and the parkways.  It is like the most ideal location.  There is literal water damage in my apartment and I haven't bothered the management to fix it because it is a rent stabilized apartment and I would like to stay here as long as possible.  The crap that us NYer put up with in order to have well located housing is incredible!!  Everyone else in the building has been great in the last 8 years as they just leave each other alone.  I will bet money that there are others in the building who are extremely glad that someone finally "spoke up."  This is an issue that is not solely confined to me.  This is likely an issue all over NYC. Frankly, I have visited extremely high end multi-family buildings in Texas, DC etc where in the middle of touring, there is a tenant who is blazing in their apartment.  These are like $3,000 a month apartments.  And the leasing agent is embarrassed as hell and promised me that they won't tolerate that. 

 

So, I will wager $1 (like the guys from Trading Places) that there will be an article in the WSJ in the next 3 years about how the decriminization of weed has led to a lot of neighbor complaints.     

 

There are trade-offs wherever you live. This "dorm" feeling as Greg put is it the exact reason I chose to not live in a big city for any extended period of time. People are annoying all over the place. You're just much more likely to encounter them in a city due to proximity.

 

Personally I prefer to walk outside every morning to see a few deer grazing in the field, over some meth addict sitting on my steps. My wallet also thanks me! But to each their own! Different strokes for different folks  :P

 

Castanza,

 

Deer, perfect grass fed meat for a keto diet.

 

Just got to add some butter or rendered deer fat at the end

[LC]

... And now I'm getting nostalgia...to me, nothing screams the city like repeatedly slamming a hardcover copy of Ulysses against the shared wall at 6 AM, screaming "Shut the F#(* up!!!", because the cracked-out neighbor's grandmother (sober) is screaming at her 7 year old grandson to "be a man and get dressed!" ...

 

LC,

 

Personally, I've never really understood your motivation for your move years ago from NYC to Denver, Colorado. I mean : All that snow shoveling in the winters. Well, I think I - at least partly - understand it now. Everything in life is about decision making among alternatives, based on judged pros & cons for the alternatives. [ : - ) ]

Well the move was motivated solely by (1) cheap RE prices at the time and (2) skiing (vs. ice skating on skis). But I miss the variety of NYC.

 

NYC is IMHO the greatest crucible for unique and interesting experiences. Millions of people crammed together, even the filthy rich cannot escape interacting with the plain old filthy...and the culture that emerges is just awesome. To me, this is what makes life worth living.

 

It's like that old saying, "water which is too pure has no fish." Well, maybe we all need some murk and filth and perhaps a neighbor smoking a joint at midnight for life to be a little more interesting  ;D

[mranski]

You shouldn’t have to suffer from second hand smoke, pot or cigarette. This is a serious issue for people that have allergies, asthma or sensitivity to smells. It can affect their lives. Your building or city should have rules to protect your apartment.

 

In my office we had complaints about perfume. At first it seemed ridiculous, but after hearing from people who suffered all day smelling perfume from a coworker, you realize it is a legitimate complaint.

[rkbabang]

You shouldn’t have to suffer from second hand smoke, pot or cigarette. This is a serious issue for people that have allergies, asthma or sensitivity to smells. It can affect their lives. Your building or city should have rules to protect your apartment.

 

In my office we had complaints about perfume. At first it seemed ridiculous, but after hearing from people who suffered all day smelling perfume from a coworker, you realize it is a legitimate complaint.

 

I'd take the smell of pot or cigarettes over the smell of too much perfume any day.

[Orchard]

The problem you're having is that your front door is not keeping the smell out. I would either figure out a way to "proof" the door so the smell doesn't come in anymore or at least not as much. You can also install an air purifier by the door.

 

Or i would write a letter to the board - seeing that smoking pot in this building is apparently tolerated you should be installing front doors that don't let the smell in....

[DooDiligence]

You could also escalate the conflict with this.

 

www.liquidass.com

 

          ;D

 

I'd forgo the conflict & use a nice incense instead.

[rkbabang]

You could also escalate the conflict with this.

 

www.liquidass.com

 

          ;D

 

I'd forgo the conflict & use a nice incense instead.

 

:o  The nuclear option!

[bizaro86]

Does the building have positive pressure into the hallways? I own a condo where the guy across the hall stays in his unit smoking pot 24 hours per day as far as I can tell. There is makeup air coming in to the hallways that keeps the smell mostly in his unit, somewhat in the hallway, and not at all in my unit.

 

Maybe the makeup air could just get turned up? Super might be willing to do that to reduce complaints?

[DooDiligence]

You could also escalate the conflict with this.

 

www.liquidass.com

 

          ;D

 

I'd forgo the conflict & use a nice incense instead.

 

:o  The nuclear option!

 

This would be a good name for a Rick's Cabaret microbrew.

[BG2008]

Seems like the letter is working.  I might've smelled a bit of weed last night, but it seems like they are staying further away from the building.  It wasn't a constant 2 hours of hot boxing it was before.  It has been a week and it seems like things are better.