Article content

The news this week that Montreal’s legendary La Tulipe was temporarily closing its doors after a years-long legal dispute over noise levels at the century-old venue hit me with a bad case of déjà vu.

Are we doing this again?

A decade ago, popular music venue Les Bobards closed after being dogged by noise complaints.

In 2018, Le Divan Orange was forced to shut because of repeated noise complaints, “most of which came from one woman who had moved into the third-floor apartment above the club,” as The Gazette reported.

Article content

Imagine moving above a music venue and being surprised by … music!

The police told The Gazette’s Brendan Kelly at the time that “she called 911 85 times in a two-month period and the club was fined $18,000.”

Last December, Montreal’s Diving Bell Social Club, a popular indie venue on the Main, shut its doors after repeated noise complaints.

What’s next?

In a city with a long-standing reputation for supporting arts and culture, watching popular music venues and beloved cultural landmarks shutter is infuriating. I feel for venue owners who spend thousands of dollars soundproofing their spaces only to deal with constant noise complaints.

Sergio Da Silva, co-owner of Turbo Haüs, a rock venue in the Quartier des spectacles, has long been vocal about the threat of hefty fines messing with the viability of his business. “Nice to know it’s illegal to have des spectacles in the f—ing (Quartier) des spectacles,” Da Silva wrote on X last year after he received a notice from the city that he might be subject to a fine of up to $12,000.

His frequent outbursts are snarky comedy at its finest, but the situation is far from funny.

Article content

Creeping gentrification has changed the look of some Montreal neighbourhoods, attracting people who may love the hipness factor these dive bars and small grassroots venues bring, without necessarily loving the noise that comes with them. These spaces are essentially victims of their own success.

But Montreal’s music venues should not be held hostage to the whims of someone who freely chooses to move directly above or next to a music venue, only to then turn around and complain about it.

To add insult to injury, La Tulipe found itself in this predicament because, as The Gazette’s T’Cha Dunlevy points out, a bureaucratic error by the City of Montreal granted a residential permit to the adjacent building’s owner.

Venue owners have long urged Montreal to update noise bylaws and apply the “agent of change” principle to development around music venues, placing the onus on developers to adapt their projects to existing noise conditions. The person or business responsible for the change would essentially be responsible for managing the impact of the change. Toronto implemented this in 2018.

Article content

In the wake of the debacle involving La Tulipe, the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough announced on Wednesday it would finally take action to modify noise regulations to protect concert venues, bars, restaurants and cultural centres in the future. It was unclear whether the changes would save La Tulipe itself.

I know these issues are complex, but we’ve been promised a new nightlife policy for years. Why haven’t we found solutions for issues that continue to chip away at our city’s most beloved live music venues?

As someone who’s no longer in the party-till-I-drop phase of my life, I understand the need for a good night’s sleep. No one wants to be kept awake by loud music or rowdy drunk patrons idling outside your window.

But can people please stop moving to the city (especially its liveliest and loudest spots) and expect the neighbourhood to change for them? Demanding that an area’s entire vibe — likely the very reason you were attracted to it in the first place — should now cater to your lifestyle is obnoxiously self-centred. It’s like moving to the countryside and getting angry at the sight of tractors or the sound of roosters.

If we value our nightlife scene, we need to get this right. Or we risk losing an essential part of what makes Montreal so special in the first place.

Toula Drimonis is a Montreal journalist and the author of We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada.

[email protected]

Article content

Article content