What can you do on a 70-centimetre wide sidewalk? One Montrealer decided it’s perfect for dancing on.
Professional dancer Mistaya Hemingway and cameraman Jerome Watier-Sincennes made a video of Hemingway dancing on the narrow sidewalk in the Plateau-Mont Royal borough.
The Plateau wanted to build a concrete median and between the bike path and the road on Brebeuf St. from Laurier Ave. to St. Gregoire St. and approved a plan to remove street parking spaces in order to do it. But after some residents complained, the city of Montreal, which is in charge of the road work project, opted instead to keep parking spots and reduce the width of the sidewalk.
The sidewalk went from 170 centimetres wide to 70 centimetres wide.
Wheelchair user Laurent Morissette, who is the vice president of Regroupement des activistes pour l'inclusion au Quebec, a group that works to ensure Quebec is accessible and inclusive, has said he fears shrinking the sidewalk will prevent people who use wheelchairs from being able to use it.
Hemingway’s video shows her casually walking turning a corner onto the narrowed stretch of sidewalk, which is when she starts grooving to a song by British band Jamiroquai as she heads down Brebeuf. At the end of the video, a message flashes: “Because what else is there to do with a sidewalk 70 centimetres wide?”
It was posted Tuesday around noon and by 9:30 p.m. had been viewed just over 31,000 times.
