Kids on the street

>> The Plateau's lack of parks for small children is becoming a new campaign issue

by CRAIG SEGAL

This is the second time Sam Khreiss is fighting to save a resident-made park he helped build near his daycare on St-Dominique below Mont-Royal. Ten years ago the owner of Garderie La Cloche failed to save a park in the private lot across the street. He played with his 60 kids there for six years--until the landlord slapped a building on top of it. Now he's fighting to save the park in the lot between his daycare and the vegetarian Les Vivres restaurant.

But it's a losing battle. The 71,000-square-foot lot behind the old Segal's supermarket on St-Laurent is just about sold. On the rickety balcony above Segal's faded sign, real estate notices announce condos for sale. A real estate agent contacted by the Mirror said she is close to closing a sale of the property for a sum near the $420,000 asking price. And, barring an election-inspired miracle, the park will be transformed into condos.

Khreiss says the lot was being used as an illegal garbage dump. "It was a junkyard. When we saw rats in the play area behind the daycare, that was it." The park is now filled with plants, colourful murals, and two squeaky swings fastened with yellow cord.

Khreiss got 1,000 signatures on a petition to save the park, but he was unable to enlist the help of his city councillor. "[Michel] Prescott did nothing at all," he says. So Khreiss got in touch with Vivian Goulder, Team Bourque megacity candidate for Jeanne-Mance. That turned the park into an election issue. "If one year ago Prescott had asked the city to buy the park, he may have gotten it by now. He didn't," Goulder says. "I wasn't there a year ago."

Prescott claims he is working to save the park. "A daycare needs a park," he says. "But the solution is not easy."

It wouldn't be the first time the city has bought land from the private sector and turned it into a park on the Plateau. Eight years ago the city bought a slice of parking lot next to another daycare, the Centre de la Petite Enfance Duluth, on St-Dominique. The daycare's director says a nearby park is essential. Walking lines of kids around the Plateau on a long cord, while cute, cannot be the only option. "It's better when there's a park next door," says Simon Piotte, the centre's director, "because you can go inside when someone has to pee. When you go for a walk you need the whole morning." Piotte says kids can run more freely in a park and can play with toys.

Another daycare worker agrees. "There's a lack of green space in the area," says Michelle Girard of the Centre de la Petite Enfance Am Stram Gram on St-Urbain. Girard says kids spend an hour and a half outside every day, most of it in the park.

Khreiss says the play area behind his daycare can accommodate only 20 of his 60 kids, so he and his staff walk the kids to far-away parks. But the 15-minute walk is hard, especially in winter. "When one kid on the line falls, they all fall." Khreiss won't give up his fight. But, in the meantime, he is looking to move his daycare closer to a park.