Plateau salon and its troubles
La Presse’s Maxime Bergeron reports on a small, very organic beauty salon in the Plateau, where the owner takes great care to exclude anything toxic and to obey the rules, and yet she’s under constant harassment from neighbours who have invoked a series of inspections on her, and have left open the possibility of further measures.
jeather 09:46 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
I have to say that, toxic or not, I would hate to live above a salon that uses a bunch of essential oils. I very cleverly chose to live somewhere that isn’t above a commercial location.
But they don’t say that the salon has been there for longer than the neighbours and imply the reverse, and whatever “I don’t use chemicals” bullshit she is peddling (organic nailpolish, like everything, is made of chemicals), she is definitely using things that smell, and many volatile organic compounds can be smelled quite strongly however low the concentration is.
Robert H 14:24 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
All right, jeather you’re not buying it. Perhaps you think Alexandra Simard is cynically exploiting the La Presse article to portray herself as a struggling, hardworking small business owner beleaguered by hostile, nitpicking nimbys. Or maybe you’re the cynic?
Anyway, she’s right when she says that small businesses contribute greatly to the attraction of the quartier. I’ve seen this sort of conflict in Boston, Washington D.C., and Chicago among other places and I can say it’s inevitable. As a veteran of urban living, I can say that If you move to a dense, central, convenient neighbourhood of row housing, party walls, and rear alleys, sprinkled with shops and threaded with major streets, there will be noise, there will be smells, messiness, drifting voices, sirens, music (including thumping bass) and a general low background hum of traffic and thousands of folks up to who knows what.
People learn to put up with what they don’t like because of the things they do like about a place. That’s why one of my siblings loves her far-flung suburban, car oriented bosky retreat and why I love my spot in town. I’m not saying you or Salon Primerose’s neighbours forfeit your right to complain. I’ve done my fair share. But I do feel that people, especially new arrivals, need to temper their expectations with realism, understanding, and goodwill.
dwgs 14:58 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
Also, we’re all made out of chemicals.
jeather 15:11 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
I’m not buying anyone who claims they make nailpolish without chemicals, no. But since the complaints started as soon as she opened her salon, it does sound like the salon owner was the new arrival.
I don’t think she’s exploiting anyone, I’m not sure she’s breaking any laws (she moved the illegal vent, and mostly she seems to come across as trying to follow the rules), but the article is very much on her side and painting the neighbours as newly arrived NIMBYs who could not possibly actually find the smells of her salon very unpleasant (or worse). Note that they didn’t actually talk to the neighbours — were they there before she was (I think yes)? What are the problems? Can you actually smell her products in their apartments? Do any of them have, I don’t know, migraines that are set off by this? This is an incredibly one sided piece. And sometimes there’s only one reasonable side, but I’m not sure this is one of those times.
I live in a triplex near the Ville Marie; I am aware of the pros and cons of living in a dense urban environment and the attractions of small businesses.
Ian 21:28 on 2024-10-01 Permalink
I used to live upstairs from a hair salon, my place smelled like hair bleach. I talked to the salon, they claimed there was nothing to be done. I sealed up the cracks in the floor with plumber’s foam (a good job, i removed all the excess and stained it to match), put down rugs, and bought a powerful air filter with organic chemical filters on my own dime. Didn’t smell a thing after that. After all, I DID move in upstairs from a hair salon…
Some people are too precious to live among others.
Orr 17:45 on 2024-10-03 Permalink
@dwgs Step back a bit further and we’re just made of stardust.
Lucky, lucky bits of stardust.