A thoroughly defaced Quebec Ministry of Transport direction sign on de Maisonneuve near the corner of Decarie in NDG attests that some vandals with spraypaint have been working in the area feverishly.
Although the wall of the nearby Otis Elevator building on the west side of Decarie has also become a spraypainted mess, on the east side a large residential condo building — which might otherwise have become a target because of its untarnished white stucco walls — has ironically been spared nearly completely.
"During this period now, we're not supposed to have a lot of graffiti, because it's too cold and the kids are not there," says Councillor Marcel Tremblay who represents the area, adding an ominous suggestion of things to come. "The graffiti starts in March or April when it starts to be warmer.
"If you look in our borough, the NDG district is the one where there is the most graffiti on the buildings," he continues. "There's a little bit in Snowdon, but otherwise you can go in Loyola and there's not any."
Tremblay speculates that the busy nature of the Decarie/de Maisonneuve area and a high volume of pedestrian traffic headed to and from the nearby Vendôme Metro provide fertile ground for youths to make graffiti.
He also notes that a parking lot behind the Otis building is often used for informal games of street hockey and that the wall has become a convenient target for graffiti. Along nearby Sherbrooke Street, a number of trendy boutiques specializing in apparel and accessories for youths also sell an array of quality spray paints to a similar clientele.
Tremblay complains that, apart from the local efforts of groups like Tandem, which conducts an anti-graffiti campaign in schools, and Prévention NDG, which is mandated to locate and clean up graffiti, the borough remains relatively powerless.
"When you're passing a bylaw saying you can't do that, who's going to enforce it?" he says. "That's our problem, because the police when they stop them, they bring the kids to the court, and then if he's under 18 years old, the court doesn't do very much. I don't think they're very severe with all of that."
Stricter laws needed against graffiti, says CDN-NDG councillor Tremblay
Stricter laws needed against graffiti, says CDN-NDG councillor Tremblay
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Published on
February 16, 2009
- Published on February 6, 2010
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Martin C.
Despite an ongoing effort to curb the spread of graffiti in Côte des Neiges-NDG, an elected official with the borough insists relatively little can be done without a change in provincial legislation to enable a proper crackdown.
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Comments
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- ANtonio Tarenzo
- - February 10, 2010 at 11:46:30
The problem has become much larger than ever before in the St. Raymond's disctrict of N.D.G, which runs through Upper Lachine Road and St. Jacques. As a life long resident of this community, I'm personally appauled by how our government (at the municipal level in particular) has allowed the graffiti problem in this area to get so out of hand. It has honestly gotten to the point where it looks like we live in the slums of an economically depleted society. The best example occured today for instance, as the grocery store at the corner of Belgrave and Uppoer LAchine was absolutely blasted with bright yellow graffiti all over its once clean and well maintained white walls. As a resident, I for one am absolutely sick of this, and it if our authorities aren't going to take real action against the problem then perhaps the average tax paying resident should do something about it!
