By Will McGuirk
When one door closes another opens. For the former operators of the recently shuttered Oshawa Music Hall those doors opened just one block north at 44 Bond St. in Downtown Oshawa.
Maggie Maybe and her hubbie Ed have partnered with Nick Diachenko and Sacco Group Property Management to covert the former Local 222 Union Hall and onetime LazerQuest and Dungeon building into a three floor entertainment centre featuring a restaurant, a 1200 capacity concert hall, and, in good news for an entire generation of music fans in Durham Region who have very fond memories of the Dungeon, (the all-ages party central where acts such as Lindsey Schoolcraft, Chastity and Protest The Hero cut their teeth), a 250 capacity club in the basement.
The former Oshawa Music Hall building has also changed owners so now, as venues are closing worldwide due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are several entrepreneurs who have chosen to take the opposite approach and instead invest in the cultural sector of this city’s economy and its vast and vibrant, if furloughed, music community
Add these new two enterprises to the existing two, the Regent Theatre and the Tribute Communities Centre, then add on the smaller venues such as the Atria, plus the pubs and cafes, plus the possibility of a venue at 71 King, the former Genosh Hotel, and then add in all the outdoor patio activity if this pandemic means more outside activities, - got all that, ok now, if all are operational on the same night, do the math.
1200 plus 250 plus 600 plus 5000 plus another thousand or so and you get?
Yes, exactly - the sum of noise complaints from the many residents moving into the many condos being built, or about to be built in the core, on, you guessed it, Bond Street
People like living near a club on the weekend but not so much on a Tuesday night. This was an issue for the Velvet Elvis. Although located on King St., the bar backed onto a residential neighbourhood and the noise complaints were constant. The Elvis had maybe a dozen people on any given night on its back patio.
Maggie, Ed and Nick have already built those concerns into their plan. The Sacco Group own the block 44 Bond is located on so the space between them and their neighbours should dissipate any sound issues sufficiently. Sufficient baffling will be built on to the back walls. That may well be enough but there will be other problems and we should take the time to get to know them.
Some people buy next to an airport but don’t want the airport to expand and increase flights. Some folks like to live near a university until their neighbour’s property becomes a frat house. Some like when they can visit parents at Carriage House on Bond and go see a show after but not so much when they can’t find parking because there are band trucks lined up right round the block. The city supports culture, it says but they have ticketed those same trucks in the past for blocking snow removal.
Both the old Oshawa Music Hall and the potentially new Oshawa Music Hall have vision. They are actively taking a risk, but they are also taking their time and the time to get things right, readying for the time when bands will tour and concerts will once again become part of our usual routine.
City Council and, both the Economic Development Office and the Culture Counts Office, could also be using this time to do their own risk management study and to reassess their approach to the night economy, to move from ignorance to celebration.
They could be using this time to reach out to these believers in our city’s potential to get ahead of any potential barriers to their success; Council and staff could do so by revisiting noise and overnight parking bylaws, by removing the one ways streets on Bond and King, by converting Ontario Street and Athol Street to pedestrian only, by encouraging the Holiday Inn downtown to offer accommodation for touring musicians and their crew at discounted prices, by ensuring all buyers and builders of condominiums downtown are aware of, and willing to accept both the advantages and the disadvantages of living in a culturally rich and diverse downtown, a 24/7 downtown.
City Council has agreed to spend quite a lot of money to bid for a one off hockey tournament which would see a couple of days economic bump in downtown activity. Good, great, yay sports. But music is every day, every night, year after year after year. I would hope Council can see fit to spend a fraction of that figure on looking at creating a formal music policy for the city at large, with a focus on the downtown core, which has been for a decade or more the dedicated entertainment district in the city’s development plans as well as the Culture Counts plan.
Covid-19 recovery will require heavy lifting from all sectors. A music policy would ensure the culture sector is part of the recovery. The City has the opportunity to create one now before everything reopens again. With one in place Oshawa can welcome these night economy investors with open arms and minds and not with a parking ticket parade and a bylaw officers guard of honour.