Cohousing-L Mailing List: How to build sense of community in condo complex?

[Bob Morrison (morrison]

  My situation is such that it is unlikely I will live in cohousing in the next
3 years, though I would like to. Therefore, I have been trying to think of ways
to enhance the sense of community where I am.
  I live in a 200-unit condo complex in a semi-rural area in Boxboro, MA. It
was built 25 years ago as apartments and converted to condos in the 1980's. 
There is a clubhouse here with an indoor pool, weight room, tennis courts, and
management company office. These facilities are mostly obsolete and few people
use them, even though it's open to the public. Therefore, the club is losing
money, and doesn't serve its original purpose as a social gathering place.
  I am a renter here. The residents are about 50% renters, which is typical of
local condo complexes of this type.
  There is very little sense of community here. Most people don't know each
other and there are very few organized activities to bring people together.
  Due to the age of the complex and some bad design features, we are facing
some major expenses over the next few years. As a result, the owners, whose
views are reflected by the trustees and management company, are uneasy about
taking on any new expenses, even in the range of $5 per household per year.
This seriously limits what we can do to bring people together, because most
such ideas would impose some sort of expense on the trustees and/or main-
tanance company.
  We have two open meetings a year. In the fall, we have a voting meeting to
which renters are not invited (which makes sense, because renters are not
allowed to vote). In June, we have a discussion meeting to which renters used
to be invited. But this year, for reasons I don't fully understand, they 
weren't.
  One bright spot in this bleak picture is that the building next door to
mine holds an annual picnic. My unit owner lives in this building and has
been in charge of this picnic for the four years it has been held. He in-
vited me to attend. For a brief four hours, I felt like I was in a commun-
ity. 
  One possible way to bring people together is to build a playground or put in 
a community garden on a tract of land that is currently idle. Someone proposed
this 6 months ago and it came up again during the picnic. This sounds like an
excellent idea, but once again we are up against the barrier that we would
have to spend money, no matter how much volunteer labor is supplied. And that
probably means, at best, delaying any action until next spring.
  My unit owner is on the board of trustees. This, together with the fact that
he lives on-site, has given me an advantage in proposing ideas. In spite of
this, most of the dozen or so ideas that I have suggested to him have "died",
even though he personally supported most of them. For example, I suggested that
we publish a newsletter 4 or 6 times a year, as some other local condo com-
plexes do. The management company vetoed it, saying that they would have to 
pass on to the owners the expense of printing and distributing it and that 
they thought the owners would be unwilling to bear this expense.
  Without a newsletter, it is very difficult to get the word out to people 
about possible activities that would bring us together. There are no bulletin 
boards here, so it appears the only alternative is to make 200 copies of a
notice and put one in everyone's mailbox. And the trustees have hinted that 
they might not let us do that either, because we might run afoul of the post
office.
  The situation seems almost hopeless, but I'm not quite ready to give up.
Do you have any ideas about how I can increase the sense of community here?
  I apologize for being so long-winded, but this is a complicated story and
I wanted to properly explain it. 

Bob Morrison

Home: Boxboro, MA               Work: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton, MA