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Is this the noisiest neighbourhood in Toronto?

Published

5 années ago

décembre 1, 2018

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In a new occasional series, the Star delves into 311 data to see what our concerns say about the city. In the second instalment, we look at one of the biggest reasons why people pick up the phone to dial 311: the noise that’s keeping us up at night.

Lined by small lots with neat hedges, the tiny residential street of East Haven Drive in southwest Scarborough is almost deserted on a recent chilly Wednesday.

Recent immigrant Thomas Kyrgios waits for a bus on Kingston road. He says he finds the whole city much louder than his village back in Greece. (Richard Lautens / Toronto Star file photo)

Other than the sound of children playing at a nearby school and the odd rev of a car engine on Kingston Road, the most noise comes from the steady beeping of a truck backing up at a nearby condo under construction.

This is the heart of the noisiest neighbourhood in Toronto . . . at least it is according to noise complaints filed with 311, the city’s hotline for non-emergency matters.

The western chunk of the old Scarborough Southwest ward, home to East Haven Dr., has the most 311 noise service requests so far this year of any area of the city at 360. And there have been 13 noise complaints on the street since 2016, according to the city’s website.

The Star went in search of the incredible racket that must be coming from this ordinary residential area, and found … not that much.

Construction has been “the big one” when it comes to noise issues for the past nine months or so, says Duncan MacDonald, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 21 years.

But noise from trucks and other equipment “wasn’t overpowering or anything,” he said.

“It’s not quite the end of the world.”

An unscientific snapshot of the noise levels there found it was about as loud as High Park.

Some residents in the same postal code area of Southwest Scarborough found the sound of children laughing intolerable in 2016. City staff were “inundated” with complaints about a toddler soccer team practising in Lynndale Parkette, the Star reported at the time. The program was eventually moved to a nearby public school.

“It kind of made our neighbourhood look a little bad that we would complain about little four- and five-year-olds kicking around a soccer ball,” said Alan Burke, president of the East Beach Community Association.

He suspects the spike in complaints has to do with new midrise condos in the last couple of years along Kingston Rd. as residents are not as used to construction as downtowners. But he said there have also been some issues with “boisterous” youths drinking in parks during the summer.

“I know also, in the Beach, people complain more than average,” he added with a laugh.

Whether the sliver of southwest Scarborough deserves the title of loudest neighbourhood, or people there just like to grumble, it’s clear that urban noise is a problem with high stakes for our health.

It’s even been linked to heart issues and is something experts and concerned citizens are sounding the alarm, as the city conducts a review into the noise bylaw.

Noise complaints are one of the biggest categories of city 311 service requests, taking the sixth spot in 2018 so far, just behind property standards, out of almost 650 categories.

Service requests related to noise in the city as a whole are on the rise, as are total 311 requests, from 5,079 in 2013 to 8,515 so far in 2018, according to data provided to the Star by 311 Toronto and open data on the city’s website.

The current noise bylaw limits construction to Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. But construction projects can apply for noise exemptions to do work outside those periods.

A 2015 city staff report on the noise bylaw noted that the number of those requests granted is growing, from 334 in 2011 to 567 in 2015. The largest numbers of noise complaints in 2015 were about construction (3,611), followed by loud music (2,535), animal noise (2,267) and mechanical noise (819).

Cathie Macdonald, a former city planner who’s part of the Toronto Noise Coalition advocating for a stricter city noise complaints bylaw, understands the city is growing and becoming a 24-hour global destination.

“You also have to respect that people want to sleep,” she said.

Residents “are getting very frustrated” with noise coming from clubs in the entertainment district, the near constant sounds of construction and even the sound of leaf — blowers.

“There are some neighbourhoods where there seems to be a fleet of leaf-blowers about, when you can’t have a conversation in your house because it’s so loud,” she said.

City staff are expected to come back with proposed recommendations on the noise bylaw in the second quarter of 2019.

The report identified several criticisms of the current bylaw from a round of public consultation, including that too many noise exemptions are being granted, and penalties are not deterring noise offenders.

While noise is “happening in big cities everywhere,” other places, such as New York City, are making quiet more of a priority, said the noise coalition’s Macdonald.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tightened that city’s noise code in 2007, regulating the noise of everything from ice-cream trucks to nightclubs, the New York Times reported that year. Despite this new regime, noise complaints are still the biggest category of 311 service (New York uses the same phone number requests since 2010, according to the city’s open data.

But contractors are required to make and post “noise-mitigation plans” at construction sites in the city that never sleeps to let neighbours know how the contractors will reduce the noise from pounding jackhammers and screeching saws.

Back on East Haven Dr., where the city says the most common type of 311 noise complaints are about construction, that’s something that might help, said MacDonald.

The new condo has caused some tensions in the neighbourhood, he said, as the area gets denser along the major thoroughfare of Kingston Rd.

“Certainly, if you’re doing construction or intensification, you should be conscious of that and maybe work with the councillor, things like that,” he said.

“There’s always going to be a certain amount of construction noise, OK, well, how do you mitigate that?”

Robert Freedman, general counsel for VHL Developments, the builder of Haven on the Bluffs, said in an email that the company has had “no issues” with noise, other than a bylaw notice about 16 months ago it “immediately complied with” to do with when it started work.

He added any noise from the project is no different from that of “countless condo and other development and public works projects spanning all across the city.”

The noise from those countless condos, as well as from traffic, music and other urban sources, can have serious health effects, says Tor Oiamo, an assistant professor in the department of geography and environmental studies at Ryerson University.

Oiamo co-wrote a report with Toronto Public Health on noise in the city in 2017 that notes that it is louder in the city than the level the World Health Organization recommends.

The public agency conducted a noise-monitoring study in Toronto in 2016 and found the average 24-hour equivalent noise levels were 62.9 dBA (measured in units of ‘A-weighted’ decibels, an expression of the relative loudness of sounds in air as perceived by the human ear), well above the WHO guidelines of 55 dBA outdoors in daytime and 40 dBA during the night.

All that racket is not just a threat to hearing; Oiamo said chronic exposure to high noise levels has been linked to cardiovascular health effects, ranging from high blood pressure to heart attacks, particularly in people who are already vulnerable.

“The way we do the science isn’t really like loud noise gives you a heart attack … it increases the risk,” he said.

“It can happen while you’re sleeping; you don’t even need to, necessarily, wake up.”

Noise can also impact sleep, mental health, and has been linked to increased risk of diabetes.

Oiamo said he suspects “there’s probably a relationship between increase in construction activity” and the increase in 311 noise complaints.

While complaints about construction are common, on average, across Toronto, most of the noise (nearly 60 per cent according to the 2017 Toronto Public Health Report) comes from traffic.

For Thomas Kyrgios, even though Southwest Scarborough isn’t exactly Yonge and Dundas Square, that traffic is still much louder than what he’s used to.

He lives just north of Kingston Rd., near East Haven Dr. Arriving five months ago from the sun-spackled village of Zoodohos in North-West Greece, where the loudest thing is “the dogs,” he’s not used to it.

He blames “the cars and motorcycles” here. Making a revving engine motion with his hands, he said it’s worse in the summer with tourists heading to the nearby Scarborough Bluffs.

“The noise,” he said, waiting for the 12A Kingston Rd. bus as a truck rumbled by, is “too much.”

How loud is it?

The Star took a decibel meter to different spots across the city for an unscientific snapshot of noise levels, recording both maximum and minimum levels for one minute. The readings are taken in A-weighted decibels (dBA), an expression of the relative loudness of sounds in air as perceived by the human ear.

The scale is logarithmic, which means small jumps make a big difference in loudness. The level found in an average office is about 45-50 for example, but doubling that to 100 is extremely loud and would damage a person’s hearing depending on how long they were exposed to it.

For context, the sound of a jet plane from 100 ft. is about 135 dBA, according to the U.S. public health campaign Dangerous Decibels. Hearing damage can occur after less than a minute of exposure at 112 dBA, and at lower levels, if you’re exposed to the sound for longer.

While noise-monitoring studies are typically done over a 24-hour period, the readings offer a glimpse into some of the loudest and quietest places in Toronto.

Woodbine Beach:

Date: Tuesday Nov 13

Time: 1:25 p.m.

Sounds: It’s a calm day, so there’s no sound of crashing waves, but you can hear cars on Lake Shore Blvd., the occasional dog barking, and a distant airplane.

Max: 58 dBA

Min: 46.2 dBA

East Haven Drive near condo construction:

Date: Tuesday Nov 13

Time: 2:16 p.m.

Sounds: You can hear kids from a nearby school outside for recess laughing and shouting and some light construction noises, such as the beeping of equipment, as well as cars in the distance.

Max: 66.4 dBA

Min: 54.7 dBA

Under Gardiner overpass at Yonge St:

Date: Tuesday Nov 13

Time: 3:45 p.m.

Sounds: You can hear the rev of car engines and the squeal of brakes, and there’s so many cars lined up in traffic, the sound is almost overpowering.

Max: 81.1 dBA

Min: 70.2 dBA

High Park just inside the main entrance (off High Park Ave.):

Date: Tuesday Nov 13

Time: 4:32 p.m.

Sounds: Despite the peaceful setting, you can still hear cars from nearby High Park Ave., the revving of engines and the thump of a skateboarder on the pavement. There are also dogs barking and planes overhead in the distance.

Max: 66.1 dBA

Min: 51.8 dBA

Bloor Yonge Station platform for east and westbound Line 2 trains:

Date: Tuesday Nov 13

Time: 5 p.m.

Sounds: When the train rumbles in, you can hear the wheels screeching loudly and lots of people talking.

Max: 83.2 dBA

Min: 59 dBA

Rosedale residential neighbourhood:

Date: Tuesday Nov 13

Time: 5:18 p.m.

Sounds: You can hear subway trains on elevated tracks, and the footsteps of people walking by, as well as cars and planes in the far distance. But everything seems to be muffled and calm.

Max: 54.1 dBA

Min: 43.7 dBA

Yonge and Dundas:

Date: Tuesday Nov 13

Time: 5:35 p.m.

Max: 88.2 dBA

Min: 67.9 dBA

Sounds: Arguably one of the loudest places in Toronto. During a busy rush hour, the “walk sign is on” announcement blares and the signal beeps. The guy at the corner yells “Jesus is real and he wants to have a relationship with you,” as cyclists ring their bells, a bus brakes, and cars and motorcycles rev their engines. There’s also the sound of loud drumming from a busker in a yellow fleece duck suit.

Inside the Toronto Star’s 1 Yonge St. office:

Date: Wednesday Nov. 14

Time: 10:19 a.m.

Max: 50.7 dBA

Min: 47.4 dBA

Sounds: Inside a busy office on a weekday morning, you can hear people talking and typing, doors opening, chairs squeaking and the humming of heating and air-conditioning vents.

May Warren is a breaking news reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @maywarren11

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Anglais

Nostalgia and much more with Starburst XXXtreme

Published

3 années ago

août 10, 2021

admin

Get a taste of adventure with Starburst XXXtreme based on the legendary NetEnt Game. The nostalgic themes are sure to capture fans of the classic version as they get treated to higher intensity, better visuals, and features. The most significant element of the game is its volatility. Patience will not be an essential virtue considering the insane gameplay, and there is a lot of win potential involved. It retains the original makeup of the previous game while adding a healthy dose of adrenaline.

Starburst Visuals and Symbols

The game is definitely more conspicuous than before. The setting happens over a 5-reel, 3-row game grid with nine fixed win lines, which function if a succession from the left to the right reel is present. Only those players that that attain the highest win per bet line are paid. From a visual standpoint, the Starburst XXXtreme slots illustrates lightning effects behind the reels, which is not surprising as it is inherited from the original version. Available themes include Classic, Jewels, and Space. The game is also available in both desktop and mobile versions, which is advantageous for players considering the global pandemic. According to Techguide, American gamers are increasingly having more engaging gaming experiences to socialize to fill the gap of in-person interaction. Starburst XXXtreme allows them to fill the social void at a time when there is so much time to be had indoors.

Starburst XXXTreme Features

Players get to alternate on three features which are Starburst Wilds, XXXtreme Spins, and Random Wilds. The first appears on reels 2,3, or 4. When these land, they expand to cover all positions while also calculating the wins. They are also locked for a respin. If a new one hits, it also becomes locked while awarding another respin. Starburst XXXtreme offers a choice between two scenarios for a higher stake. In one scenario with a ten times stake, the Starburst Wild is set on random on reels 2,3, or 4, and a multiplier starts the respin. The second scenario, which has a 95 times stake, starts with two guaranteed starburst wilds on reels 2,3, or 4. it also plays out using respin game sequence and features. The game also increases the potential with the Random Wilds feature to add Starburst Wilds to a vacant reel at the end of a spin. Every Starburst Wild gives a random multiplier with potential wins of x2, x3, x5, x10, x25, x50, x100, or even x150.

The new feature is sure to be a big hit with the gaming market as online gambling has shown significant growth during the lockdown. AdAge indicates the current casino customer base is an estimated one in five Americans, so Starburst XXXtreme’s additional features will achieve considerable popularity.

What We Think About The Game

The gambling market has continued to diversify post-pandemic, so it is one of the most opportune times to release an online casino-based game. Thankfully Starburst XXXtreme features eye-catching visuals, including the jewels and space themes. These attract audience participation and make the gameplay inviting. The game also has a nostalgic edge. The previous NetEnt iteration featured similar visuals and gameplay, so the audience has some familiarity with it. The producers have revamped this version by tweaking the features to improve the volatility and engagement.

That is characterized by the potential win cap of 200,000 times the bet. Starburst XXXtreme does not just give betting alternatives for players that want to go big. The increase of multipliers also provides a great experience. If the respins in the previous version were great, knowing that multipliers can go hundreds of times overtakes the game to a new level.

Players should get excited about this offering. All of the features can be triggered within a single spin. Whether one plays the standard game or takes the XXXtreme spin route, it is possible to activate all of the features. Of course, the potential 200,000 times potential is a huge carrot. However, the bet size is probably going to be restricted and vary depending on the casino. It is also worth pointing out that a malfunction during the gameplay will void all of the payouts and progress. Overall, the game itself has been designed to provide a capped win of 200,000 times the original bet.

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Anglais

‘We’re back’: Montreal festival promoters happy to return but looking to next year

Published

3 années ago

juillet 23, 2021

admin

In downtown Montreal, it’s festival season.

In the city’s entertainment district, a musical act was conducting a sound check on stage Friday evening — the second day of the French-language version of the renowned Just For Laughs comedy festival. Tickets for many of the festival’s free outdoor shows — limited by COVID-19 regulations — were sold out.

Two blocks away, more than 100 people were watching an acoustic performance by the Isaac Neto Trio — part of the last weekend of the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique, a celebration of music from the African continent and the African diaspora.

With COVID-19 restrictions continuing to limit capacity, festival organizers say they’re glad to be back but looking forward to next year when they hope border restrictions and capacity limits won’t affect their plans.

Charles Décarie, Just For Laughs’ CEO and president, said this is a “transition year.”

“Even though we have major constraints from the public health group in Montreal, we’ve managed to design a festival that can navigate through those constraints,” Décarie said.

The French-language Juste pour rire festival began on July 15 and is followed by the English-language festival until July 31.

When planning began in February and March, Décarie said, organizers came up with a variety of scenarios for different crowd sizes, ranging from no spectators to 50 per cent of usual capacity.

“You’ve got to build scenarios,” he said. “You do have to plan a little bit more than usual because you have to have alternatives.”

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Anglais

MELS new major movie studio to be built in Montreal

Published

3 années ago

juillet 23, 2021

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MONTREAL — MELS Studios will build a new film studio in Montreal, filling some of the gap in supply to meet the demand of Hollywood productions.

MELS president Martin Carrier said on Friday that MELS 4 studio construction will begin « as soon as possible », either in the fall or winter of next year. The studio could host productions as early as spring 2023.

The total investment for the project is $76 million, with the Quebec government contributing a $25 million loan. The project will create 110 jobs, according to the company.

The TVA Group subsidiary’s project will enable it to stand out « even more » internationally, according to Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau. In the past, MELS Studios has hosted several major productions, including chapters of the X-Men franchise. The next Transformers movie is shooting this summer in Montreal.

Péladeau insisted that local cultural productions would also benefit from the new facility, adding that the studio ensures foreign revenues and to showcase talent and maintain an industry of Quebec producers.

STUDIO SHORTAGE

The film industry is cramped in Montreal.

According to a report published last May by the Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision du Québec (BCTQ), there is a shortage of nearly 400,000 square feet of studio space.

With the addition of MELS 4, which will be 160,000 square feet, the company is filling part of the gap.

Carrier admitted that he has had to turn down contracts because of the lack of space, representing missed opportunities of « tens of millions of dollars, not only for MELS, but also for the Quebec economy. »

« Montreal’s expertise is in high demand, » said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, who was present at the announcement.

She said she received great testimonials from « Netflix, Disney, HBO and company » during an economic mission to Los Angeles in 2019.

« What stands out is that they love Montreal because of its expertise, knowledge and beauty. We need more space, like MELS 4, » she said.

There is still not enough capacity in Quebec, acknowledged Minister of Finance, the Economy and Innovation Eric Girard.

« It is certain that the government is concerned about fairness and balance, so if other requests come in, we will study them with the same seriousness as we have studied this one, » he said.

Grandé Studios is the second-largest player in the industry. Last May, the company said it had expansion plans that should begin in 2022. Investissement Québec and Bell are minority shareholders in the company.

For its part, MELS will have 400,000 square feet of production space once MELS 4 is completed. The company employs 450 people in Quebec and offers a range of services including studio and equipment rentals, image and sound postproduction, visual effects and a virtual production platform.