by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Noise-sensitive citizens have led the city bureaucracy to declare war on downtown’s all-night dance clubs. Starting last Tuesday, Jan. 25, no new permits will be given to afterhours dance clubs in the Ville-Marie district, the giant downtown area from Atwater to Moreau and from Sherbrooke to the river. Borough officials eventually intend to force the clubs to close at 3 a.m.

The move seriously threatens the future of such thriving all-night clubs as Sona, Aria, Stereo, as well as Groove Society and FOAM, a clothing store on Ste-Catherine W. that already has a license to operate as an afterhours.

Downtown councillor Robert Laramée says the clubs bug nearby residents. "Each week, residents complain about the noise factor. As well, it’s the parking and young people trespassing on private property. The residents are sick of it," he says.

Laramée says police are frequently called to homes in the middle of the night where they walk around with decibel meters to judge the level of legitimate disturbance. "People living downtown already endure the bars that close at 3 a.m., but on top of it, they have to deal with these places where the music never ends until 9 a.m."

He feels that the city must cater to the needs of the many residents they brought back into the area. "The city invested enormous amounts of money in the form of tax breaks and grants to lure citizens to move back downtown. But with all these new condos and renovations, it created an unworkable mix of residents and clubs where the night never ends."

Laramée says he has never been inside one of the clubs, has never spoken to the owners but lives near one of the clubs in question. He recommends that all downtown afterhours clubs only be permitted in industrial areas that have no neighbours, such as under the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

One analyst of the afterhours scene thinks the clubs should be encouraged rather than attacked. "Montreal is the only city with three world-class afterhours clubs within two kilometres of each other with Sona, Aria and Stereo. That’s unheard of elsewhere," says Ian Huggins, an afterhours aficionado who runs MTLNIGHTS, a Web forum devoted to the local late-night dance club scene. "These are legitimate businesses. Everybody gets paid, they’re good corporate tax citizens, they have payrolls and employees and they attract a lot of people from out of town. And rather than leave the clubs in the middle of the night, people leave at 8 a.m. I don’t know how residents could be annoyed by that."

Huggins points out that the clubs are largely neighbour-free and should be low on the list of local annoyances. "What about the thousands of cars constantly streaming down Ste-Catherine, the heroin problem, the crackheads downtown, why pick on the afterhours clubs?

"Montreal is a hotbed of house music and that brings a lot of tourists to town," says Huggins. "Plus these clubs breed local talent. If the councillor closes these places, it’ll only make Montreal look intolerant, and we’re known as a tolerant city." :