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Cherry Street Nightclub

Ah thanks, I will dig up that old thread, if I can find it.
This from Ward's Island Newsletter (June 2016)
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"the health risk we face from noise pollution"- I can't even. This is coming from people on Ward's Island? Try living on a somewhat busy street in Toronto dealing with cars, streetcars, screaming people, and worst of all, motorcycles. Give me a break.
 
I've always thought that the islanders are lucky to live there. However there seems to be a sense of entitlement going on with the islanders. We all live in a big city and sometimes noise is part of the equation...annoying at times I agree. People also need to have a good time.
 
Setting aside the entitlement question for a moment, I do note that resident groups/associations often try to leverage noise-related bylaws as a proxy to tamp down club/bar-related expansion or development, oftentimes with the encouragement of the city, councillor(s), and/or police.

In those cases, noise concerns aren't actually the main concern, but merely the chosen instrument of obstruction. I'm not saying that's what's going on here, because I don't know if it is, but it would certainly be in keeping with similar battles around the city.
 
"the health risk we face from noise pollution"- I can't even. This is coming from people on Ward's Island? Try living on a somewhat busy street in Toronto dealing with cars, streetcars, screaming people, and worst of all, motorcycles. Give me a break.

I've always thought that the islanders are lucky to live there. However there seems to be a sense of entitlement going on with the islanders. We all live in a big city and sometimes noise is part of the equation...annoying at times I agree. People also need to have a good time.

They are lucky to live there. For all I know, some might have a sense of entitlement - one would have to know the community way better than I do to make that call, but perhaps you are much more familiar with the residents. Yes, noise is part of the equation of living in the city, but from my understanding of past battles between the Docks on one side, and the City of Toronto/residents on the other, this noise is something altogether different from the usual cacophony of urban living. Most people don't have a one-of-a-kind, massive nightclub with a booming sound system on their street. It's also shocking how effectively that noise carries over distances of water.
 
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Setting aside the entitlement question for a moment, I do note that resident groups/associations often try to leverage noise-related bylaws as a proxy to tamp down club/bar-related expansion or development, oftentimes with the encouragement of the city, councillor(s), and/or police.

In those cases, noise concerns aren't actually the main concern, but merely the chosen instrument of obstruction. I'm not saying that's what's going on here, because I don't know if it is, but it would certainly be in keeping with similar battles around the city.

Sure. We have all seen many cases, many of which have been discussed on these forums, of people who move into urban neighbourhoods because of proximity to lively commercial arterials, but are then shocked! shocked! shocked! to discover that a restaurant is moving in at the end of the street and might even serve liquor! And have a patio! Or, the horror, a pub!

This is not that.
 
Sure. We have all seen many cases, many of which have been discussed on these forums, of people who move into urban neighbourhoods because of proximity to lively commercial arterials, but are then shocked! shocked! shocked! to discover that a restaurant is moving in at the end of the street and might even serve liquor! And have a patio! Or, the horror, a pub!

This is not that.

I'm sympathetic to where you're coming from, but I wouldn't be so quick to paint all of those instances with the same brush. An acquaintance of mine, for instance, was engaged in one of those battles where the club in question had become a popular hangout for a couple different local gangs, which culminated with a massive escalation in assaults, gun, and knife incidents directly below the building and around the corner from multiple schools.

I'm as opposed to knee-jerk NIMBYism as anyone, and I'm also wary of the classic "no fun" crowds, but I do think each individual case warrants a full examination of the facts, and I'm not sure we have them in this case.
 
I'm sympathetic to where you're coming from, but I wouldn't be so quick to paint all of those instances with the same brush. An acquaintance of mine, for instance, was engaged in one of those battles where the club in question had become a popular hangout for a couple different local gangs, which culminated with a massive escalation in assaults, gun, and knife incidents directly below the building and around the corner from multiple schools.

I'm as opposed to knee-jerk NIMBYism as anyone, and I'm also wary of the classic "no fun" crowds, but I do think each individual case warrants a full examination of the facts, and I'm not sure we have them in this case.

Absolutely. I don't disagree. There are some establishments in this city which have caused tremendous problems, and the area residents have had legitimate and pressing concerns. I was simply agreeing with your earlier comment that in other instances some residents do, unfairly and unreasonably, use noise and related concerns to try and sanitize/control nearby commercial spaces.

As for your suggestion that we do not have the facts here, this has been going on for years and IIRC the serious impacts that the Docks has caused are very well documented. Polson Pier and its owners might be proposing something different, but their legal maneuver to get around existing, hard-fought controls would suggest otherwise.
 
Absolutely. I don't disagree. There are some establishments in this city which have caused tremendous problems, and the area residents have had legitimate and pressing concerns. I was simply agreeing with your earlier comment that in other instances some residents do, unfairly and unreasonably, use noise and related concerns to try and sanitize/control nearby commercial spaces.

As for your suggestion that we do not have the facts here, this has been going on for years and IIRC the serious impacts that the Docks has caused are very well documented. Polson Pier and its owners might be proposing something different, but their legal maneuver to get around existing, hard-fought controls would suggest otherwise.

Well said.
 
Just a little anecdotal evidence of my own to offer: I've been over on Wards Island when things have been happening at the Cabana Pool Bar. You can hear it easily, and in fact you could dance to it several houses in from the shore. I think the Wards Island residents have to put up with some noise, but I don't think they should have to just take whatever the clubs at Polson Pier want to dish out. There does need to be some regulation—since the City does allow people to live on the Islands, it has an obligation to keep it tolerable, like anywhere in the city—but at what levels and at what times should the sound be allowed? That's for others more qualified to hammer out.

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I live in the area and find myself walking the portlands quite a bit wondering what should be done with them, which I think is an important conversation fast approaching. It won't be used for an Expo 2025 bid now, and hopefully we're long past a Doug Ford Ferris Wheel - I will say this though - a mega club is probably one of the worst ideas.

Folks are beginning to unlock the lands around the east harbour (not to be confused WITH that particular project) and you're going to see more residents pouring into the area, starting with Aqualina and Aquavista, and then we'll see if "Whiskey beach" on the silo site was always just a pipe dream.

There was a music festival on the empty lot at Lake Shore and Cherry this summer, and there were noise complaints as far as the Distillery. I can't see a mega club making many friends along the eastern waterfront, never mind the island residents. Whether it inhibits growth on the other side of the channel can only be speculated.

Frankly speaking though - I'm kinda tired of the club crowd that heads over there as it is. Like fine, the portlands is an industrial wasteland - but I hate watching folks come from all over the city to blow off some steam and leave a trail of piss and puke all along Cherry st. on their way out.

Every weekend over the summer, you've got an insane level of traffic, a need to set up a permanent RIDE checkpoint, and the walking inebriated struggling to get to the bus stop. Highlight last year was watching two well dressed women yell and scream on Cherry St. while tossing clothes and cosmetics at each other, before making up. Thanks Cabana - class act.

We're not talking about your regular last call group of drunks at a bar on College St. If what Hume tweets is right, we're talking about thousands of people. Cabana and Polson Pier are already making the area undesirable - so I can't imagine expansion helping things any.
 

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