Open Thread

Benson,

I was the president of my coop in Brooklyn Heights for 10 years. It was a small coop in a large beautiful brownstone (10 units). I learned a bit about brownstones, but I became the de facto super as well, not necessarily to fix things, but at minimum to arrange to get people to fix things. And price things. And get a mortgage. And deal with people who were doing anti-social things. I did it so long because nobody else really wanted to do it (got used to the idea of taking care of a brownstone though).

In a condo/coop, you have to find the right balance of being involved and making sure you express and represent yourself and having a life.

donatella- I believe the terms of judgeship state that ceding repairs of said toilet to another person constitutes a form of defeat. Said judgeship may be forfeit. Jes’ sayin.

When I first moved into my condo, people were amazed that I knew how to pick up a screwdriver, as I liked to say. I became a rock star there – and was named president of the Board. Things went along fine until two things happened:

-I was becoming the de facto super of the place;

-they wanted me to also become their free advocate. We had some issues with the building, both at an individual owner level and as a building. With regard to the latter, it was my style to negotiate with the sponsor, as he was still at the table and problems were getting resolved, albeit slowly. We had a bunch of hotheads in the building who wanted the Board to sue the sponsor for both the building-level issues AND their individual issues. They circulated a petition and when they presented it to me as an ultimatum, I resigned. I noted that none of them offered to roll up their sleeves, they justed wanted to hold my coat.

I withdrew from my condo’s life for a long time. Now that the hothead crowd has moved away, I’m getting back into it.

By bxgrl on April 21, 2011 10:32 AM

Montrose won’t get all judgey- we renovated her dining room. The molding work would make dave positively pass out. It does look good though- after 3 glasses of wine and a xanax.

LOL…