Resident Group Update March 2023

The Esplanade Resident Group held a second meeting on January 18. Enthusiasm continued for the Group to form committees to work with management and the Board of Trustees on various issues. The meeting began with a restatement of the conclusions of the December Resident Group meeting. First, the 5-star hotel model created in 1989 to describe how the Esplanade should function is no longer favored as the predominant governance model. Second. more residents have developed an interest in “community” as they have aged, Covid has reduced outside activities and there is greater appreciation of, and sometimes need for, interaction with others. Third, the residents of the Esplanade should be viewed by management not just as occupants of 206 units but as a community who live together in a wonderful 5-star building. Fourth, Esplanade Management is a very effective team but it is small and therefore residents can be an important resource for Management if made part of the team.

We divided those in attendance into four small groups and then brought the following additional ideas back to the meeting-at-large:

1.   The two favorite names for our Group were Coalition of Residents of the Esplanade (CORE) and Esplanade Resident Group (ERG). More consideration of “name” is needed. 

2.   There was tentative agreement that the purpose of our organization should be to represent the Residents of the Esplanade, convey the views of the residents to the BOT and management and advocate on behalf of residents if necessary.

3.   Committees of residents should be established and management should commit to full cooperation with the Committees including sharing information. The consensus was to start with an Environmental Committee, an Infrastructure Committee, an Outreach Committee and a Governance Committee.

4.   Bob Kagan announced that the previously formed Environment Committee (Esplanade Environmental Study Group [EESG]) will become part of our Resident Group. The EESG has already communicated with Eversource, the City of Cambridge and Management. The Committee has about eight members so far and there is clearly widespread interest in environmental issues among residents particularly because of the looming presence of global warming. A more detailed description of the EESG’s activities appears in another posting in this Newsletter.

5.   One of the initial efforts of the Resident Group will be to try to earn the trust of management and the Board of Trustees so that information is shared willingly, and the Residents can contribute to the Esplanade community.

6.   The Group views the Listening Sessions agreed to by the Board as a positive step towards improving communication and recognizing that residents can contribute to making the Esplanade even better.

One issue discussed at the end of the meeting continues to raise passionate reactions: the decision made several years ago to allocate electronic vehicle charging stations to individual owners who submitted the earliest requests. Now, because the voltage capacity of our electrical system has been reached, the building is unable to install shared charging stations. To upgrade the capacity would require a substantial expenditure. Under the terms of the Esplanade Trust, expenditures for “improvements” must be approved by 75% of the residents but “maintenance” is an expense that can be approved by the Trustees. Whether increasing the voltage capacity of the Esplanade to meet current needs is an improvement or an expense is an item for the Group to consider.

The Resident Group agreed to meet again in late March to continue our discussion. The Group encourages everyone to attend the next meeting. The date and time will be announced in mid-March.