Why do neighborhoods have their own invisible rules?
The short answer
Each derb (neighborhood) has unwritten social codes managed by long-term residents. Who can park where, when noise is acceptable, how strangers are received—these are negotiated communally, not legally. A medina neighborhood functions like a village within a city.
You turn a corner and the atmosphere changes. The noise drops. The street is cleaner. Someone sweeps the step in front of a house, and the sweeping extends three meters into the shared alley. You have crossed into a different neighborhood, and the rules just changed.
Medina neighborhoods — historically called hawma or derb — are self-governing units with codes that predate municipal law. The families who live on a dead-end street share responsibility for it: cleaning, lighting, maintenance, and surveillance. The shared space is managed by consensus, not by city hall.
The rules are enforced socially. A family that doesn't sweep their section of the alley will hear about it — not from an authority, but from the neighbor's look. Noise after a certain hour, inappropriate behavior in shared space, unfamiliar faces — all are regulated by the fact that everyone can see everyone else. Privacy inside the home is absolute. Behavior in the shared passage is subject to collective judgment.
You feel this as atmosphere. One derb is tidy, quiet, flowers on the wall. The next is louder, more commercial, less maintained. The difference is not wealth — it's social cohesion. A derb where the families know each other and have lived together for generations governs itself more tightly than one with high tenant turnover. The rules are invisible because they've never been written down. They don't need to be. Everyone knows.