Another good letter

delfi said...

To the DB Resort Management:

Even to the untrained eye, the current "renovation" projects at Beach Village and the DB Plaza have provided textbook examples in how not to do a job; ranging from poor planning, wasteful use of resources, total lack of construction co-ordination according to a work schedule, lengthy periods of stagnation and inactivity, shoddy workmanship, unmotivated and seemingly unskilled workforce, weak mangagement supervision (of both contractors and disgruntled domestic tenants) and all compounded by a total lack of any response from HKR.

My personal experience of the work at Beach Village has been:

- Scaffolding: Why is this still up 6 months after it was erected? It limits our use of the balconies, provides an unwanted security anxiety and is ugly. As a sidenote, I had to give the hapless site manager a bollocking in Cantonese last weekend for compensation for a broken cat litter box, used by a scaffolding worker as a step-up way back in January. It took 6 months and many irate phone calls.

-Construction waste at ground level: Jagged open tins of industrial paint, huge cut planes of glass, sharp construction rubble etc lie around abandoned and untended without censure by HKR security. Given the number of curious children in DB it is a small miracle that no child has yet suffered a serious injury. Imagine the lawsuit that would follow if such a tragic event should happen. Glass and construction waste will, however, remain in the grass long after the labourers have gone.

-Human waste at ground level: The "workers' shanties" built at ground level have transformed parts of BV into the worst type of favela; workers' clothing, the detritus of living (bottles, plastic bags etc) and worst of all, the smell of human piss.

-Outside wall "Hacking off" work: Please explain why this was necessary. The resultant dust, noise and private enjoyment intrusion are all well-documented. I had a huge hole put through the study wall by careless and no doubt unskilled labour. The pathetic patch-up job is literally a band-aid.

- Outside wall painting: No attempt made by the labourers to mitigate the effects of falling paint. Slapdash paint splash all over a/c units, windows, bbqs, balcony furniture, plants etc with no attempt to clean up. Shoddy. Unacceptable in any other place.

- Inside wall "hacking off": Why was this necessary? Seemingly random rectangular (sometimes triangular) shapes hacked out of a wall, like a grotesque kid's game played by clueless labourers. Resultant dust, noise, intrusion, smoking in hallways keep up the invasion to the home occupier's right to quiet and peaceful enjoyment.

- Inside hall staircase tiling: Without doubt, the most poorly conceived works project of the lot - completely and utterly unnecessary and which has caused the most distress to my young family (and continues to do so). The noise and especially the fine cement dust particulates which permeated everywhere (including my children's lungs) have made me angry beyond belief. I had the good fortune of being able to relocate my family to an absent friend's home in Coastline when they were on vacation for a couple of weeks during the worst. The staircase is now a dangerous, dirty and abandoned site - nothing has been done on it for about two weeks and yet we continue to trudge up filthy and unsafe steps. Why the delays? WHY?

- Inside walls cement works: Another example of poor sloppy workmanship. Cement on windows, slopped all over the floor and most worryingly, I notice that the fire extinguishers parked in the corners are now monuments in concrete. The working parts of these seem to be encased. I intend to complain to the Fire Department to see whether any building fire regulations have been breached.The site manager (who copped an earful from me last weekend) has no idea when the project will be finished. It is not his fault. He is just a cog in a brainless, uncoordinated machine.

- DB Plaza & crazy paving: Whoever came up with the idea of the Macau-style cobblestones should publicly own up to all the residents of DB. It is woefully ill-conceived, as anybody pushing a baby stroller would know. A sleeping baby would be jolted awake by the cobblestone ride, those already awake would have teeth loosened. The workmanship is there to see. Imagine yourself a works inspector of the Plaza - how many "snags" or major work faults would you, as a layperson, find? Plaza user friendly? Why also are there no park benches planned - they could be placed under the trees at the upper part of the Plaza.

- Compensation: An approach to the landlord brought only insincere noises. What does a landlord care if he is taking in $30K+ per month and he knows he can charge more when this "renovation" project is finally finished?

Compensation from HKR? The same people who don't even acknowledge that there is a problem would hardly pay up to those who have suffered as a result of that problem. The whole pointless, costly and stressful exercise is aimed at HKR charging more for units in the future, perpetuating the rent/purchase price cycle to their advantage.What a sick environment we make for our children, where corporate greed for future profits overrides our current right to enjoyment of our homes. They only see dollar signs where the Beach Village homes contain people, young and old trying to live their lives safely and peacefully.

I note that the Mandarin Hotel has closed down for renovations and yet we continue to pay Mandarin Hotel-like rates of HK$1,000+ per day to live in a construction site for more than 6 months.

This is clearly unacceptable.

I would urge all residents of Beach Village and DB generally to take the fight to HKR and to say "Enough is enough". Make our feelings known to those who may be foolish to think that because "professional" people are not complaining en masse, there is no problem.

Delfi
BEach Village resident