Pristine Alleyways, Or, Erasing The Record of What is Actually Going On

Photo by Zack Mason

If you live downtown, and you don’t have a car, you probably spend a lot of time walking.

And if you’re a walker, you probably take shortcuts.

And as you take shortcuts, you get familiar with the alleyways of downtown Kitchener. You’re probably aware that people write on our walls.

I’ve been cutting up and down Halls Ln, Goodies Ln, Market Ln, and the other hidden throughways of downtown Kitchener since I was a teenager. For years, I’ve seen the scrawled markings that appear, get covered up, and reappear.

Usually, I’m in a rush. I read a message and get on with my day and forget the whole thing. Recently, I became freshly attuned to the markings of Downtown Kitchener. I began to consider them not as silly, cryptic scrawlings, but appreciate them for what they are: evidence of how people are moving through our community, feeling each other out, and communicating with one another.

Photo by Zack Mason

The more I read these messages, the more I began to realize that these scrawlings in the alleyways aren’t isolated incidents of what some might call vandalism. In fact, they are a live record of a facet of our community that is often erased and ignored.

The first message I noticed was written in what looked like green crayon: “BAM BAM”, followed by a phone number.

I texted the number, called it, and not surprisingly, received no answers.

As the day went on, I decided to walk these alleyways more slowly. I became aware of a complicated, sometimes funny, often tragic world I hadn’t noticed before. There were dark jokes, declarations of love and heart break, notes urging loved ones to take medicine, go to rehab, to call home, or just to know that they’re missed. Entire conversations and arguments played out, like YouTube comment sections and Reddit threads.

Alongside the messages I also began to notice the swaths of grey paint covering the scrawlings. In the past, I had dismissed this mark-making as tagging; in recognizing their role as community communication boards, I see what it means to erase them.

Photo by Zack Mason

The existence of just one of these messages proves that a person in our community had a feeling and wanted people to know about it. At best, they were in love, heartbroken, or simply bored. At worst, they were trying to reach out to someone they couldn’t contact otherwise.

I recall once asking someone at the 100 Victoria encampment to sit for an interview. Initially, he was enthusiastic. When I asked for a phone number or an email address, he just shook his head.

“I don’t have a phone, bro.”

I asked him where I could contact him and he gestured vaguely around where we stood.

“Around.”

I never saw him again.

Why is it okay to slap an ugly grey patch over a message like “We miss you”?

Why is it illegal for people to write on the wall?

Photo by Zack Mason

I’d argue that a person’s right to expression outweighs the desire for a pristine alleyway. This isn’t exactly about pristine alleyways, but more so, the symbolic power they hold. When property management patches over a scrawling with grey paint, they assert their power, imposing an image they prefer to communicate about the community over the record of what is actually going on. By accepting this erasure, we ignore the reality of our streets and alleyways as well.

These swaths of grey paint read like the intentionally uncomfortable designs of today’s bus shelters and park benches, a means of hiding people who are deemed undesirable by those in power. Putting an impractically short armrest in the middle of a park bench doesn’t negate a person’s need to sleep there, it just pushes them to bunk down somewhere less conspicuous. The same is true for these swaths of grey paint. When we cover these scrawlings, we don’t make our walls and cities beautiful. We do not create stronger communities. We do not address the needs of our neighbours. We push people to the fringes, and ignore the realities of where we live.

Zack Mason is a writer from Kitchener, Ontario. His writing has appeared in Half and One Magazine, and The Community Edition. He has also read his work at Pinch Cabaret, and the Together We’re Boisterous comedy show. Currently Zack is pursuing an MFA, writing a novel about clowns and sex work.