There are some really smart kids who live up at the UniverCity housing development on Burnaby Mountain.
Many of them live in my building. They are students who attend Simon Fraser University’s campus down the street – and I’m sure they work hard and are brilliant.
They ignored the sign (Photo by Chris Campbell)
But some of them are pigs who like to dump all over our neighbourhood.
Sorry, but it’s true. If you don’t know the UniverCity development, many of the suites are rented out by SFU students. That was the big reason why the neighbourhood was created. It’s supplied a lot of housing for students and, for the most part, they are solid citizens who go about their business in an orderly fashion. There isn’t even much partying that goes on. It’s a pretty quiet area, except for the spring when the frogs in the nearby forest start mating – but I digress.
At the end of most months – when people move out - the sidewalks at the front of some of the apartment buildings are littered with furniture dumped by lazy people.
It’s a frequent occurrence and makes a nice, clean neighbourhood look awful.
And a stove, too (Photo by Chris Campbell)
Case in point, on Wednesday morning as I drove out of my building, I looked up the street and notice yet another pile of crap. I parked to take a look and noticed that several pieces of filthy furniture had been dumped right in front of a sign that said, “No dumping. Violators will be prosecuted.”
There was even an electric stove sitting with the furniture.
It’s like they were deliberately trying to send a message to the person who posted the sign.
Like a metaphorical middle finger.
I’ve spoken to building managers up and down my block and they say it’s mostly student renters who are guilty of dumping. They sneak the stuff out in the middle of the night and dump it on the front lawns of buildings because they don’t want to have to deal with disposing of the items as they move out.
I’ve written about this issue before in Burnaby. It’s not just students. There are lots of grown-ass adults who are doing the same thing and it’s really frustrating. The city is left having to deal with the problem most times and people who want to live in a clean neighbourhood have to arrive home to garbage on their building’s front lawn.
