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Halifax has seen more than its fair share of live music venue closures in recent years. The reasons for closure are complex and diverse, ranging from regulations that can best be described as “hostile to business,” to economic factors revolving around people being unable to spend all night paying $6 per drink in a depressed economy.
But there is one route to closure that seems particularly insidious to someone who spends much of their time promoting and organizing live music. The first example of this particular road to closure within the realms of my personal experience happened to a bar called Blues Corner, not long after I moved to Halifax in the late ’90s. Blues Corner had existed in the heart of Halifax’s entertainment and nightlife district on Argyle Street for almost two decades. It was a popular and loved venue, and a key part of the vibrant nightlife for which Halifax is known.
Sometime in the mid-’90s, a developer decided to capitalize on peoples’ desire to live in such a lively and exciting part of Halifax, and built a condo building, Barrington Gate. We hadn’t yet hit “peak condo” in Halifax, and the building quickly filled up. However, it wasn’t long before the noise complaints started coming in; after all, why would anyone move to the heart of Halifax’s entertainment district but to get a good night’s sleep, free of the distractions of nightlife?
It was just the first instance of a trend that many of us have since noticed, happening time and time again since: fancy condos are built in a desirable neighbourhood, then the newcomers feel that they have a right to change the neighbourhood to suit them. Whether it’s a loud bar that has been there for decades, a foghorn warning boats away from a small island in a harbour or a brewery that’s been producing brewery smells in an area for as long as it’s been an area.
It’s unfortunate that we live in a part of the world that even by its own admission favours the needs of new residents over those of small businesses in our downtown business district. Little wonder, then, that what should be the home of character-building, interesting and creative businesses that bring capital to our city and keep it here is perpetually ailing, while the sidewalk-less mega-parking lots, homogenized chain stores and bland franchises on the edge of town continue to be our premiere business districts. Steadily funneling all revenue to their shareholders and corporate head offices outside of our city, our province and our country.
What kind of person moves to an established neighbourhood and takes issue with a part of the area that predates them substantially, expecting to have it changed to fit their whims? I’m not sure if there’s a word for it, and if there is I’m not sure that it would be fit for print.
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This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2015.
Well written.
YES. I live in a condo in a boring, quiet part of town because my kid needs sleep. I knew that about my family when I chose where I live. When she moves out, I may move closer to the action, knowing what it will be like.
“What kind of person moves to an established neighbourhood and takes issue with a part of the area that predates them substantially, expecting to have it changed to fit their whims?”
The same kind of dumbfucks that move to quiet fishing villages and then bitch about the foghorns, boats heading out at 3am, and how gossipy the locals are.
The complainers included the Cambridge Suites, built in 1987.
The guests pay the money that subsidises your Pop Explosion to the tune of $150,000 a year.
No property owners have NO say in what happens in their neighbourhoods? An they shouldn’t have rights? You need to balance your piece otherwise this is simply opinion.
Oh, there’s no one downtown paying taxes and all the store are out in butt-fuck nowhere. It’s odd that the people who bemoan the fact that Halifax has no upward motion yet will stand solidly in the way of any progress or economic boost. You all must love welfare.
It’s great how Kris puts all of the downtown condo dwellers into one nasty group of jerks.
It’s great how Kris lumps all downtown condo dwellers into one group of nasty jerks.
Intelligent cities have building codes for noise reduction before allowing residential development close to existing noise. When that place next to The Blues Corner was built, the local development community rarely exceeded a code, and everything was defined by the minimum acceptable. That has changed a bit, but it has only been discretionary. I know the engineer who was sent to measure sound levels in that case – he said the building had no resistance whatsoever to external noise, and possibly channelled the bass notes into the building. Yet I’ve slept in a condo at Queens Quay in Toronto at the same level as the Gardiner Expressway, just outside, and there was no noise. In summary, design new buildings for the conditions that exist in the environment you are putting them. The design considerations include ambient, and occasional peak external noise, and the desired noise level inside. Put up a cheap shitbox if you must, but don’t charge rent as if it’s a luxury place, because that would have been designed and built to be quiet.