An Unwelcome Coincidence

The building today, September 16, 2012

And here we are.... Back in Western Mass after 33 years.

I'm told this apartment building is the former 'Chesterfield Hotel'. At what point it was turned into apartments I haven't discovered yet.

Now I've mentioned some coincidences between my former residence and this one. Both are former hotels and both are owned by similar organizations. The reason I had to move out of the Endicott was because they decided to do a major renovation (and upgrade) of the building and that required all the tenants to move out.

Last letter from CATCH / MB Management regarding moving out.

For the previous several years I had been entertaining the idea of moving back to Western Massachusetts. By the time my father passed away in April of 2006 I'd already stopped my security blogging on the Concord Monitor Online website and really had nothing significant tying me to New Hampshire. My mother was suffering from Alzheimer's and though I knew moving to Mass would mean a significant increase in my cost of living I'd be able to visit her much more. Unfortunately I was still waiting to hear from the management of Nash Hill Place when she passed away in March of 2010.

Fast forward two years to March 2012. I've just recently moved into this new apartment and I'm trying to settle in. I need stability and absolutely hate the disruption associated with moving. So imagine what it was like to get this letter:

Deja vu?

Seriously, what are the odds? Of course nothing was mentioned to me about this when I was shown the apartment or when signing the lease nor at any time in the month (or so) prior to receiving this letter. I don't know if it would have made any difference because Nash Hill Place still didn't have any openings (and couldn't/wouldn't even tell me where I was on their waiting list..), I hadn't found anything else and I felt I was over-staying my welcome where I was staying. This place was suddenly available, the price was right, and despite being further away than I'd hoped it is a nice quiet place (well, except for occasional sudden heart-stopping outbursts from my neighbor's autistic son next door). I have birds singing and wind rustling the leaves (& a collection of wind chimes down on the porch) and crickets and peepers to listen to instead of the sounds of city traffic in downtown Concord, New Hampshire.

No, compared to the noise* of a busy city intersection with buses & trucks, amateur drag racers, motorcycles (especially during the Loudon race week), and every four years politicians and their supporters literally banging drums out in front of my building at 8 AM with those "Honk if you support _________" signs, this place is wonderful..

I recently heard that the grant for the renovation was not granted but then just the other day I received another letter implying that the process was ongoing, and if renovations do occur it won't be until early 2014. Maybe by then I'll have finally moved all the belongings out of my storage unit in Easthampton (it's a long process when you have no help and try to do most of it using a Toyota Camry).

So there you have it, my first blog post in ages.. It feels good to start writing again. I think it might be the weather picking me up. This first real taste of cooler dry air is nice.



*Of course the narrow space between my building and the recently built office building 20 ft away worked to amplify those sounds and *especially* the emptying of the dumpster every day around 7 AM.


Edited on 9/28/2014 (I added 1 word and added a space between sentences.)

More Snow - Still No Parking Provided For Residents

Oh Look, It's snowing AGAIN....

The crews that clear the snow must be wondering if this pace is going to continue all winter!
Come to think of it, their families must be asking the same thing.

Personally, since I've decided to park in the parking garage whenever it snows it's costing me a lot of extra cash. At $4.00 per day (opposed to the $2.00 it was before the city doubled their rates!) it adds up fast for someone on a small fixed income. There should be some way for the city to make this less of a burden on low income citizens as it's essentially a flat tax, which is inherently unfair to low income citizens if it isn't offset somehow. And for the residents of the Endicott who for some terrible reason aren't provided with any place to park by our landlord (CATCH) it's doubly troubling. For residents who are mostly low income Section 8 recipients it's truly unconscionable for an organization like CATCH to neglect this issue. In the 5+ years I've lived here the additional money I've had to spend for parking adds up to hundreds of dollars per year!

The extra cost isn't the only thing either. The daily threat of getting our cars towed is one more unnecessary burden we have to live with. To try to ease the cost, and because most of us just can't afford to pay to park in a metered spot every weekday, we park across the street in the parking lot for the strip mall on Storrs St. despite the signs warning that it's for store patrons only. I've been towed once and it cost me $150 to get my car back!

Take a minute and picture yourself having a small fixed income where every single dollar is budgeted. Then picture yourself having your car towed and held (for ransom) unless you can somehow come up with $150. Don't forget, they're also charging you a daily storage fee, so the longer it takes you to get the money (if you even can) the more it costs you. Imagine if you had to wait the better part of a month until you get some money again to be able to get your car back. How much is that going to be? Will you have enough left over to pay rent or buy groceries? What about getting to work, going to doctors appointments, or if you have kids?

These days unless you have someone you can borrow the money from you might be forced to go to a 'Payday Lender' and pay a huge interest rate (20%?) to get your car back.

Before I moved into the Endicott I sat down with the property manager from Hodges (our former management company) and when I asked about parking she indicated that 'they were in negotiations to try and procure parking for us'. That sounded hopeful, and because I'd already spent over a year on a waiting list I wasn't going to refuse the apartment!
Since that day (in addition to the property manager) I've contacted Dave Florence in the parking department, Allan Bennett who represents Ward 6, Matt Walsh, the city planner, and even the property manager (Heritage Realty in Mass.) for the strip mall to try to get us some parking, all to no avail.
Well, that's not entirely accurate. Dave Florence did offer Endicott residents first dibs on reserved parking in the new parking garage. In case you're wondering, the rates for leased spaces in the Capital Commons parking garage are "$1,344 per year for a covered space and $1,044 per year for an uncovered space". While that offer was better than nothing, personally if I could afford to pay that I wouldn't be on Section 8!

It's bad enough that this situation has existed as long as it has, but to let it continue to without some relief for people who already have more than enough to worry about will be callous and unnecessary. C'mon CATCH (and the city of Concord), please step up to the plate and put an end to this situation ASAP.