There is no peace and quiet in Forest Hills.
Noise law violations were cited at Forest Hills Stadium for 11 of 36 summer concerts, with local residents claiming elderly residents ripped off their hearing aids during the disturbances.
Neighbors of the Westside Tennis Club concert venue are currently in court with multiple painful lawsuits, accusing the concert's repercussions of undermining student achievement and driving people out of their sleepy enclave. .
“It's hard to explain how it feels to have someone take away something you've enjoyed for so long, just the peace in your own home and the quiet in your neighborhood,” said Concerned Citizen of the Year. Forest chairman Andy Cote said. Hills. “That's just wrong.”
Court argued that the extreme noise has only gotten worse since concerts returned to the storied stadium 10 years ago, especially as the number of concerts per summer series has soared year on year.
The Department of Environmental Protection ruled that 11 of 36 concerts last season exceeded the 68 decibel noise limit set for outdoor venues, up from seven violations the year before.
And it's not just the stadium itself. Each audio measurement was taken inside the home of a Forest Hills resident.
The worst night was June 15, when the Pixies and Modest Mouse sent headache-inducing 73-decibel sound waves through the neighborhood.
“The windows would shake constantly,” said Doug Gilbert, who has lived in the house next to the tennis club for 30 years.
“You can't do anything in the house during a concert, especially in all the rooms on the side of the house facing the stadium. It's very difficult to do anything when the windows are vibrating like this. is.”
Gilbert said the problem is not limited to the four hours of the concert, but continues throughout the day. The 68-year-old has a perfect view of the famous and popular tennis court. The tennis court quickly becomes abandoned as the headliners begin their sound check.
Two lawsuits by residents are underway against the club, which operates the 13,000-seat landmark stadium.
One was filed by Forest Hills Garden Corporation and escalated on Tuesday. Homeowners' association filed for injunction Oppose stadium operators to prohibit clubs from licensing, authorizing or permitting any concerts until a deal is brokered to create a more peaceful 2025 concert season.
Neighbor Marty Levinson, 84, has lived on Exeter Street since 1967 and says the noise emanating from the stadium has increased significantly since the days when the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and the Rolling Stones played shows. He said he did.
The noise levels are so bad that Levinson routinely takes off his hearing aids to escape, a luxury he admits his much younger neighbors don't have.
“This is a very quiet area overall,” Levinson said. “And every time there's a concert, 13,000 people flock to it, so it changes the whole character, atmosphere and climate of the area.
“When you come here at any other time, even during the day or in the evening, it's very, very quiet,” he continued. “But we can't sit on the little patio at the back of the house anymore. The noise drives us unconscious.”
One parent who lives on Clyde Street said her eighth-grade daughter's grades dropped towards the end of the 2023-24 school year because of the intense noise and vibrations that shook her house. She claims the echoes were so strong that they caused plants to shake and walls to crack.
The teenager, who suffers from ADHD and anxiety, was an honor roll student and was considering attending a vocational high school until the concert began last spring, her mother said.
“If there are distractions, I can't study,” said a distraught mother, speaking on condition of anonymity. “So there's a conflict going on. It's not just the noise, it's the vibrations. It affects her.
“A high school seventh-grade student's application forms the basis for whether or not they can apply to schools that have been screened,” she added. “One night she was trying to study and because of the show she failed a test. She got like a 60%. I was furious.
She blamed the noise problem for her daughter's plummeting GPA and said she would not be able to apply to some of her target schools as a result.
“So this took away her opportunity,” she said. “And that's what we're really angry about about this whole thing.”
Meanwhile, the club said the complaints and ongoing litigation amount to an attempt by the FHGC and its chairman Anthony Oprisiu to contest “control and power,” especially since the stadium is diligently shutting down operations by 10 p.m. He insisted that it was none other than that.
“Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, led by Anthony Oprisiu, is on a mission to obliterate this symbol and end 101 years of tradition and cultural and economic contributions,” said Akiva Shapiro of Gibson Dunn. (Westside Tennis Club advisor) told the paper. statement. “During the 2024 season, the stadium hosted 36 performances, all of which ended by 10 p.m.”
“Given Forest Hills' approximate population of 70,000 people, the rate of complaints is well below 1 in 1,000 percent,” the statement continued.
“All of these complaints come from a small group of extremists within Gardens and their collaborators who aim to fabricate violations now that most of the legal arguments have been thrown out of court. I expect it to be rejected.”
