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Neighbors want Forest Hills Stadium to turn down the volume at concerts
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Oct 24, 2023
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Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Oct 24, 2023
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Forest Hills Stadium capped off its concert season earlier this month with a three-night electronic dance festival that literally shook the surrounding neighborhood.
Christopher Jaray, 46, said he had an unwanted front row seat to the show.
“It was like the scene from ‘Jurassic Park’ when the dinosaurs are coming. You see the water start to shake,” said Jaray, a lifelong resident of the neighborhood who lives across the street from the historic venue. “I could be inside my house. I could be outside my house. It doesn’t matter. It feels like I’m on the stage.”
The sold-out blowout — headlined by the DJ Fred Again — ended a season where Forest Hills Stadium celebrated its 100th anniversary. Jaray and other neighbors said the music — replete with throbbing bass — made the outdoor stadium louder than ever.
According to city records, the Department of Environmental Protection has issued seven “unreasonable noise” violations against Forest Hills Stadium in the past two years.
Now, the DEP told Gothamist it is working with the stadium's operators on noise mitigation. At the city’s request, the venue has hired an acoustic consultant to install noise-muffling devices. Those measures come eight years after the stadium operator implemented $500,000-worth of noise suppression measures, including a concrete fence and stairway covers.
“We certainly understand the concerns of the residents and are taking them very seriously. We are working closely with the promoter to come up with real solutions and hope to improve things significantly ahead of next concert season,” DEP spokesperson Edward Timbers said.
Meanwhile, the Forest Hills Garden Corporation — which runs the gated community abutting the stadium — filed a Queens Supreme Court lawsuit in May seeking to end the concerts entirely. The suit argues that the stadium is both a public and private nuisance. The group alleges the venue also shouldn't be permitted to hold concerts — because it began as a tennis club.
The stadium is part of the nonprofit West Side Tennis Club, which is named in the lawsuit. The group did not respond to multiple inquiries.
But the tennis club’s general manager, Layosh Toth, says in a sworn affidavit that the Forest Hills Garden Corporation launched a “bad faith campaign” to end the concerts and an "extortionate scheme…to completely shut down the stadium.”
Christopher Jaray peers out his window at Forest Hills Stadium. He says the venue's loud concerts are disrupting his life.
Ramsey Khalifeh
The ruckus from shows at the stadium — as well as the regular stream of crews to set up concerts and crowds coming to and from the venue — has long been a complaint among many Forest Hills locals. In the 1990s, the community convinced then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to halt concerts at the venue. Shows didn’t resume until 2013.
Since the stadium’s post-pandemic reopening, many Forest Hills residents have become increasingly enraged. The number of concerts each season has nearly doubled to around 30 shows compared to before the pandemic.
Andy Court, president of the group Concerned Citizens of Forest Hills, said the shows often violate city rules that prohibit concert venues from producing noise that clocks 42 decibels in nearby residences. His group wants to limit the amount of shows performed per season and enforce a strict 10 p.m. curfew.
“The noise levels are way too high in people’s homes. People are complaining about their homes shaking. And yet, for about two years, the DEP has done nothing,” said Court, 62, who lives a block away from the stadium. He said the noise violations were akin to “a parking ticket” and “a slap on the wrist.”
DEP officials said they have gone into homes of Forest Hills residents this summer to monitor noise levels and issued tickets to the stadium operators. However, the DEP also said the $2,000 fine for a noise violation is not a major deterrent for large concert operators like Forest Hills, which has capacity for 13,000 people.
Not all neighbors join in the outrage. Jeff Latzer, 39, said the sound of the concerts “comes with the territory.”
“The noise just seems to be pretty standard. Some I can hear from my living room … others don’t come through as well. Comedians just sound like somebody’s shouting through a megaphone,” Latzer said.
Danielle Young, 41, who lives a block away from the stadium, said she has dance parties with her two young kids during concerts.
The stakes of the lawsuit are high. In 2011, Coney Island residents sued and successfully forced a summer concert series at a public park to relocate because it allegedly violated noise rules.
“The quality of life, safety and investments of thousands of New Yorkers are at stake,” lawyer for Forest Hills Garden Corporation wrote in a legal filing.
Tagged
new york city
queens
Music
Politics
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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