I am one of the lucky ones. I owned property before
I was 30, with a little help from the parentals. Yes, it’s a tiny piece of real
estate, but it’s mine. I’m not paying off someone else’s bond each month; the
money I spend goes towards eventual ownership.
I’ve owned my little shoebox for six years. For
six years I’ve lived in a complex, and I have few issues. Notwithstanding the
issues around complex rules and parental figures on the board of trustees that
make me feel as if I’m still a teenager living at home, I have issues with the
people who plan these living spaces.
In my complex, the 120-odd units are a mixture
of one-, two- and three-bedrooms, allowing for occupants in all stages of life.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but my objection stems from the layout of
the units. I don’t know about you, but it makes logical sense to me to group
like units together.
So, the single people, or childless couples would mostly
choose a one-bedroom unit, where the likelihood is that everyone would be
fairly quiet. The families with young children would mostly choose the
two-bedroom units, where the kids are small and noisy. And the larger units would be snapped up by
older families with kids who need their own rooms. There would likely be high
levels of activity with friends visiting and TVs blaring.
Instead, what I live with is the odd
one-bedroom rammed in between four or five family units, giving me the whole
spectrum of familial life stages – I’ve got crying babies and tantruming
toddlers in my block, along with a very sweet, quiet senior citizen. All because
of stupid planning.
I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to
put a swimming pool in a complex, although it seems to be a standard feature in
complexes from the beginning of time. Perhaps when fewer families raised their
kids cheek by jowl with 20 other families, or when parks were still viable play
areas. I don’t know. What I do is that no one wants the units next to the pool
because of the noise. And I’ve never, not once, felt the urge to take a dip in
a ‘public’ pool.
It would make more sense to use this space for
a proper playground. The kind that seven-year-olds can be trusted to play in
without supervision. The kind with swings and a jungle gym and a slide. The kind
that moms or nannies can take toddlers to play in the sand pit. The kind where
kids can let off steam and burn off some of the energy gained by litres of soft
drink consumption. Ideally, this play area would be in the centre of young
family units, allowing for easy access.
In the centre, or off to one side, of the
older family units I would like to see an outside area for the teens. Somewhere with
concrete seating, and bushes for privacy. Where the kids could hang out with
their friends away from the prying eyes of parents. To get some space from
their tiny bedrooms. To make friends with other kids in the complex.
We all complain that kids spend too much time
in front of computer and TV screens, yet we don’t do much to encourage them
outside. This is a simple solution to start reversing the inside epidemic.
With the decline of safe, free green spaces in
Joburg suburbs, and the busy schedules of working parents, it seems insane that
these spaces are incorporated into the complexes that house tens of thousands
of families.
Then again, if someone can’t make money off of it,
what’s the point, right?
