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NEWS: Dumping plagues local parks /A4 PHOTO FEATURE: Celebrate the Night Market /A10 SPORTS: Interest in tennis on the upswing /A18 1327 Beach Dr. | 7am – 7pm
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
vicnews.com
Public piano problematic for Avenue resident K lara Woldenga loves music. But she’s beginning to hate the sound of the piano, especially when it’s being played poorly outside her bedroom window at 11:30 p.m. Woldenga and her boyfriend Jordan Peltier, live on Oak Bay Avenue, in an apartment directly behind Entrance park, just steps away from one of three pianos installed for two months as a public art project organized by the district and arts laureate Barbara Adams. “I woke up to it. There was a film crew there, they had a professional playing it. It was pretty,” she said of the initial Laura Lavin installation. But as the day wore on, more and more people Reporting played the piano, and most were not professionals. Some played for a few minutes, some for as long as an hour. Kids banged on the keys, and one mom used the instrument to give her daughter a piano lesson. By the end of the week, Woldenga was looking up the district’s noise bylaw. The bylaw states the playing of any musical instrument, whether in a private or public place in such a manner or with such volume liable to disturb the quiet, peace, rest, enjoyment, comfort or convenience of individuals or the public is prohibited. However, the bylaw does not apply to music in a public park or square in connection with any public meeting, public celebration or public gathering. “I called the bylaw officer, who was very rude to me, and told me the city counts it as a celebration. But this is for two months, so I don’t see that as counting. If it lacks melody, rhythm or it’s off-tune, it’s not music,” she said. The piano is supposed to be open from 10 a.m. to dusk, but the instrument is wrapped in tarp by a worker who gets there sometime between 9 and 10 p.m.
Laura Lavin/News staff
PLEASE SEE: Offer of compromise left on the table, Page A17
Klara Woldenga sits at her kitchen table with the window closed to help quiet the sound from the piano placed steps from her Oak Bay Avenue home as part of its summer-long public art project.
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