It was good to see Bridget Maniaci's ordinance to create noise permits for partiers pass the Common Council last night.
Under the new ordinance, area residents must receive the signatures or email approval of at least 75 percent of their neighbors to receive the permit. The city will only give a resident one permit every 90 days.
The law specifies neighbors as "all units within 400 feet" of the party organizer. The ordinance will come in use in a variety of situations, but the most important one is the Mifflin Block Party. Everybody who lives on Mifflin is party to an unwritten contract that mandates they throw a party on the first Saturday of May. For the cops to give them a fine for excessive noise in a neighborhood entirely committed to partying all day -- that kind of government regulation should turn every onlooker into a Tea Partier.