Tested By Fire

As a kid, when asked “what do you want to be when you grow up,” my answer was, “A Winner.” I didn’t want to be rich, powerful, or smart, but I was addicted to learning, growing, and striving to win the game of life.

It took a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering to learn that there are no winners in life. Instead, there are only winning teams, hence my desire to build a community, which is why I am so proud of Team City Club, without whose help we could not have survived the parade of horribles such as pandemics, recessions, labor shortages, flood, and now fire.

Last Tuesday at 2.25 a.m. the club’s Trash/Recycle/Compost structure spontaneously combusted from some of the oil-soaked papers disposed of by the painters, causing a raging Fire. (link to the video).

I recently wrote about my late-life pivot from an emphasis on planning to preparation, and this fire experience confirmed it. Within minutes of the fire’s outbreak, our neighbors called the fire department, followed a few minutes later by half a dozen police cars and two fire trucks to extinguish it. 

Although we were lucky on many fronts, we did lose a structure, suffered major damage to our food storage shed, lost a large section of fence, and damaged nine cars parked in the neighboring lot. But the punchline is that early that morning our team assembled to remove all the broken glass, rope off the burned structures, clear the gardens, and serve all our tenants and members without missing a beat. We also feel fortunate to have great insurance coverage, so eventually, we will work this all out.

To own the historic Highland building and grounds is both an honor and a big responsibility. We take the responsibility for the stewardship of Highland quite seriously and work on it every single day. You see, depreciation is not, for us, some accounting gimmick, but represents an annual spending commitment on maintenance and improvements of roughly one percent of Highland’s value. That’s how we can manage to have the fastest fiber optic WiFi networks in one of the oldest buildings in town! 

Thank you again for being such an engaged member of our community.

— Sina.