Goodbye Dunes

The Sand Dunes is a pet-friendly apartment complex located in a quiet suburb. It boasts 255 apartments, considered small by most real estate investment standards. Residents can often be seen walking their dogs and chatting up with neighbors. The kids play in the playground area and draw chalk art on the pavement.

Voted one of the best apartment complexes for many years, the Sand Dunes often had a waitlist of people wanting to live there. When a resident moved out, an apartment wasn’t vacant for too long. But lately, it’s been a struggle to retain new residents. The insulation is shot; the walls and ceilings are paper thin. First-floor tenants swear that the people living above them will crash upon them.

The Sand Dunes Apartments have typical amenities such as a gym, pool and BBQ area, lake with dock, and mail lockers (for an extra charge). Apartments haven’t been updated for a while, including a full-size washer and dryer. Of course, they always need repairing.

The maintenance staff keeps the property clean and tidy and is responsive to resident requests. The property management staff has changed several times and does their best, but you can’t please everyone. But some tenants don’t think about the community around them. They don’t see the other residents because they’re focused on their lives. They don’t think about how their actions may affect those around them.

The Sand Dunes Apartments turned 30 a month ago and has weathered many storms. And like humans who don’t take care of themselves, things are starting to droop and sag and fall apart. A recent thunderstorm beat the hell of The Sand Dunes. Tree branches and some of the building’s roofs were torn off and tossed all over the grounds. The walkways were flooded for days, and the parking lot's potholes now look like moon craters. And no matter how many coats of paint each apartment gets, it won’t cover up the Sand Dunes Apartments' age. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig!

B Properties bought the Sand Dunes Apartments three years ago and are the eighth owner. The “dunes” have changed hands so often that it’s hard to keep track. And like politicians, the new owners and property management team bring promises of change and improvements. Of course, it’s all a bunch of hot air to appease complaining tenants. The owners never really intend to improve, only when it’s necessary. After all, why spend the money when it can go into their and their investors’ pockets instead?

Throughout the years, the Sand Dunes Apartments housed many people, from families to singles, stay-at-home moms, blue collars, professionals, entrepreneurs, you name it. It provided safety and shelter, but now it’s tired and worn out. The Sand Dunes Apartments' bones ache and creak, and its strength slips away with each passing day.

It may not shock you to learn that the residents living at the Sand Dunes Apartments were given notice that the complex was sold and that the new owners plan on tearing it down and rebuilding a small single-family home community. Most tenants, like Mrs. Duncan, are in despair because the “dunes” have been their home for many, many years. Where should she go as an older woman without any family in the area?

The B Properties leadership team assures residents they’ll work with them to find alternative housing, but let’s face it. With the real estate market inflated way beyond a celebrity’s ego, where are some residents supposed to go out onto the street or into homeless shelters? And even the latter isn’t a given because those who claim to help the homeless only work to increase administrative costs, including salaries. Otherwise, homelessness would have been solved by now. But then again, why waste a good fundraising opportunity, designer clothes, and the chance to mix and mingle with the upper crust by solving a real problem?

Since plans were put into motion to take a couple of wrecking balls to the Sand Dunes Apartments, residents are busy packing and moving out. They’re helping each other the best, so don’t worry about Mrs. Duncan. The Quigley family, who’s lived next door to her for two years, asked her to move in with them. She sometimes watches their children, Lila and Benjamin, Benny for short. The Quigleys are good people and hoped to have their own home by now but may have to wait longer.

Like it or not, change has a way of sneaking up on all of us; even the Sand Dunes Apartments weren’t immune to it. If you don’t keep up, you may be left behind. If you become complacent, you may be left behind. If you depend on others and don’t ask questions, it may bite you in the ass one day. You may regret leaving things to chance. You may also regret turning your back and trusting those in charge; for the residents of the Sand Dunes Apartments, it’s the leadership at the B Properties. Perhaps if residents got more involved and questioned the decisions throughout the years, the Sand Dunes Apartments might have been saved. But then again, can you save anyone or anything? No, you can only save yourself, and doing so may release a tiny ripple and have a butterfly effect on everyone and everything. So watch your thoughts and actions because you never know what results might occur and who they’ll affect.

Alas, the Sand Dunes Apartments has served its purpose, and the time has come for it to transform. After all, death and transformation come to all of us, even an apartment complex. Fearing the inevitable may cause high stress, leading to problems. It’s better to live from peace and acceptance than resistance because what you resist persists. Take a cue from the Sand Dunes Apartments and go with the flow and live your life, for when the time comes for you to be released from your life’s lease, you can do it with grace and dignity and without fear.