The Neighborhood Council Files – Boiling Point

It appears that the Colonia where I live is now in hot water. This proverbial hot water that the Colonia has found itself in will eventually cool down. But it is hard to think when the waters are bubbling and churning. Some people are only just beginning to notice that they are the frog in the pot. For those who have awakened to this reality, it is a shocking turn of events indeed. Not all are prepared to deal with that revelation. It is literally blowing their minds. The fallout could be catastrophic if mismanaged.

Officially. I am glad that I have been through so many other messed-up things that I can look at this situation and laugh. Lordy. Glad I can use my trauma experience to transform this into something useful.

The neighborhood was originally designated into 3 sectors. I imagine it originated from when the housing development was started. As with all new builds, each phase gets a number. And you, living in a particular house, are in that sector of the build. So we have 3 sectors. I will call them groups 1, 2, and 3.

As I have suspected since the election, it appears that some of the members of our council are plants from group 3. Not because they don’t want to be involved, but more specifically because they were “encouraged” to participate as they were conciliatory and sympathizers of the man behind the curtain.

I am hoping that they prove me wrong, because the current hot water situation we are in, the sudden dismantling of the security committee, has apparently begun circulating rumors. But not in any official channels.

This whole situation is giving reality TV vibes, and I am not here for it. For example, there are two chats (that I know of – there could be more), one that has people living in groups 1 & 2, and another that is run by someone from group 3. Both, you have to be added to by the person who admins the WhatsApp chat.

There is one more that was specifically created for the use of the security committee – but because that admin is an emotionally immature man-child, he leaves the comments off, and only he can post messages in that chat. So there are two current channels of communication. I am not in the group 3 chat. At this point, I would not expect to be added. But I am in the group 1 & 2 chat.

What I also know is that after the kerfuffle of the COS dismantling, there has been absolutely NO chatter of any kind in the group 1 & 2 chat. Which is highly unusual. On a weekend? With decent weather? You mean to tell me no one has anything to post about goings on in the neighborhood? Is no one selling food or noticing anything of note? Not two days ago, we had a pretty serious thunderstorm that blew down some branches, and people were posting about that. So it is shocking that everyone is so silent.

Except that isn’t entirely true. My phone started to blow up this morning with notifications from the council chat. I guess sleeping in super late was not an option today. Sorry, Health app. My sleep quality will be poor today.

There appeared to be rumors and allegations circulating around the events that transpired with the security committee. And somehow, they had made it to the ears of one loud mouth who then decided to post it in the group 3 chat, like not only was everyone aware of the rumors and allegations (we are not), but that we as a neighborhood council needed to address the rumors and allegations.

Um, no thanks. Especially when we don’t know what they are, don’t care to know what they are because they are irrelevant, and they don’t pertain to the business at hand, which is ensuring the proper turnover of the duties from the man behind the curtain before he vacates his post, because we will not be falling for his extortionist ways and do what he is hoping for, which is to beg him to stay. He is worse than a scorned lover.

It took several hours out of my day to wrangle the rest of the council members who are in group 3, all of whom, yesterday, were telling me there was no need to rush into anything, that we should take our time when I told them we had to begin planning for a turnover in the security procedures before the next general assembly. They were now in full panic mode because they didn’t believe me when I said that this would be an issue.

After the man behind the curtain decided to begin his extortion campaign via his security committee chat, those council members were in a panic. Probably because they care too much about the opinions of others. Like the opinions of their neighbors. The same neighbors, mind you, who’d as soon stab them in the back and talk shit about them if they had an offending opinion.

In the end, we released an official message letting everyone know we were aware of what was going on and would update them officially when there was more information to share. So far, there has been radio silence, and sometimes no news could be good news. In either case, I am now able to go about the rest of my day doing as little as possible.

Perhaps they should be glad that I decided to join. I have no pre-existing loyalties, I don’t know anyone really, or have any preconceived notions about anyone. I have been forming all my opinions based on what they do and say to me and in front of me, not on what other people tell me. So my objectivity is needed during this transitional period.