By Chris Clarke
Despite new initiatives taken by police, noise problems on Elgin Street don’t seem to have improved, according to residents.
The police announced measures to tackle the noise complaint issue last April. Proposed solutions included later bus times, more street lights and changing or removing parking spaces to allow traffic to flow easier. Late-night traffic jams caused by bar patrons on the narrow street were a major source of complaint.
So far, the police have removed a single parking spot in front of the Elgin Street Diner that contributed significantly to the traffic jams and embarked on a number of parking violation blitzes – more than 1,500 tickets were issued this summer on Elgin alone.
The results have been negligible. Although the removal of the parking spot has opened up traffic lanes for buses and taxis, groups of loud patrons are still waking up the neighbours when the bars let out. To complicate matters, ambulances and fire trucks use Elgin Street quite regularly.
“The noise has gotten louder,” says Chris Savage, an Elgin Street resident for almost six years. “It’s token what they’ve [police] done.”
Bill Busby, a long-time Elgin resident hasn’t noticed much of a change in the noise levels.
“[The noise] is a bit much – very bothersome,” says Busby. “The people are so packed in front of the bars at night… and the constant flow of traffic for such a small street is unbelievable.”
However, not all residents are frustrated over the noise. Danielle Blanchard, an Elgin tenant, thinks the noise is great. “There’s a nightlife here. It’s the only place we have life here in Ottawa,” says Blanchard.
Danny Burke, owner of the Celtic Cross, a popular Irish pub on Elgin that features live music, sees it the same way. “Elgin is a very vibrant street. It was vibrant long before we got here.” He added the liveliness of Elgin Street was a major reason for opening up a bar there six months ago.
Const. Mark Horton, head of the police efforts, is not surprised by the delayed results.
“I don’t think we expected dramatic changes,” says Horton. “We’re taking baby steps for now.”
Savage says police need to stop focusing solely on bars and start rooting out the other sources of noise complaints like the problems with St. Luke’s park, a favourite after-hours hangout for drunken revelers and midnight basketball games.
Horton explained that police are setting up an infrastructure first to deal with the problem – a working group focused solely on the Elgin Street noise issues.
Once the working group is at full steam, Horton hopes to hand it over to residents to administer in the way they want to concerning the noise.
A public meeting at which a summary of the police efforts over the summerwill be presented will be held at the Central Ottawa Police Station Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m.