The Village resident takes to social media to raise awareness of excessive littering

Alex Kvaskov | News Editor

Featured image: The trash has since been removed, but questions persist whether it is being removed often enough. | Photo courtesy of Carla Barbe

A U of T student residing in The Village has taken matters into her own hands upon witnessing the garbage York students have strewn across the area. To this end, Carla Barbe created Facebook and Twitter accounts and posted photos of the mayhem, tagging City of Toronto social media accounts to raise awareness of the problem.

Barbe’s parents own a house in The Village. A fourth-year master’s of social work student at U of T, she says she created the page because it took the City of Toronto a long time to address the issue following her call to 311, a city service hotline for Toronto.

“When I called back to follow up on a complaint about the neighbours’ house whose backyard was covered with garbage, 311 told me that case was closed,” she says. However, the garbage situation worsened, attracting skunks and raccoons.

The backyard was finally cleared after three calls to 311, but garbage remained in the roads. Barbe says she is fed up with the garbage “ruining” the neighbourhood.

“Homeowners don’t have enough bins so they throw the garbage on the garage laneway, but the city does not pick it up,” says Barbe.

Barbe remarks that she often sees Villagers consuming alcohol on the streets of The Village and tossing their beer cans willy-nilly, which she says is unfortunate.

“I decided to bring it to the media so I took one day to go around the whole neighborhood taking photos and documenting all the garbage,” Barbe states. Her eventual hope is that the city can send personnel to inspect the area and implement a new plan or policy.

Fourth-year actuarial science student Anshul Arora says the worst streets are on the west side, including Troyer Avenue, Sheffer Terrace and Cook Road, followed by Aldwinckle Heights and Delabo Drive.

“These areas are so badly infested with garbage, skunks, insects and bed bugs that you will see piles of infested furniture and personal belongings lying outside many houses,” says Arora.

“If there is so much garbage being carelessly tossed around, one can only imagine the rundown and dilapidated state of many of the houses in The Village,” he adds.

“Unfortunately, The Village lives up to its sketchy reputation where its student residents actually treat it like a village,” Arora states.

He chalks the state of The Village up to the carefree attitude prevalent among students and the mentality of shrugging off responsibility, instead of being personally accountable for cleanliness of their surroundings.

“I personally know so many people who have left The Village because of this mounting garbage problem, which has posed serious health and safety concerns,” says Arora.

He argues The Village has a need for more frequent maintenance and waste pickup services.

York has no ownership or legal jurisdiction within The Village, a residential community of privately owned homes. Barbara Joy, spokesperson for the university, says York students who live off-campus are responsible for complying with City of Toronto garbage collection rules and regulations.

With files from Kanchi Uttamchandani, Cedric Cruz and Matt Dionne