Environment

Nestled between the working-class Hochelega neighborhood, a port logistics center, and the St. Lawrence River in Southeast Montreal, the Terrain Vague is a green space and commons in the metropolitan desert. For longer than anyone can remember, people have gathered at this spot to celebrate, share food, and enjoy each other’s company. In ways analogous to the South River Forest in Atlanta, this ‘terrain vague’—a technical term that roughly translates as ‘vacant lot’—functions as one of the last real public spaces in Montreal where people can do what they want. A wild and unusual place, as vague as it is beautiful.

It thus surprises no one that over the past few decades, a succession of industrial projects have threatened to crush the territory’s unruly ambiguity—or that the surrounding community has fought back. Most recently, hundreds of people from a variety of social and political backgrounds converged on the space from June 4 to 11 for a series of workshops, circus performances, children’s theatrical plays, and punk shows in a shared effort to keep these woods alive.