garden saga... pII

For those of you who have followed the saga that is my stay in a condo, you are well aware of the battle that has ensued between me - and the association over my beloved gardens. In short - they voted to remove ALL GARDENS and items that had been installed - regardless of previous permission granted - around the association in the spirit of making EVERYTHING LOOK THE SAME.

awesome.

This included all flower pots in the driveway, plant hooks - and even a line item on bird feeders in the red maple out front! (one thing i wasn't guilty of). Not to mention setting restrictions on holiday decorations such as Christmas lights, etc!

Being me - I decided to FIGHT IT. Why? Because some of me can't believe that my gardens - filled with flowers and color - were really that offensive to the majority of the association. And some of me thought - perhaps people don't really know what they want - and don't really understand what they are voting for.

I sent out a pleading email to the group asking for support in a revote. I needed atleast 10 units to support my request and quickly had 15 on my side! 15 was more than i had vote for keeping the gardens (17 voted to remove them - 2 by default as they didn't vote) to begin with so my email had obviously swayed some people's thinking... or convinced them to voice an opinion.

So, i decided to campaign. what i never had understood before was why politicians spend so much time and money campaigning with signs and advertisements... but now, i think i understand. People don't always:

1. know what they want
2. know how what they want translates in the form of a rule or regulation
3. understand how to communicate what they want

To make a long story short - i've begun my campaign. I spoke at the quarterly meeting Sunday and pleaded my case. While I expected quite the debate - there was not one voice of dissension and in fact a few voices of support that i hadn't heard from before.

Amazing.

The ballots are being sent out this week with an outcome unknown. You never know what people are really thinking and sometimes people are braver in the comfort of their own homes and less apt to publicly vocalize.

Based on emails and verbal confirmation I'm at 16/30. 21/30 needed to keep my little plot of land.

Saga - To be continued...