Renting

In fairness it should be said that I have always had contempt for all of my big real estate landlords, with the exception of Mr. Koufas, the private homeowner who leased us his childhood home in Watertown. I hated Landmark Realty in Chicago and got hustled into signing a lease before I was ready and Micozzi Management in Brookline was a nightmare too. Though we lived on Beacon Street near B.U., in a fairly decent neighborhood, when we moved in, Kort found a dead and dessicated rat on our fire escape. Southside on Lamar had its problems, renting out the artist's quarters for monthly gala events bringing in traffic, noise, and drunken revelers. My conversation with the current management at Eastside Village last week went something like this:

Me: Someone put a bunch of tables in the fitness center, unplugged the machines and shoved them into a corner. The space is unusable.

Brandi: Yes, we're closing that fitness center and turning it into a party room for residents.

Me: Were residents informed? Because I didn't get a memo and I don't remember getting notified.

Brandi: There is a beautiful fitness center over at the Phase II complex? Have you seen it?

Me: Sure, when I toured the facilities. But I've been renting a unit in Phase I, and I chose to live at Phase I because it's next to the DART tracks and it also had a fitness center which is convenient to the building.

Brandi: So you have to walk to work out, that's part of the work out for god's sake. There's a perfectly good fitness center at Phase II with weights and machines and everything you need.

Me: So did residents vote on the changeover, or who's idea was that to eliminate this amenity?

Brandi: The community room we're putting in is another amenity that some of the residents have asked for, so that when friends and family come from out of town they can rent out the space.

Me: So can I put together a petition and have residents sign to reinstate the fitness room?

Brandi: Well, we haven't actually made the decision. God! The decision hasn't even happened yet and the change hasn't occurred. Why can't you just use the fitness room in Phase II?