In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mostly by running, his office in his backpack, on the lookout for fascinating subjects and people. He talks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban chronicle.
Abandoned furniture and moving debris are less present on the sidewalks than in previous years in the aftermath of World War I.is July, I noticed as I walked the city streets on Tuesday.
Not only are there fewer moves in times of housing shortages and exorbitant rents, and therefore fewer things abandoned, but orphaned furniture is also rarer than in the past.
“Valuable or useful furniture quickly finds buyers thanks to the Facebook groups for things to donate, which are very popular,” rejoices David Lauzon, a foreman in the Ville-Marie borough. I meet him while I am doing my rounds of the streets to see whether or not there is a lot of waste the day after the big annual moving day.
At 5:15 a.m., Mr. Lauzon begins his day. He identifies the places where the previous day’s moves left bulky items. Starting at 6 a.m., the blue-collar workers go from one point to another.
When I pass blue-collar workers Martine Maltais-Trottier and Gérald Coriolan in their F150 at the corner of Rouen and Le Havre in the Centre-Sud district around 11:15 a.m., they have already finished the “moving” part of their shift.
(I find them trying to remove the illegal dumping of household waste.)
“Yesterday we had a lot of big pieces, mattresses, bed frames, wardrobes, all sorts of things… and it will continue for a few days because not everyone is moving on the 1stis” says Mr. Coriolan.
“The furniture we collect goes to the dump: it has often been dirty, has been caught in the rain or is covered in graffiti,” laments M.me Maltese-Trottier.
I ran into blue-collar workers Gérald Coriolan and Martine Maltais-Trottier late one morning. They had already finished the moving portion of their day and were busy picking up a “fly-tipping.”
Photo LOUIS-PHILIPPE MESSIER
A disgusting pile
At the corner of Iberville and Rachel, at the foot of an apartment building with grossly inadequate garbage bins, a mountain of filthy trash mixed with abandoned furniture and personal effects (including a guitar case) covers the sidewalk. It’s the worst I’ve found on my tour.
“It’s disgusting, I’m calling 311 and filing a complaint right away!” fumes a disgusted neighbor.
Further along Rachel, a woman struggles to help her daughter move in because the sidewalk is cluttered with the previous tenants’ belongings.
A woman was moving her daughter and was walking around a wall of things left behind by the previous tenants.
Photo LOUIS-PHILIPPE MESSIER
She takes the opportunity to ask me if I can carry their air conditioning unit; I agree to make myself useful.
A woman I was interviewing while her daughter was moving asked me to transport her air conditioning unit.
Photo LOUIS-PHILIPPE MESSIER
No magic
In the 27 years that I have lived in Montreal, I cannot remember a July 2nd that was so uncrowded.
“It doesn’t happen by magic. In Ville-Marie alone, since last Saturday we have had two teams, or about 30 people, who have managed to pick up everything almost as they go along,” recalls Philippe Sabourin, the city’s spokesperson.
Mr. Sabourin rips open a few bags in front of me to show me that, unfortunately, Montrealers who move throw away and mix everything up… To the dump.
City spokesperson Philippe Sabourin points out that Montrealers who move and throw away their things often do so without sorting.
Photo LOUIS-PHILIPPE MESSIER
If you notice piles of waste on a sidewalk or in a street or alley in Montreal, write to our journalist [email protected].
