What's next?

We set this blog up to see if anyone else was feeling like us (they are) and to pass information back and forth (we all have.) We think it has been useful, both as a cathartic release of angst and as a forum for information.

(We particularly want to thank those in the construction industry who gave us the very useful comments on the technical aspects of this "renovation.")

We also set the blog up to see if there was widespread interest in having a community meeting, and/or to see if we could generate some kind of consensus as to what an effective 'next move' would be.

In our opinion it seemed that there was not much of a desire to have a community meeting. If we are wrong about that it would be good if people could comment as such, and better still, spread the word of this blog to their neighbors, and ask them to comment as well so we can get a larger consensus of Beach Village residents. Sending a link with the address of this site by email is really easy.

Anyway, a close reading of all the comments seemed to indicate that most were moving toward the opinion that, as the work was at a late stage, it was now unstoppable and, furthermore, that HKR/DB Management would continue to avoid responsibility for it and nothing would change that. It seems that people are now talking about compensation, from either HKR or their respective landlords.

There also seemed to be little desire for having yet another confrontational meeting with DB Management and the VOC. It seemed that most of the commenters had already had several run-ins with management and sometimes even with the contractor.

Sorry in particularl to the commenter/reader "Georgethegweilo", but, and with all due respect, how many of these kinds of meetings do we need to have before we all realise they are futile? We know many owners who tried in meetings before the renovations had even started to exert influence, and they could not.

The VOC meetings in particular seem to be the wrong venue for a community meeting, as they are closed to non-owners, and even owners are not allowed to talk. Tactically that makes them the worst possible forum for broad-based participation as right away it means the vested interests of HKR/DB/VOC control the floor, literally. Also, they are in the DB offices.

Yes, one of our previous posts suggested that all should go to that meetings, (and actually we DID have a representative there,) but most of us in this "group" don't want to meet HKR, the "VOC" or DB Management in circumstances like that. We have always felt that it would be better to first have a community meeting, open to all and in a neutral space.

We (this posting group) want to now do only what is effective at this stage in the game, which we feel is to (1) apply economic pressure and (2) continue to publicize to prospective owners and renters what they can expect when they try to live here. We are, frankly, beyond listening to anymore crap from HKR or their proxies. We still think there is a story here of interest to a wider audience and we would like to try to tap into that.

Those are the steps we want to take now, and in the meantime this blog will remain focused on the main issue of the disastrous "renovation" itself; to both document it and show the extent of Beach Village resident's suffering.

As such, we ask that you please continue to add your experiences with this "renovation" to the comments section. We will continue to allow all comments, but we will delete repeats of previous comments and those that are off-topic or abusive.