Breaking new ground

Sidewalk in front of parking lot 3

As you might have noticed the sidewalks have been cut so new trees can be planted. While trees improve the air quality, and beautify the landscape I don't support planting trees that will grow thirty feet or more. It is inevitable they will require maintenance that the city will fail to provide (except in emergencies), and eventually destroy the sidewalks. Semi-dwarf trees grow slowly, attain a height of 10-15 feet, and seem to be a better choice when you've provided a space that is only 5' by 10' wide. You can also plant a redwood seed in a ceramic planter, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

The View Up Above

Smile! Your on Village View
camera.

The name Village View has become rather prophetic thanks to the numerous cameras that monitor our elevators, lobbies, and now our upgraded playground. Do you remember the old saying "he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake"? Now it not only applies to the wisdom of Santa Claus, but to our security as well. So if the kids find coal in their stockings Christmas morning and ask why, you can imitate Warner Wolf and say "lets go to the videotape".

The perfect storm



R.I.P.
Photo by Jason Szenes

Irene, a 500 mile wide 115 m.p.h. hurricane was downgraded to a 65 m.p.h. tropical storm when it landed in N.Y. on Saturday evening. Fortunately Village View had no damage other than to some of our original residents, the trees. With all the cataclysmic prophecies by the media my plans to surf twenty foot waves on the Hudson, snorkel the ruins of Wall Street, and fish for porgies from my 11th story balcony had to be canceled. This was probably the most boring storm ever, but in the end it was perfectly alright.

Village View Party

Village View hosted a party to celebrate the opening of the upgraded playground between buildings 1 and 2. Hot dogs, ice cream, pretzels, and drinks were served and the weather was perfect.

Some children were enjoying their ice cream on the rock wall.

While some of the bigger kids pretended to be serving hot dogs.

Some waited to enjoy the slide.

While others waited to enjoy a pretzel.

All those who attended were in agreement that the park is a perfect place to bring your children, and hoped Village View would have more parties like this one. A special thanks to Board Member Rick Pamias for his work in making this possible.

Clipping the garden committee

Why did Dan vote no for the motion to allocate $5000. to the garden committee? The simple answer is they requested $3,500. and had $1,962. cash on hand. The fact is the garden committee budget is solely for materials since their labor is voluntary. The extra money means one of two things. 1) They will carry some over to next year like the $1,714. they did previously. 2) They will buy extra materials, and then have to perform the extra work associated with it like digging, planting, and fertilizing. We owe them a great deal of thanks, not extra work. That is unless you plan on volunteering and help them out.

P.S. I would have approved $3,500. as I believe they carefully evaluated their budget needs and the physical labor involved . They can also make a request at any time for more funds should the need arise.

Comment by Board Member Daisy Klein;  I agree with you-and should have voted with you. I am so impressed by the work done by the garden club that I got carried away. In the future, I believe there should be a brief discussion before we vote on something so people have a chance to voice their reservations with any issue.

No more shrimps on the barbie!

You like it well done?

A notice has been posted prohibiting barbecuing on the balconies. In addition to the dangerous possibility of causing a fire, your neighbor with asthma will not appreciate the the smoke of a burning carcass wafting into their living room. That being said Village View and/or HPD  in my opinion wrongly considers a balcony a half room. It is unfinished, unheated, and while it adds value to an apartment it is never the equal of finished interior space. In fact an apartment with a balcony is smaller square feet wise than a similar apartment with no balcony, yet it costs more! In addition it is charged more for maintenance/ utilities. It was also calculated as part of the fuel/utility assessment we paid when oil hit a record $145. a barrel in 2008. How does an unfinished, unheated balcony qualify for a fuel or utility surcharge? If I am wrong on this issue please let me know because it's burning me up!

The top five reasons we should act like shareholders instead of renters.

#5) Shareholders have a vested interest* in their apartments. Renters don't have any ownership rights, and pay a fortune for that privilege.
#4) Shareholders invest in their homes via HPD and board approved capital improvements. We are investing in our own future while a renter is investing in his landlords future.
#3) Shareholders are living the American Dream, and unlike a lot of homeowners the only time we're underwater is when we forget to turn off the faucet!
#2) If you don't behave like a shareholder Mayor Bloomberg will outlaw every possible bad behavior and fine you!
 Drum roll please.... and the number one reason is:
         Even total strangers realize how great it is to be a shareholder because there are thousands of them waiting for you to kick the bucket and take over your apartment!

*Vested interest: An existing or disposable right to the immediate or future possession and enjoyment of property.