Judge brings the noise back

 

QNS

A Queens Supreme Court judge officially dismissed one of several lawsuits brought against the operators of Forest Hills Stadium on Wednesday in a win for concertgoers.

At the end of 2023, Concerned Citizens of Forest Hills Inc. et al. vs. The West Side Tennis Club, which leases out the stadium, was filed in the Queens Supreme Court. Less than a year later, the judge found that the plaintiffs “failed to indicate that the harm is isolated to only them” and not the wider community. 

Three named plaintiffs outlined significant and “unbearably loud” noise that travels from the stadium on concert nights into their homes on behalf of hundreds of residents. They say that for the last decade, they have struggled to relax at home due to the noise that exceeds the city’s noise code and continues past the 10 p.m. curfew. 

Some residents supported the lawsuit’s call to cease concerts at the historic stadium in hopes of bringing back quiet to the residential neighborhood. However, in recent weeks, over 25,000 people signed a Change.org petition in support of the stadium and its benefits to the community.

In their request for the community’s support, organizers of the stadium called the lawsuit “frivolous” and defended themselves as good neighbors to local residents. The group responsible for bringing some of the top acts in music to Queens in the warmer months was glad to hear that the judge dismissed the suit.

“The entire Forest Hills Stadium team is delighted and grateful to the court for today’s decision. We are also heartened by the outpouring of love from the Forest Hills community, our neighbors and the more than 25,000 people who have signed a petition to support the Stadium,” read a statement from Akiva Shapiro of Gibson Dunn, a law firm retained by the West Side Tennis Club.

Noise annoys

 

QNS

A State Supreme Court Justice required the operators of Forest Hills Stadium to reduce their noise pollution in compliance with the city’s noise code before the start of its outdoor concert season.

The stadium, which is being leased to TieBreaker Productions by the historic West Side Tennis Club until 2034, must now obtain a permit from the NYPD to use sound amplification tools during concerts. The April 10 order also required an independent organization to monitor noise levels emitted from the stadium, which the court will need to approve of. 

The order was based on a lawsuit filed against the club by the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, representing a large number of homeowners living around the stadium. In affidavits submitted in the lawsuit against West Side Tennis Club, residents explained how they believed their quality of life decreased as concerts increased in regularity in recent years.

In addition to the noise that residents say causes their apartments to vibrate, local homeowners also explained that concertgoers trespassing on their properties is a major inconvenience of living near the stadium.

Last month, State Supreme Court Judge Joseph J. Esposito sided with the residents and ordered measures to reduce the volume emitted during concert nights. Prior to the Judge’s order, an expert obtained by FHGC found that the overly debilitating noise that residents complained of was 100 times the legal limit for residential areas set by the city. 

“There was no evidence of record that playing of music louder than permitted by law was a significant and necessary part of the stadium’s operation and income,” read Justice Esposito’s order. 

The expenses associated with noise monitoring will fall on FHGC, not the stadium. However, the independent agency will provide noise readings after each show for both parties.

While some nearby residents have said that they do not mind the concerts, given that residents closest to the stadium receive free concert tickets and other perks, those who led the lawsuit were content with the judge’s decision. 

“Our community was forced to sue the West Side Tennis Club after the club and its for-profit concert operator, Tiebreaker, brazenly refused to coordinate with us over the use and closure of streets, noise levels, concert logistics and TRIPLING the original number of events they promised when concerts returned to the stadium ten years ago after a halt of over a decade,” said Forest Hills Gardens Corporation Board of Directors President Anthony Oprisiu in a statement.

 

Delta Blazlooza

  

NY Daily News

Hizzoner is in the mood for a party — COVID-19 be damned.

Mayor de Blasio announced Thursday that the city will host five large-scale concerts next month and urged people from near and far to flock to the Big Apple for the “unforgettable” events — even though New York is in the midst of a troubling uptick in coronavirus cases due to the delta variant.

The five free concerts, one in each borough, will take place during the week starting Aug. 16, culminating in a previously announced Aug. 21 gig on the Great Lawn in Central Park, because “we got to celebrate our recovery,” de Blasio said at City Hall.

“I am issuing a FOMO alert,” he said, using the “Fear of Missing Out” acronym popular with younger generations. “Unless you want to spend the rest of your life saying, ‘oh my god I missed it,’ you should get to New York City in the month of August, where amazing things will be happening.”

The Aug. 21 performance will feature Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson, among others. Acts for the other four shows are forthcoming, as well as ticket details, but these are the basics:

• Aug. 16: Orchard Beach, the Bronx
• Aug. 17: Richmond County Bank Park, Staten Island
• Aug. 19: Brooklyn Army Terminal, Brooklyn
• Aug. 20: Forest Hills Stadium, Queens

The party-hungry mayor compared the bashes to the legendary Woodstock festival of 1969.

“I’ve talked to people who missed Woodstock. My own oldest brother could’ve gone to Woodstock,” he said. “Don’t let that FOMO thing happen to you. This is going to be amazing.”

But underpinning the plans for the party week of the century is New York’s steady rise in coronavirus infections.

The city’s test positivity rate — which provides a glimpse of COVID’s pervasiveness — cracked 2% for the first time in over two months Thursday, with 644 new infections and 98 new hospitalizations reported by the Health Department.

For context, the city last year operated under the assumption that the pandemic was under control only when daily reported infections did not exceed 550.

Still, de Blasio has rejected calls from a growing chorus of public health experts and lawmakers to reinstate indoor mask mandates and slow down other relaxations of pandemic restrictions.

Instead, the mayor has argued the focus should be squarely on jacking up vaccination rates — a sentiment he reiterated when asked by the Daily News during Thursday’s briefing if he’s sending a dangerous message by calling for a pilgrimage to the city for next month’s “homecoming week” concerts.

“If they think the solution is for everyone to go home and not participate in recovery and allow ourselves to slip backwards into the world we were in — yeah, if that’s an option people want, I want to see that they have their head examined,” he said. “I mean this is crazy, get vaccinated ... We’re not going to cower.”