Uptown Neighbors Still Angered Over Montrose Harbor Concert Noise
By Jim Bochnowski in News on Jul 9, 2015 8:15PM
Proving once again that we can't have anything nice, the recent concert series at Montrose Beach has been met with even more resistance from Uptown residents in its wake.
There was plenty of grumbling before Mumford & Sons came to the area on June 19, of course. But despite the ever-persistent advertising for the show, a few residents managed to be completely in the dark about the concert until it happened. Needless to say, they were unhappy, and expressed a multitude of concerns at the Wednesday night meeting of the Lincoln Park Advisory Council, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The President of the Advisory Council, Ellen Isaacson, publicly wondered:
"We're not so sure this is a good utilization of park space. And it seems like this is a slippery slope. Is Montrose going to become the Ravinia South? Because I don't want that at all."
The real tears, however, should perhaps be shed for the poor boat owners of the North Side, who called the concert's inconvenience an "injustice." As one boat owner said at the meeting:
"The park is for the people. And there are existing facilities in Chicago to accommodate concerts like that, like Grant Park, Soldier Field. To inconvenience such a large group, people who pay a premium to access the harbor, I think is an injustice."
Immediately following the concert, residents in Andersonville, Edgewater and Rogers Park all reported hearing sound from the concert venue. Alderman James Cappleman, whose district includes Montrose Beach, told the Tribune that he had received at least 20 noise complaints from other neighborhoods, all the way from Wrigleyville to Ravenswood.
Nobody wants concerts to be held in their back yards. Just ask the organizers of Riot Fest. But when you live in a heavily populated neighborhood in a city, shouldn't you expect some sort of noise on the weekends? Do the residents of downtown Chicago complain that the Grateful Dead made too much noise at Soldier Field or about traffic being snarled around their high-rise apartment buildings?
It's Chicago. It's always noisy, and the traffic is always terrible.