This is infuriating. As reported by the CBC:
"Paul McCaughey says city rejected his latest plan because it believes he’s trying to open a nightclub"
The owner of the shuttered Matador Ballroom says he's almost ready to give up once and for all on his dream of reopening the historic venue in the west end after seven years of negotiations with the city.
Paul McCaughey, who bought the century-old venue at Dovercourt Road and College Street in 2010, got word on Friday that his latest plan for the space has been rejected. It's the 12th one he's submitted to the city over the last seven years.
His most recent plan, submitted to the city, was in fact for a "combination restaurant, artist's studio, entertainment place of assembly, and a custom workshop at the back," but that a small kitchen and a lack of dividers between the performance space and restaurant were seen as suspicious by city staff, he said.
This isn't the first time this has happened to people and I'm sorry...did nightclub's become illegal in Toronto?
This just shows the lack of leadership at city hall that is going to great lengths to "brand" (ie talk about it, but not actually DO anything to make it true, just like our Diversity™) a "music city".
The fact that this "venue crisis" was engineered by a city councillor, Adam Vaughan who rode his destruction of Toronto's nightlife and of hospitality venues to a cushy provincial job, makes this even worse.
The venue crisis was 100% the creation of city council with their moratoriums on nightclubs in neighbourhoods and their constant demonization, sensationalization and exploitation of problems in the former entertainment district which lead to this. They chased out nightclubs only to turn around and sell every square block they could to developers with no thought to the impact on culture in this city.
All they saw was dollar signs and condos. This track they are on of emphasizing "live music venues" is also a slap in the face to nightclubs. Our business is NOT illegal and it shouldn't be a condition of a business to exist "as long as it's not a nightclub".
I think its high time the city of Toronto itself faced a class-action lawsuit to stop this oppressive, illegal, nonsense. City by-laws should exist to enhance and protect neighbourhoods. The character of Toronto's neighbourhoods are under siege right now and it's never been and currently not from nightclubs. Its from condos that are straining not only our cultural mores, but even our city's infrastructure, making traffic and even sewage problems every day occurrences that ruin our quality of life and business productivity. That's far more detrimental to the long term viability of Toronto as a livable city, than a perfectly legal nightclub business.
KB
KB