Being heard over loud parties

No one wants to be the cranky neighbor who yells out the window to get noisy neighbors to turn the party music down.

But Angela Tang said she's had to be that person on too many occasions because her Brighton neighborhood is inundated with loud parties thrown at one of a few homes on Foster Street.

The revelers appear to be college students or young adults, and while she doesn't mind people having a good time, Tang said she and her two young children can't get much sleep when music is blaring and loud voices, often cursing, pierce the quiet of early-morning hours. Tang also suspects underage drinking may be going on at these events.

"They don't respect the neighborhood," she said.

The problem, which Tang said has been going on for the last three years, usually spikes in the spring and fall. She has tried everything: Calling 911, and speaking with a police captain and representatives from the offices of city councilors Sam Yoon and Chuck Turner, but nothing has worked.

But help may be at hand.

Early last month, the Boston Police Department launched a hot line for city residents to call and report loud, late-night bashes without tying up 911 operators. Calls are taken at 617-343-5500 and information about a party is dispatched to police in the relevant district so officers can investigate.

So far, the hot line has logged 76 calls citywide, said Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Boston police. The purpose of the hot line is to have a "more-effective outlet" for residents to register their party complaints than 911 and a better way to gather information about repeat offenders.

Police intend to start making arrests at late-night parties and will be sending Inspectional Services enforcement officers to properties that house students to look for code violations.

"We're going after the property owners," Driscoll said.

Not everyone believes that the hot line has been effective.

Karen Marshall, who lives on Lane Park in Brighton near Boston College, said she and her husband called the hot line three times last week to report a loud party on Gerald Road, but despite assurances that police would check it out, no one responded.

At 2:20 a.m., they finally called 911, Marshall said, but by that time, the party pretty much had ended on its own.

Driscoll said an "unusual" number of priority 911 calls were made that night, preventing officers from getting over to the party Marshall had called about.

Two weeks ago, Tang said she called 911 twice about a party but police never showed. Last weekend, Tang said she called the hot line to report another party down the street but, again, nothing seemed to happen.

Driscoll just said the penalty for noisy parties depends on a variety of factors, such as whether police find underage drinking, loaded weapons, or drugs, or whether the loud partygoers were cooperative with police.

Marshall, a board member of the Radnor Neighborhood Association, said large, off-campus parties held in "problem homes" near Boston College are a recurring nightmare for residents.

"The party houses are a problem because they're having parties but also because they draw large numbers of kids who walk up and down" the neighborhood looking for a good time. "Bands of 10, 15 kids carrying red cups full of beer " talk loudly on their cell phones or shout across the street to each other, and sometimes urinate on lawns, she said.

The neighborhood association repeatedly has called Boston police, and notified BC police and the school's community affairs office, but the situation remains unchanged, Marshall said.

Student behavior off-campus "is our responsibility, and we take it very seriously," said BC spokesman Jack Dunn. The school holds monthly meetings with campus and Boston police, neighbors, landlords, and students to talk about issues, and is working on a 10-year master plan that should reduce the number of students living off-campus, Dunn said.

The plan, which is to go before the Boston Redevelopment Authority in July, would, in part, demolish an old dormitory and replace it with 1,400 new beds for undergraduates in Brighton, he said. Once complete, the school will have 7,940 on-campus beds, enough for 90 percent of the student body.

Right now, Dunn said, most juniors have to live off-campus.

Christina Pazzanese can be reached at cpazzanese@globe.com