A boiling controversy over outdoor concerts at Forest Hills Stadium is tearing the normally-sleepy Queens neighborhood apart, as lawsuits and accusations of extortion are flying — with the first concert mere hours away.
Things have gotten so heated that angry neighbors of the 13,000 seat stadium, former home of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, were threatening to cut off access to a popular route concertgoers use to make their way to the arena, forcing them to walk a mile out of their way, court papers say.
A judge has ordered the group to keep the street open pending a legal resolution as the summer concert series gets underway as planned this weekend.
The flap pits two neighborhood groups against the stadium’s owner, the non-profit West Side Tennis Club, and the concert operator, in a battle over noise, traffic and money.
Neighbors say the concerts aren’t just louder than they should be, but also go later into the night than allowed. On top of that, there have been more concerts last year and scheduled for this year than previously. There were no concerts in 2020, due to the pandemic, and ten in 2021. There are 28 concerts scheduled for the upcoming season, including this weekend’s Head in the Clouds music festival.
Jean Hahn lives close enough to see the stadium from her window. The noise, she says, distracts her 12-year-old daughter from her homework and keeps her husband, who works an early-morning shift in a city hospital, up at night. Once, the bass was so strong she said it visibly shook the doors in her house.
“They’re really just sort of ignoring all kinds of ordinances that you have to maintain quality of life and nobody who lives here is benefiting from this except for the West Side Tennis Club and the concert promoter,” she said.
Doing battle with the area are two groups: the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, which represents property owners, and Concerned Citizens of Forest Hills, a non-profit that advocates for “reasonable restrictions”…
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