Mashpee Village Owners Living Up To Their Name

By BRIAN H. KEHRL
Trucks and construction workers buzzed around piles of building materials at Mashpee Village this week as work began on a $4.7 million renovation of the housing development.
All of the 145 units in the 33-year-old housing development, which includes both apartments and single-family homes, will receive new siding, decks, and landscaping, and the houses will get new windows, kitchens, bathrooms, floors, and appliances. A new community center and computer laboratory are also planned, along with new management offices.
A second phase of construction at the property off Old Barnstable Road near Route 151 is planned a few years out as well, covering the apartment interiors, roads, parking lots, wastewater treatment facilities, and more landscaping.
“I think by springtime you won’t recognize Mashpee Village physically,” John Economos, the property manager, said in a recent interview.
But the physical overhaul is merely part of what Mr. Economos and Donna French, the resident services coordinator, described in interviews this week as a profound change underway at the development. The renovations are being coupled with an effort to recast the development’s image in a more positive light and foster a greater sense of community among the residents there, Mr. Economos and Ms. French said.
Community events, new programs to involve residents in the upkeep of the property, additional services, and other creative ways to connect the residents to the neighborhood and to each other are in the works.
“I think giving the property a new look and promoting a new attitude sums up what we are trying to accomplish here,” Mr. Economos said. “This is really a good news thing that we are trying to do.”
Mr. Economos and Ms. French, who are both employees of The Community Builders, a nonprofit that owns Mashpee Village, said the effort is an attempt to push back against what they said was the neighborhood’s bad reputation, one marked by vandalism and criminal activity, and illustrated in part by Ms. French having to break up three fistfights during her first day on the job three years ago.
Mr. Economos and Ms. French emphasized that the neighborhood’s reputation was never fully deserved, that a few troublesome residents dragged it down and set an infectious tone of not caring about the property or the neighbors.
Ms. French said the development has already improved significantly since she first began working there. With the help of the Mashpee Police Department, a handful of high profile evictions, and some watchful residents, fights, vandalism, and crime are much less common now, she said.
She said the playing field built to much fanfare there two years ago replaced a wooded area once a sort of hiding place for illicit activity.
Asked about the process of turning around the development’s reputation, Mr. Economos first spoke in the abstract, saying that reputations are much more difficult to cultivate than they are to ruin and bad reputations tend to be self-perpetuating. Then he shifted to the specific, saying the mix of residents there seems to be an improvement over what it was a few years ago, the residents have a sense of where it is going, and seem interested in creating positive change.
To demonstrate the care residents have cultivated for the property, Mr. Economos said when he first arrived at the property in March, with Vermont license plates still on his car, he was unloading some empty boxes into a dumpster, when a resident scolded him, telling him the dumpsters were for residents only. When he explained that he was the new property manager, he said the woman apologized profusely, seeming a bit embarrassed. He did not take it personally, though. He said having residents look out for their property is a good sign. “I love that,” he said.
The two hope to build on those improvements.
From a few quick drives this week around “U”-shaped Wampanoag Drive, which forms the core of the neighborhood, the homes and apartments on the 32-acre property are difficult to generalize. Many of the single-family-home properties are clean and well-kept, with flags, flower boxes, lawn decorations, children’s toys, and skateboards out front. Other properties there, perhaps like many other neighborhoods, are less so, with little care shown to landscaping or outward presentation.
Some of the homes themselves are in good, even great, condition, while others need new siding, trim, or roofing.
A tenth of the units, which range from one to four bedrooms, are market rate, while the rest receive discounted rent through the state Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which sets rates based on income. The $4.7 million was raised through a variety of sources, Mr. Economos said, including taking out a new mortgage on the property, selling a nearby well field to the Mashpee Water District, and a state loan.
“Money doesn’t make you a good neighbor,” Mr. Economos said. “You can not have a lot of money and still love your kids and help out in the community. The belief in that is an important part to our approach.”
Two residents interviewed at the property on Wednesday had contrasting responses to the grand plans articulated by Mr. Economos and Ms. French.
Suzanne Delianedis, a resident of the development for four years, said she has already noticed some improvements, though she said the place was never as bad as it was made out to be. She said there has been a strong police presence and the property itself already seems to be taken care of better.
She said the talk of promoting a sense of community has not been just talk. She has noticed a push by the property managers to promote neighborhood-based activities, like a summer barbecue, potlucks, and others.
She said Mr. Ecomonos’s reputation around the neighborhood is as a tough, “by the books” manager. “Either you can respect your neighbor, or you can leave,” she said.
He is the third manager in four years, she said.
She said she is looking forward to the renovations, though the construction and its impacts have already proven to be a bit of a pain. She said she hopes the children’s playground, a gigantic yellow and purple plastic fixture, will be replaced.
The tenants will be able to remain in place throughout the renovations, Mr. Economos said. Rents will not be raised as a result of the improvements, he said.
Another resident, however, who declined to give her name because she said she already has problems with the management and she “likes to fight her own battles,” took a more cynical, less impressed perspective.
An elderly woman who said she has lived there for many years, she said the renovations seem like “too little, too late.” She said she is not impressed with how her neighbors treat the property, and she will believe that things are going to change when she sees them change. Change has been promised before, she said.
To deliver on their promises, however, Mr. Economos and Ms. French said they have already adopted and are looking for more programs to promote a stronger sense of community. Several teenagers have been hired this summer to help out around the property or the office. The management held a contest to design the neighborhood newsletter, Mashpee Village Vibes, and the winner won a gift certificate and has been hired to lay out the document each month.
A new grant to train teenagers in computer programs, promote community service, and eventually reward the program graduates with a laptop computer will begin this fall.
The second annual summer barbecue is planned for August 24, though Ms. French said she is still looking for volunteers and donations to organize and run the event.
Also planned is a whale-watching trip out of Provincetown, of which Ms. French said the bus trip will be a great time for bonding, as they will be cooped up together for more than an hour each way.
And there is a tenant referral program, so if residents bring in a new tenant, they receive $200.
Mr. Economos said he has picked up on the “heard it all before,” sentiment from some residents, and he is looking forward to proving that this time will be different.