Facelift

The co-op has been undergoing lots of cosmetic changes this week.  Staff, at the behest of our Property Manager, have been mowing and de-weeding common areas throughout the co-op, especially sprucing up the procession route for VIPs to see how well our co-op is continually maintained.  The occasion is a media glitz for a kick off BBQ for the new play park. 

Last summer at the height of the severe drought affecting great swaths of Eastern Ontario, I wrote the Property Manager strongly suggesting that in light of the fact that volunteers were not cutting the common area hayfields, that the co-op hire someone to do so.  Not only were the hayfields unsightly, but they presented a fire hazard as well.  The Property Manager's response to me was that she would NOT hire anyone anyone to mow the common areas, that she would rely on volunteers to do it - and then she thanked me for my suggestion.  The hayfield mound never did get mowed.

This makeover is superficial in the extreme.  As soon as the hype is over and the media wrap up their session, the common areas will again be unkempt, the play park will be strewn with garbage, which is never picked up by parents and the Property Manager will have increased her public exposure, which was the point of this whole exercise to begin with.