Rebellious Apartment People

I may have mentioned before that the building our apartment is in is an enclosed area so that is almost feels like a community sometimes. Its the first time I've lived in a place like this where I run into the same people in the halls and the elevator and see them around the property (its a big property; gated, with three buildings, two dog runs, a park, a pools, two gyms, etc.)

After living here for about 10 months I have come to a conclusion about my building - we are the troublemakers in the eyes of management. And better than that, my wing of the building houses the real rebels.

(A quick note important for these stories: the air conditioning system in our building is centrally run and is connected to all the other units in the building. They have to all be on cool or all on hot. Its weird, but thats the way it is)

Earlier this year, during the transition from chilly days to warm ones, the management put out a notice that although they knew the forecast was for 80+ degrees (possibly the low 90s), they were not going to turn on the air conditioning for at least the next three days because it might cool down again. They put a notice under everyone's door and pasted one in every elevator. The notice in the elevator in our wing  soon contained my building-mate's feelings.

Writing with many different pens soon appeared. The comments ranged from mild profanity to organized group calling of the front desk to voice our displeasure. The sign was eventually torn down, reposted and finally removed by the management. Much to our surprise, the A/C was turned on the next day. The people had triumphed! (And it never got cool again).

A couple months later (again when the temperature was supposed to be in the 90s), we got a notice that the A/C had broken and it was going to take a couple days to fix. But its ok, according to the notice, the A/C in the gym on the top floor would still be on.

As you can guess, the apartment rebels in our wing were not pleased. Notes were written all over the notice in the elevator on our side (in the other two elevators...nothing was written). We may or may not have added our feelings to the paper. Surprise, surprise, the air conditioning was fixed the same day.

After these two events, people realized this was an effective means to get things accomplished in the building. Soon after another note appeared in our elevator, this time from a fellow rebel. They were displeased with the knocking and pounding that seemed to take place at all ours of the day in one of the apartments in our wing. (I knew exactly what they were talking about and am pretty sure the culprit is the apartment right above ours. Seriously, it sounds like a wood shop or something up there all the time). Again, people agreed, organized calling to the front office, and the culprit is only rarely heard from these days. Very effective.

This week the management is having with the A/C again, so laminated notices about keeping windows closed have appeared in the elevators. Guess which elevator there is not a notice in?

Apparently we are in the rebel section of the building that cannot be trusted with a notice in the elevator and they've laminated the other ones to stop the rebellion from spreading. I like it. We'll see how long they can keep us down....