MONTREAL — With temperatures reaching the mid-twenties on Sunday, Montrealers are finally starting to feel like summer is around the corner. To prepare for the busy tourist season, the Saint- Laurent Boulevard Merchants’ Association held its annual clean-up.
“It’s the second edition of the spring cleaning of the boulevard,” said Tasha Morizio, the association’s general director. “So we just want to invite everyone to come out and show how much they care about this commercial artery.”
Rags and spray-bottles in hand, members of the community tackled the urban furniture: parking meters, fire hydrants, mailboxes and lamp posts. The boulevard already has a cleaning crew working seven days a week, and when the merchants’ association noticed the difference that initiative was making, they decided to take it to the next level.
“We said we need to take this initiative that we do and make it a lot bigger,” Morizio said. “And just do something that’s not only cleaning, but that also lends to making the territory beautiful and making it dynamic.”
Beyond the tidying up, a number of artistic installations were put in place. Specially designed anti-vandalism vinyls were installed in vacant shop windows, in an effort to tackle the graffiti problem and improve the area’s curb appeal.
Internationally renowned Montreal artist Jason Botkin was also on site, working on his series of sidewalk masterpieces.
“How it impacts the community is this sort of sense of collective affiliation,” said Botkin of his street art. “People talk about the art that’s there. They don’t always like it, but there’s something that they can really share in common and there’s this sort of sense of pride that comes up.”
Not only is the clean-up a kick-off to summer, it’s also in preparation for the annual Mural Festival held this year June 9 to 19 on The Main.
“We have artists from all over the world that are going to be coming here creating these huge murals,” said Morizio. “They’re beautiful, it’s so much fun.”
With Sunday’s initiative, the community is making sure their prized boulevard is ready for this festival and more.
“We want to make sure that when the clients arrive, that when the tourists arrive, that when people who work here every day arrive on the boulevard, that it’s spick-and-span and that it’s beautiful.”
Though the spring clean-up event lasts only one day, Morizio hopes its impact will last all summer long.
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