The last week saw a large bit of controversy in the housing cooperative where I own my apartment. In Sweden co-ops are organized into something called “Bostadsrätter” and are traditionally organized into non-profit communities that act as a legal entity. This organization takes is responsible for the communal areas (laundry rooms, mowing lawns, etc) as well as making sure the property and houses are maintained and cared for. As with most organizations these have a board and the members vote and assign the members of the board. It’s not particularly complicated.
However, this last week two members of the board felt that they had the right to dictate how people decorated their patios and exteriors. The area I live in consists not only of apartment-housings, but also of duplexed houses in rows. These have exterior patios, and as with any place where people live they tend to become rather personalized and individual. People park their bikes there, decorate them individually with lights, furniture and flowers. Nothing special.
Well, apparently two of the board-members felt that the area needed a more uniform look and took it upon themselves to remove flowers, bicycles and whatever other ornamentations they felt violated the “proper” look and feel of the area. Flowers were thrown away without informing the owner of the unit it belonged to, bikes were moved away to other areas and furniture was removed without warning.
Essentially people woke up one morning to find that someone had removed their stuff. When it was found out that two members of the board had done this –with the arrogant attitude that they somehow had the right to do it– well, to call it a “shitstorm” would be quite an understatement.
I attended a meeting the other day where outraged apartment and duplex-owners asked why the board felt it stood above not just common ethics but also the law itself. The two board-members who had performed this heinous act refused to justify their actions with any response other than maintaining the attitude that the area needed a uniform look and feel to keep property values at the current (somewhat high) levels. They did not feel that they had broken any rules or laws, and maintained the opinion that people had themselves to blame for not presenting a uniform appearance outside of their homes.
When I asked if the two persons felt that they (as representatives of the board) were entitled to additionally step into our homes and start dictating how we arranged our furniture, what clothing we wore, or how we cooked our meals in order to maintain a certain “look and feel” of the community, I was met with very avoiding answers and a general stonewalling from not only the two members of the board – but from the entire board itself. Most other members of the community who attended the meeting agreed with me – where did the right to individuality and privacy end simply because the board-members felt they were entitled to arbitrarily throw peoples stuff away?
I left the meeting feeling that it was probably just a matter of time before board-members would use a master-key to enter our homes making sure we didn’t break away from the uniform look and feel they felt we should present to visitors.
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Except of course, this never happened. I’m just feeling more and more that what’s happening in this country on (and the whole world!) is that individuality is less and less appreciated. Rather than encouraging individuality, we’re forcing people to conform to a homogeneous ideal. I simply used the concept of my housing cooperative to explore the concept.
