If anyone notices a chemical smell in the atrium this morning, it’s from trying to remove the marks on the carpet that were left when a propped door allowed boys on bikes to come in and “play.” Please don’t prop doors open unless you’re right there keeping an eye on things!!
Also, our documents were amended in 2015 to prohibit smoking within 30 feet of any entrance to the building. While it’s tempting to stand by an entrance in the winter for a quick smoke, especially in that nice out-of-the-wind corner by the loading dock, the smoke gets into the adjacent unit and causes problems, even triggering a smoke detector on occasion. Please be considerate and step away from the building.
Lets not forget that the back door is being propped right now because the fob tap is down while the electricians work on it – we locked a door and didn’t provide a key, essentially; this is what happens when you do that.
But also, I think “don’t prop doors unless you’re watching it” misses half the point.
Our atrium ecosystem is an invisible shared resource, a reservoir of warm air that we all pay to maintain with our in-unit heating systems. If you open the outside stairwell door and the door to the atrium (or prop the front door into the lobby) the temperature and pressure differential pulls all our warm interior atrium air out of the building, and it is expensive to re-heat, especially now with the garage in the state it’s in.
“watching the door” doesn’t stop this happening. Even better doors that close quickly won’t help (though would benefit our security.)
The only thing I can think of is supervised move-in of some kind, at minimum an info sheet that lays out the best way to move stuff in and out and the tangible benefits to why, with a check halfway through to make sure nothing’s off-spec, but ideally someone from the office to walk them through this stuff – that used to happen. Does it still?
I thoroughly agree that propping doors open is bad business for multiple reasons, but asking people specifically not to do it and then walk away seems like the simplest of asks, and one that keeps us all safer.
The procedure problem is bigger with move-outs than with move-ins. People moving in need to get parking stickers and additional fobs and back door keys and the entry keypad programmed, and will come to the office to do all those things and get advice. People leaving just want to leave, and it’s not unusual for them to walk off with active fobs and active Roy garage passes and leave the lobby office to track down or shut off everything. Even when we moved here in 2009, there was someone moving out at the same time we were moving in who hadn’t bothered to get the back door or elevator keys and piggy-backed off us having them, so not following procedures is a long-standing problem.
All of that said, there is a definite information gap right now. A pandemic shut-down, three management changes, and a board too busy handling multiple catastrophes to put much time into chasing down a new office manager before the old one left—plus procedures not properly overhauled and information not rewritten for decades—have made it clear that there’s work to be done. A report is expected from the current lobby office manager regarding goals and plans and community input during the next board meeting on the 8th, so that would be a good time to learn more.