A couple of owners from the Rosemont neighborhood in Montreal broke the asphalt covering their parking space to replace it with greenery. The initiative, which surprised the neighbors, is part of a movement that is slowly gaining ground.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
“We went crazy in the alley! launches Marion Le Bloa. Many people have cars and park in the back. We were told: it’s so worth parking. We are not in the perspective of wanting to resell soon, and it is not completely irreversible. But there are people who thought it was really weird for us to do that. »
Photo François Roy, La Presse
The parking lot was in the upper left corner of the yard, pictured.
Until they removed it last summer, the parking lot, designed for one car, occupied part of the backyard of their plex. Since the family no longer owns a car, greening this space made sense to them. The owners could have even done it long before, admits Mme The Bloa. “If we waited for six years, it’s because we thought we needed a jackhammer. We saw it big. We didn’t think that asphalt lifted up like that when it was badly placed! »
It was after noticing that the pieces of asphalt came off the ground quite easily that they broke them and removed them with their two children. A neighbour, armed with a concrete saw, helped them cut a straight curb. They then hired workers to remove the thick layer of gravel that was under the asphalt and to fill the hole with earth. Then they put peat themselves. This one having badly crossed the first year, it will be later replaced by plants. The total cost of the operation? About $1500.
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARION LE BLOA
The yard before the works
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PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MARION LE BLOA
A jackhammer is often needed to break up the asphalt. Not here, where it was pulled out with sledgehammers and shovels (pictured left). After the work, the couple put in peat which has since had a hard time (photo on the right).
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“We have the impression that the yard is bigger,” observes Marion Le Bloa. Cooler too, she says.
Heat islands and runoff
Freeing the earth from asphalt (and concrete), an operation called “demineralization”, is a way of fighting against heat islands, since asphalt has the property of absorbing heat rather than reflect.
Photo François Roy, La Presse
The owners plan to plant plants where the parking lot was.
In the same urban sector, the temperature difference between a mineralized space and a green space can reach up to 12°C, according to Véronique Fournier, director general of the Montreal Urban Ecology Center (CEUM).
In the context of climate change and increases in episodes of extreme temperatures, heat islands have impacts on the health of populations.
Véronique Fournier, Executive Director of the Montreal Urban Ecology Center (CEUM)
Demineralization also ensures better management of rainwater by allowing the soil to play its role of sponge and reducing runoff that carries contaminants into waterways.
To educate citizens, organizations and municipalities about the harms of mineralization, the CEUM launched the campaign earlier this month Push after push, let’s regain ground!.
Photo Martin Matteau, provided by Environnement Mauricie
In 2019, elected officials and volunteer citizens greened part of the Shawinigan public market parking lot.
According to a survey conducted by the CEUM in December 2021, 76% of Quebecers want to see their municipality do more to adapt living environments to climate change, but only 23% of them are aware that mineralization has an impact on the quality of drinking water and 10% that this phenomenon accentuates social inequalities.
“It’s not just in Montreal,” says Ms.me Fournier. This reality is found in more urbanized sectors in all regions of Quebec. »
In 2017, the CEUM launched the Sous les pavés project, which supports communities in their demineralization efforts. Since then, about fifteen sites have been freed from 2559 m2 asphalt, including schoolyards and parking lots like the Shawinigan public market, which had been targeted by the municipality as a heat island. With the help of a small army of citizens and elected officials, four paved parking spots were replaced with vegetation.
“It was a big parking lot; there was an image there ”, underlines the municipal councilor Jacinthe Campagna.
We have a few businesses like that in Shawinigan that have huge parking lots that are never full. It’s a big loss of green space.
Jacinthe Campagna, Municipal Councilor of Shawinigan
The objective, she adds, was also to talk about the environment with citizens. “We have an aging population that is very used to the machine. It’s a car culture. It was also an opportunity to open up a dialogue with the disadvantaged clienteles who live in this sector and who do not necessarily have the opportunity to discuss these issues and with the merchants: the economy, okay, but did you think that having a green space will make people stop more often? »
Although Sous les pavés relies on community projects like the one in Shawinigan, “we can all act to free ourselves from the asphalt,” insists Véronique Fournier. “As citizens, there are choices we can make, for example by deciding not to asphalt or mineralize a surface. We can remove asphalt to plant, to green. Even installing flower or vegetable boxes on your balcony or terrace can have an impact.
When parking is necessary, preference can be given to honeycomb slabs, recycled plastic or even concrete, although the latter absorb heat. Growing greenery in the cells requires careful care and moderate use of the parking lot. But you can also opt for gravel, which will allow the water to percolate… under the cobblestones!