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Toronto island noise whiners compare noise to smoking
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| Jayx1 |
What was it i kept saying about using one precendent to back up another issue? Since they were able to use draconian tactics to ban smoking, the same type of thinking seems poised to take on the so called noise problem.
This will affect every music lover's night out.
To those who would love to take others' rights away because they dont happen to endeavour in those behaviours, this kind of thinking is coming back to bite you in the ass.
hurts doesnt it?
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Freedom from excessive noise seen as a right
By Frank Touby
Toronto Island resident Kate Shepherd says she is heartened by the city’s stance that peaceful enjoyment of one’s home is considered a right. “We have been plagued for 10 years with unbelievable noise from the Docks,” she said. The Docks is Cherry Street entertainment centre just 750 metres across the water that boasts a patio holding 8,000 partiers and some of the loudest loud speakers on the planet.
Both the lawyers for the city and for the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) recommended at the final hearing into the Islanders’ noise complaint that the Docks liquor licence be revoked following a “finding under the public interest.”
That recommendation doesn’t have to be followed when the AGCO makes its ruling in a few months.
“But the very acknowledgement that there is a right to not be bothered by excessive noise is very encouraging,” says Shepherd, a member of the Toronto Island Residential Association.
It has taken 26 hearings before AGCO to get matters to this.
“The Docks presented a strong argument in their favour and I had to sympathize with them despite the problems they’ve caused us,” says Shepherd. “When you sit across the table from someone for 26 sessions, you can’t help but develop a sympathy for them. They’re not bad guys. It’s just a bad result for those of us on the Island.
“The club violated both its noise conditions and city noise bylaws, resulting in the city laying more charges against the nightclub, even while the hearing was in progress. That’s just outrageous!
“They claim to have made improvements and to try to keep down the noise and maybe they think they have done some things—just not enough,” says Shepherd.
She compares what she sees as a new sympathy to citizens who suffer from noise pollution to the recent crackdowns on smoking: “It seems that peace and quiet have become part of one’s rights just as being free from second-hand smoke has become.
Meanwhile, in West Downtown, King Street residents are battling the LOFT nightclub and a decision by AGCO is expected in February or later, depending on legal moves by the city and LOFT’s lawyers.
Charges were laid a year ago and residents say they suffered for six months prior to that as they accumulated incident reports in their noise diaries. Jerry Levitan, the lawyer for LOFT, noted that because no decision has been reached, it is inappropriate to comment on the matter. However, he did note that the testimony given by a former noise bylaw inspector for the City of Toronto was favourable to his client. |
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| DJ_Ampz |
my fav thing is that the islanders pay $1 a day to rent their property from the government.....meaning they pay $365 a year to live on the land which they dont have to buy (which would run...what $100000 average area). How many years do they get out of that for pretty much nothing. lol.
Then again, never been to the islands, dont live in TO yet.
Ampz |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Ampz
my fav thing is that the islanders pay $1 a day to rent their property from the government.....meaning they pay $365 a year to live on the land which they dont have to buy (which would run...what $100000 average area). How many years do they get out of that for pretty much nothing. lol.
Then again, never been to the islands, dont live in TO yet.
Ampz |
this is why the lease needs to be broken. The province needs to pay off the difference and count it's losses. Then they need to be kicked off the island and those hovles need to be bulldozed. Centre island park and all of its fun wouldnt exist today had politicians not been brave enough in the 60s to kick everyone off of those islands and bulldoze the huts that were there. Too bad they stopped before they got to ward island.
Too bad today's modern governments lack vision and cojones. |
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| Jayx1 |
no comments from the usual suspects...
i thought so... |
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| 7-4-7 |
At Tiesto in June I walked in an I could hear my heart beat. They killed that party.
Everytime I am at the Docks there is always a threat of "noise pollution" charges....garbage...somehow I think if those burnout morons found out that the greatful dead and simon and garfunkel were doing a "live from the Grave" tour there wouldn't be half as many complaints.
Move all those pompous, yuppies to the 1000's islands area and let them take their pick. |
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| daves |
I'd like to be over on the Islands one night during one of the Docks' big parties and see just how loud the noise is... is it really that loud still after carrying across the water?
has anyone here heard it first-hand? |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by daves
I'd like to be over on the Islands one night during one of the Docks' big parties and see just how loud the noise is... is it really that loud still after carrying across the water?
has anyone here heard it first-hand? |
im assuming its a low level drone. Im willing to bet most of the noise goes away when you close the window. |
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| Nikitha |
I honestly think that anyone who only has to pay $1 per day to live on their property shouldn't be allowed to say ALL about anything...
Nikitha |
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| Jayx1 |
its interesting how no one has commented on how noise is being compared to smoking. Meaning that this is the next angle they will take in regards to shutting down clubs like the docks.
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“They claim to have made improvements and to try to keep down the noise and maybe they think they have done some things—just not enough,” says Shepherd.
She compares what she sees as a new sympathy to citizens who suffer from noise pollution to the recent crackdowns on smoking: “It seems that peace and quiet have become part of one’s rights just as being free from second-hand smoke has become.
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| nacarter |
I've been watching this issue for awhile now, and I'm surprised that The Docks hasn't tried the following hypothetical - it would probably win their case:
The Docks is in an industrial zone. If the club were to close down, the noise should be gone, right? Wrong! If somebody were to actually utilize the property for its intended purpose, the noise would in fact get worse. If we look at a history of the area, it was home to an oil refinery and various other heavy industries. locating heavy industry on that property would bring the noise of cargo ships and freight trains at all hours of the day and night - EVERY DAY. The Docks isn't open every day, therefore isn't producing noise every day. In fact it's only producing noise 2-3 days a week. The folks on the island would kill to have that sort of 'bombardment' of noise.
The problem in this case is the conflicting adjacent land uses. The city was not wrong to locate a nightclub in an industrial area - many cities have done this for years. What no city does however, is locate residential areas adjacent to heavy industry. The people on the island are living on land that is not suitable for residential living. You can't up and move the islands, and the politicians certainly haven't done anything about changing the industrial character of the portlands. The city screwed up by not moving the residents or forcing them to agreements whereby they acknowledge the coflicting land uses and accept the consequences of living at that location. It's too bad The Docks has gotten caught in the middle of this. |
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| Cosmopolitan82 |
| quote: | Originally posted by nacarter
The Docks is in an industrial zone. If the club were to close down, the noise should be gone, right? Wrong! If somebody were to actually utilize the property for its intended purpose, the noise would in fact get worse. If we look at a history of the area, it was home to an oil refinery and various other heavy industries. locating heavy industry on that property would bring the noise of cargo ships and freight trains at all hours of the day and night - EVERY DAY. The Docks isn't open every day, therefore isn't producing noise every day. In fact it's only producing noise 2-3 days a week. The folks on the island would kill to have that sort of 'bombardment' of noise.
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not to mention the air pollution the factories could produce! |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by nacarter
I've been watching this issue for awhile now, and I'm surprised that The Docks hasn't tried the following hypothetical - it would probably win their case:
The Docks is in an industrial zone. If the club were to close down, the noise should be gone, right? Wrong! If somebody were to actually utilize the property for its intended purpose, the noise would in fact get worse. If we look at a history of the area, it was home to an oil refinery and various other heavy industries. locating heavy industry on that property would bring the noise of cargo ships and freight trains at all hours of the day and night - EVERY DAY. The Docks isn't open every day, therefore isn't producing noise every day. In fact it's only producing noise 2-3 days a week. The folks on the island would kill to have that sort of 'bombardment' of noise.
The problem in this case is the conflicting adjacent land uses. The city was not wrong to locate a nightclub in an industrial area - many cities have done this for years. What no city does however, is locate residential areas adjacent to heavy industry. The people on the island are living on land that is not suitable for residential living. You can't up and move the islands, and the politicians certainly haven't done anything about changing the industrial character of the portlands. The city screwed up by not moving the residents or forcing them to agreements whereby they acknowledge the coflicting land uses and accept the consequences of living at that location. It's too bad The Docks has gotten caught in the middle of this. |
you should forward this to their lawyer. |
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