something's happening here, what it is...
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
We're visiting with grandma today, and the first thing I noticed on her street was the giant heap of household belongings.
In the past nine months, I've now witnessed three of these giant heaps of junk occupying a driveway on poor old Rio Lane. What seems to be happening is that people just abandon their homes and leave their belongings out in the rain when they go.
Saint Catharines is a poor city. Originally it grew to meet the needs of the Welland Canal. Then it became a manufacturing center, but we North Americans decided in the late twentieth century that manufacturing was not necessary. So Saint Catharines started its decline. It now revolves around services for its substantial retirement community and the University. And apparently you can't build a thriving economy on low-paying jobs (who'd have guessed).
I worry that one of two things is happening, and neither is encouraging.
First is the possibility that there are an inordinate number of bankruptcies going on. These people are simply and quickly losing everything and are unable to afford to put their stuff somewhere.
Secondly, and related to the first, is that some of these tenants (not looking at this latest group because they had some quite old things among the mix) are walking away from not only their rent but from furnishings and other goods that are still new but not paid for. This raises the possibility that they're permanently bankrupt, essentially, are moving into a property that will take them without a credit check, and then are filling the house/apartment with stuff that they're buying on credit. Every 6-12 months they then repeat the process.
Either way, I can't help but wonder if Saint Catharines hasn't entered into a sort of marginal state where the only tenants to be found for these properties (all three-bedroom duplexes) are people who simply can't afford them. A cycle of bankrupt tenancy is formed, with the result inevitably being that the property owners (and eventually the city) have to desupport the properties because their upkeep doesn't make sense. This worrisome trend has certainly long since taken root in the city centre, where so many buildings have been torn down that you can pick your way through the downtown by skipping from vacant lot to vacant lot (this is something that Saint Catharines shares with several American cities).
A woeful situation for the city of my birth.