Written scenario · Ethics, Equity

The balcony vote

You sit on the residents' committee of your apartment building.

Last month a balcony grill started a fire that scorched the siding of two units and sent everyone into the street at midnight. The committee is voting on a ban on smoking and open-flame grilling on all private balconies. Dragan, a neighbor of twenty years, says his balcony is the only place he can smoke without affecting his wife's breathing, and that families without yards have nowhere else to grill. Parents on the upper floors say one careless neighbor puts every home at risk. The vote is tied, and you can break it or propose something else.