I want to thank those of you who have expressed your opinions on garage sales. The board and management evaluate after each community wide garage sale as to hold more in the future or in how to make alterations. We do look at the crime data for a period after each sale. The last report I saw was from July where it was reported that we had 8 burglaries. When I was Chief of the Community Patrol back in 2015 and 2016 SCA typically had anywhere from 4 to 10 burglaries each month. With the exception of Pinnacle Village, we are an open community where people intent on burglary can case our community anytime. I doubt that they wait for the garage sales we hold twice a year.
There are any number of options that include having one community wide garage sale event in half of the community and then later having another in the other half of the community; hold just one sale a year rather than two; going back to having parking lot sales; or having none and having people call charities that pick up to come take large items.
Parking lot sales do require a great deal of work and extra time for facilities and event staff to put out cones, set up tables, etc. The Community Patrol typically has done traffic direction during the events in the past. While most people are friendly, I can remember individuals swearing at Patrol members and driving over cones during the time that I was involved. People also complained about the lack of parking to go to the fitness center. Having the parking lot sale along with a Farmer’s Market sounds like a good deal, but the problem is that with both going on there would very few places for people to park.
Personally I am not invested in doing one over another. I was on the Board when the decision was made to try the community wide garage sales due to a number of people suggesting them. Personally, I donate items I do not want to charity.
This is one of those issues where any decision will be disliked by a number of people and liked by another group of people. What is great is being able to hear your voices and I want to thank Rana for asking the question and to thank those of you who have expressed your opinions.