Coral Tree Plaza Weekly Update

Happy Friday Coral Tree Plaza

Friendly Neighbor Reminder: Above Ground Parking 

Last week, you may have seen my previous note about the importance of parking down below in your parking space. This week I must again respectfully ask that all homeowners park in their assigned spaces down below in the parking garage. Multiple residents require around the clock caregivers. These caregivers need to use the above-ground parking lot because the resident they work for is not physically capable of letting them into the garage. Please do your part and help those who need it, by parking in your assigned parking space down below. 

PRV Expansion Tank Installation:

On Wednesday, May 13th starting at 9:00 am, Pipe Trades will install an expansion tank on the cold side pressure regulator valve underneath the West building. To successfully install the expansion tank, water must be drained from the West building. Pipe Trades will work efficiently and effectively to install the expansion tank as quickly as possible. The installation should not take more than approximately 30 minutes. However, the draining of the building can take as much as 45 minutes. Please anticipate the water being out from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. I will email the building reminders before Wednesday and also update during the installation. 

Fire Hose Cabinets:

Right now Justin and I are prioritizing any fire safety-related repairs/adjustments to the building. We are currently in the process of testing every door closer and latch in the East and West stairwells so that they meet fire code. ProTec will be installing new ADA compliant door handles on every stairwell door on each floor. Next week ProTec will also go through each building and remove and mirrors or decorations inside the firehose cabinets on each floor. The fire marshal informed us that they are not permitted and will cost the association a fine. 

Maintenance Update:

This week Justin, Antonio, Rafa, and Berna worked on several projects at the property. They checked every door closer and door latch in the West building for fire safety hazards, painted the elevator lobby of West P2, patched and painted the stucco out front of the East and West building entrances, and painted two standpipes in the stairwell. 

CTP Reader’s Corner:

CTP Reader’s Corner: Book Review #2*

  The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads, Tim Wu (Knopf, 2016), $28.95. 

 The contemporary Information Revolution is yet another phase in the manipulation of the ultimate product: You. This book, by a Columbia University Law School professor, vividly details the monetizing of human attention. The defining industry of our time is the delivery of free information, in exchange for a moment of your time. 

 Wu’s point of entry is the successful one-penny NYC daily newspaper that began to undersell its 1833 competitors by a nickel. Newspapers then shifted from fact-only no-cost publishing to advertising−to pay costs and turn a profit. Fast-forwarding to last year’s congressional testimony by Marc Zuckerberg, he smirked when asked by a senior senator: “How do you make money by providing a free service?” Answer: “Advertising.” (I watched that testimony, which reconfirmed that the Congress does not always possess the minimum expertise regarding the subjects for which it investigates and legislates.)   

 Part I traces the early modes of what has been the long-term commercial goal of molding our purchasing habits. It covers Snake Oil alchemy; adoption of the postal platform for harvesting of our attention; WWI propaganda campaigns in support of conscription; “Old Dutch Cleanser: Champion of Women’s rights;” and “Shredded Wheat: Declaration of Independence from cooking,” to name a few. 

 Parts II and III address the impact of radio and television; e-mail and the web.  

 Part IV depicts the celebrity-industrial complex−e.g., the Time Life magazine focus on individuals within the celebrity culture and MTV. 

 Part V covers Microsoft’s mid-90s rise to power; the convergence of television and the Internet; and the other all-too-familiar mass media developments. Think Clickbait, Facebook, selfies, Likes, and the untold number of addictive forms of self-promotion.     

 Professor Wu includes many troubling questions throughout, including: What are the costs of an entire generation spending so much of its waking life−not in concentration and focus, but in fragmentary awareness and constant interruptions?   

 The author employs a riveting writing style, pulsating attention to core detail, and an uncanny ability to describe contemporary attention-snatching. These qualities all combine in the delivery of memorable descriptions which will make Attention Merchants a prized addition to your bookshelf.    

Anon (CTP Nom de Plume)

* If you like/dislike this new CTP bi-Weekly Report feature, please tell Tyler. Finally, if you did not read the initial book review’s raison d’être, I could reprint it in Bk Rev #3.     

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

-Mark Twain

Stay safe. 

Tyler Boelts

General Manager – Coral Tree Plaza

Action Property Management (800) 400-2284