Don’t suffer loud noise in silence
Between the jackhammers and reversing trucks, outdoor rock concerts, police sirens and barking dogs, Toronto is one very noisy place.
Nobody would expect silence, of course, but here in Construction City the decibels can routinely reach the pain threshold. Illegal 24-hour building shifts keep people up all night, driving them crazy in the process. The city, which lamely promises five-day investigative service, is simply not able to enforce noise bylaws.
Little wonder Mayor John Tory and his silo-bound bureaucrats recently held a public meeting on the issue. But all it confirmed was the obvious, and no one left happy except the police, who have been relieved of responsibility for the file.
Although the effects of noise can be dire, Toronto has traditionally put the needs of commerce and industry ahead of those of the individual.
But noise begets noise and, as the Canadian Hearing Society points out, “noise is one of the leading causes of hearing loss and statistics suggest a trend that the incidence of hearing loss is occurring at younger and younger ages.” Perhaps that’s why parents are always shouting at their kids; it’s the only way to make themselves heard.
Yet because loud noise is such an ingrained feature of urban life, we tend not to take it seriously. By the time the ringing in our ears is permanent it’s too late. The damage is done.
Besides, for many, noise signals liveliness. The louder things are, the more fun we’re having. Think of those restaurants that routinely crank their sound systems so loud that people must shout to be heard by the person next to them. Remember the Hard Rock Café? Because so few complain, restaurateurs now believe cacophony is good for business.
“I think people are used to noise and expect it,” Cherie Stinson, a former co-owner of Ruby Watchco, told the Star in 2011. “It’s part of the culture and energy of these kind of eateries. The noise level isn’t usually that big an issue.”
That may be changing. For more than a decade, Toronto’s Anti-Noise Pollution League has advocated for eateries where people can hear one another. Again, it’s not that people expect silence; when the HVAC system suddenly stops in an office building, the unexpected quiet leaves workers feeling exposed and self-conscious. The truth is a little noise goes a long way. The existence of the league reminds us that what people object to is loud noise. As Pascal famously argued, “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”
Last fall, the Licence Appeal Tribunal endeared itself to thousands of waterfront residents when it refused an application from the Rebel nightclub to expand its Polson Pier premises to accommodate 15,000 people, indoors and out. That would have made it the world’s biggest nightclub. For local residents, the worry wasn’t Rebel’s violent history; it was noise. We have spent billions to make the waterfront a mixed-use neighbourhood where people live, work and play. Why should Rebel be allowed to blast amplified music outdoors until 2 a.m.?
Little wonder, then, that noise has become enough of an issue that last year Tory felt compelled to send a letter to the director of Toronto’s municipal licensing and standards division. “It is my view,” he wrote, “that over the past year in particular, this has become much more widespread problem affecting quality of life for residents and visitors alike. It is disturbing people in their homes, during the day and at night, it is disrupting business and it is having a negative impact on tourists ...”
Even in cottage country noise is a growing problem and for all the usual reasons — machinery, amplified music and partying. It’s not just high-speed motorboats — last year, one Muskoka lake banned, “yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling, singing or other similar human sound.”
Clearly, it’s time to look at tougher regulations and more ambitious enforcement. Loud noise, after all, is an invasion of privacy as well as form of pollution. It seeks us out in our most intimate spaces and lowers quality of life.
As long as we conflate loud noise with social and economic vitality, city-dwellers will have no choice but to suffer in silence. When cottagers and businesses like Rebel are told to keep quiet, we get an earful about the “war on fun.” What complainers forget is that peace and quiet also have their pleasures.