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The administration of my apartment is stingy. All the communal areas in the building are dim because they try to keep the light off as much as possible. The decorative indirect lighting at the lobby is always off. The light at the gym didn’t come on until sundown. I exercise in the morning almost in the dark when it’s bad weather. They had plucked off light bulbs one by one from the locker room of the spa, and it’s only half-lit now even though all the switches are on. The air conditioner there is turned off and a small electric fan is the only recourse in the summertime. The building’s communal TV antenna is too old to receive all channels. I’ve been unable to watch some new channels and complained to the administration about it for over a year, but they wouldn’t replace it with a new one. Finally, the light of the fire escape has been turned off since sensors were introduced a couple of months ago. This apartment has the fire escape inside the building that is also for a regular use. I prefer stairs to an elevator and use them every day. But now the whole staircase is in complete darkness when I open an exit door on the hallway. There is a time lag between the sensor and the light. Two steps forward are needed to have the sensor on and then it’s a long time before the fluorescent light comes on. By the time the light is on, I come down half the floor groping in the darkness. I’m certain people are tumbling down in case of an emergency. There was an annual fire drill the other day. The whole light of the fire escape was turned on beforehand for the drill. It’s meaningless to turn the emergency light on only for the very day of drill. I suspect that the administration know they infringe the fire law. I myself am stingy and my own apartment is dim all the time. But when an object to which I pay money is stingy, I can’t stop my endless complains. Meanwhile, I recall that one of the reasons I chose this apartment was a low monthly maintenance fee. If the administration requires a higher fee in exchange for full lighting, I may well ask them to turn off the light…
