neighborhood group assets for all?

January 28, 2014 6:40 PM

If you are part of a tenants and residents group or a homeowners' association, have you ever encountered a group which was the entrusted holder of equipment for use by anyone, all year? I am thinking of items that would be missed were they gone. I know a lot already about single-resident-initiated projects. I am more trying to find out if the presence of the items made you more proud or not in your neighborhood and if you ever use or used the item(s).
posted by parmanparman to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

this question is fundamentally incomprehensible without further details. i used to be the treasurer of a condo HOA for about ten years, and pride had nothing to do wth it.
posted by bruce at 10:08 PM on January 28, 2014

I'd be glad to share my past experiences on a co-op board, but I don't understand the question at all.
posted by JimN2TAW at 10:38 PM on January 28, 2014

Do you mean things like shared sports equipment or more significant things like lawn mowers or power tools?

My old condo HOA had a lot of game/sports stuff. For instance, you could borrow the croquet set and put it up in the greenbelt behind your townhouse. It was a random mix of games and toys but it was actually really nice. We usually had a nice croquet tournament one week each spring. I have very happy memories of my neighbors drinking wine and relaxing and playing. It made the occasional, "Hey you're being a bit loud" conversation much easier.

Of course I'm sure things got lost and it was a hassle, but probably worth it for the sheer neighborliness of that community.
posted by 26.2 at 11:10 PM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Our HOA has discussed having a group-owned wood shop, over the years. But fears of injury lawsuits have stopped us. We do have a communal bike-fixing shop, since it's much less likely someone will maim themselves on wrenches and air pumps. There are a couple of people in the community who are the main users/maintainers of the bike shop. I've never used the shop, but for a while the key was in a combination-lock box, and if you wanted access, you asked around for the code. (We have a community pavilion that works the same way.)
posted by chowflap at 10:56 AM on January 29, 2014

We've been talking about starting something like this in our building with resident donations. We've also talked about just setting up a group on NeighborGoods for our building and encouraging people to list what they're willing to lend, because it wouldn't require storage space or a formal sign-out system or introduce a building-wide problem of what to do if something gets broken.

The closest thing we have now are communal BBQs, the cleaning tools and racks for which you get from our concierge during the time you've booked the BBQ for. I haven't used them, but that's because I find the patio where our BBQs are located unconducive to parties and I don't really feel a need to BBQ alone.

Mainly, though, we have a very active FB group for our building on which people are constantly asking if anyone has an X they can borrow. Most if not all of those requests are fulfilled within about an hour. I've lent people my sewing machine, my grocery cart, my c-clamps and my drill. I've borrowed a flatbed dolly, and also asked people to save up their empty cereal boxes for me instead of recycling them so I could use them for a project. Our FB group gets a bit testy, but people helping each other is actually one of the things I love about living here.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:29 PM on January 29, 2014