the guy people in ottawa are already calling the “nightlife mayor” is mathieu grondin , the former head of the montreal nightlife lobby group mtl 24/24 and unquestionably the fellow who has pushed harder ici than anyone else to persuade plante and her cronies to do more for nightlife. in fact, he may well have pushed too hard, which is partly why he’s now working for the city of ottawa.
last year, he blasted the plante administration in the gazette for dragging its feet, noting that plante had promised in the 2017 election campaign that she would deliver a new nightlife policy.
the folks in plante’s office were not amused by his comments, he said. several months later, the city cut funding to mtl 24/24 . all of a sudden, grondin was without a job. that’s when ottawa came calling, and the result is that montreal’s leading nightlife activist is now pushing that agenda in ottawa.
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but there are dark clouds hovering over the scene. just for laughs went belly up this spring. the small venues that are ground zero for the music community are in a fragile state, partly because city hall still hasn’t properly dealt with the issue of noise complaints. a developer can build a condo complex beside an existing venue and if a condo owner calls to complain that turbo haüs’s punk music is too loud, the police have to go and check it out. these venues are also still reeling from the financial hit of the covid pandemic.
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on the ground, la tulipe was told by a judge the venue would have to turn the volume down on its concerts, even though the theatre has been there for a century and the condo complainer just arrived on the block. on grand prix weekend, the biggest weekend of the year for nightlife, the montreal fire department shut down terrasses including the one at ferreira café , one of the city’s busiest restaurants, after confusion over bylaw rules. these things are not helping market the city.
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