City plans nightlife zones
In addition to creating a 24‑hour nightlife world – not necessarily in the Quartier latin – the city plans to create nocturnal zones in other locations as well. Here’s the noovo.info piece the CTV article is largely paraphrasing, and similar notes from Le Devoir.
Curious solution, making individual venues and spots officially 24‑hour locations. Could this be a way of invalidating noise complaints at addresses as different as Turbo Haüs and La Tulipe?
rob 10:45 on 2024-01-30 Permalink
This probably has nothing to do with noise complaint issues. Turbo Haüs was ending their shows at 11pm; but that didn`t prove to be a solution. I think the only way to solve the noise complaint issue is by making some grandfather laws for the venues that would prevent future neighbours (from new developments) from complaining about a pre-established noise status-quo.
JaneyB 10:54 on 2024-01-30 Permalink
This is great news! Good for night life and let’s hope it will make life easier for bands just trying to practise. Maybe a Night Mayor is in our future.
DeWolf 11:33 on 2024-01-30 Permalink
@rob From Le Devoir:
“La Ville souhaite également modifier le règlement sur le bruit, actuellement très défavorable aux tenanciers de bars dès lors qu’une seule plainte les concerne.”
MB 14:02 on 2024-01-30 Permalink
Reading the CTV article makes me wonder how many references to “consultations,” “all the cultural players in the party scene need to have their say,” etc are code for “we’ll see what combination of businesses offer us the best bribes” in one format or another (whether directly, or indirectly through things like donations to various gov players, etc). Alternatively, whether its code for: we’re waiting for the plan to be handed down to us from the representatives of the largest venues / employers / players in the nightlife scene. Sad to say, MTL’s consultation processes have left much to be desired in the last years.
On another level, this strikes me as an understandable but politically self-defeating priority for the city.
With so many day-to-day issues people are facing, sentences like “the city says it is prepared to spend up to $100,000 per establishment to soundproof them” will, I think, sound absurd to many ordinary people.
DeWolf 14:14 on 2024-01-30 Permalink
Wow, that’s a really cynical, almost conspiratorial take, MB. To date the 24-hour pilot projects have either involved entire streets like St-Denis and St-Laurent, or specific non-profit venues like the SAT and the Darling Foundry. As far as I can tell, it’s not corporate players like evenko leading the charge on this.
Also, it’s the smaller guys who are hurt most by noise complaints. Turbo Haus, La Tulipe, the SAT… not exactly big business.
There are a lot of ordinary people working in arts, culture and entertainment who would benefit from this. Not to mention ordinary people who enjoy going to concerts and are frustrated when their favourite venues are forced to close due to noise complaints. Based on the article in Le Devoir, changing the noise laws is part and parcel with the 24-hour push.
Joey 11:40 on 2024-01-31 Permalink
Even in these inflationary times, $100K should buy you a lot of soundproofing. Let’s assume that there’s a 1200 sq ft apartment that is adjacent to a club and needs some soundproofing. At, say, $30 per sq ft, we’re talking $36K – double it and you’re still well shy of the $100K max. You could drop $36K in legal fees pretty quickly without any kind of harmonious resolution – so it may seem obscene or absurd that the city would spend public funds on soundproofing someone’s apartment, if it means avoiding legal costs and actually getting some resolution it seems worth it to me.
DeWolf 12:54 on 2024-01-31 Permalink
The article says the soundproofing is for music venues, not apartments next to venues.