If you don’t have air conditioning in your home during the current heat wave, then you have to open your windows and crank up the fans.
But what if opening your windows just leads to a whole other set of problems – like “unbearable” noise from a construction project.
That’s what Lubna told me about life in Burnaby’s Metrotown area, which is growing fast with multiple construction projects.
The problem is that these projects are really noisy.
“Construction noise + heat waves + pandemic work-from-home orders + no air-conditioning = pure misery,” she told the NOW. “My husband and I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Metrotown. When we moved here three years ago, there was one construction site close by but it was nearing completion. Since then, five more construction sites have sprung up all around us, the most recent is exactly next door to our building.
“The construction developer is extremely inconsiderate of people’s needs in the area, parking enormous lorries in the middle of the street with their engines on which means that we are dealing not only with the horrible noise, but also inhaling toxic exhaust fumes from these lorries on a daily basis. We are forced to work from home because of the pandemic, and we can’t even open our windows anymore during this excessively hot summer.
“I complained numerous times to the noise complaints number, only to be told that construction companies are allowed to create this kind of noise from 7:00 am onwards, meaning residents don’t have any rights as human beings to live, work or rest in their homes. It’s destroying our mental and physical health, ruining our ability to work, and there seems to be nothing we can do about it.”
Of course, one will ask why a person would move to the busiest part of the city when it’s well-known that construction projects will be happening for many years to come.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
