Lincoln Properties not allowing air conditioners in the military housing(San Diego heatwave)

Roger Hedgecock ^ | 27 JULY 2006 | Jimmy Valentine

[radar101]

**WE PROMISED TO FOLLOW UP on the weekend TV story about Lincoln Properties not allowing air conditioners in the military housing that it runs for Navy and Marines in San Diego County. Story tells of moms and kids sweltering in the heat wave and trying to move scorched air around by a dozen fans. Premise of the TV story is that Lincoln don’t want no AC because they rent to military with utilities included and AC will drive up Lincoln’s cost of electricity and cut into profit margin. Which equates to making military (hero) families suffer to keep the bottom line at Lincoln looking good.

That don’t settle well with us…but hey, it’s a TV story, and it was only half a story because Lincoln property folks weren’t available on the weekend to respond to the TV allegations.

On Monday we call Lincoln and leave a message on the voice recording device. No response. On Tuesday we call the corporate offices of Lincoln over in Texas and are referred back here to a guy named Sam Merrick. We call good Sam. Another voice mail message. On Wednesday we call Samuel again. More voice message. But now we’re getting a little peeved so we send Sam an email. We copy folks on the email to Sam. The Ccs include Congressmen Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray.

Gosh, don’t you know, this morning we finally hear from good Sam:

"Thanks for your email and of course there is much more to the story. Since there is so much misinformation Lincoln wishes to respond to the press with a statement. I will get the appropriate person to contact you. "

So it looks like we may be making progress…and since so many people read this drivel and leak it to the media….we’re hoping the media will continue to make a big deal out of military families without air conditioning.

We live in Dehesa, don’t get out much and so we don’t know if folks on the civilian market actually rent apartments without air conditioning…that may be the case. Maybe they even rent places without heat…this is San Diego and it only gets cold here about three months a year and only gets hot another three months…so that’s only six months of suffering.

Watch this space!!

[Gay State Conservative]

Geeze...this is wrong! Military people or their families living in the Southwest without AC ??????

[MudPuppy]

BUMP and Mark!

[Spktyr]

SD usually doesn't require AC, but it's been abnormally hot there lately. That said, prohibiting the residents from purchasing and using their own AC units is really, really low.

[LongElegantLegs]

San Diego County? Is this about Camp Pendleton?

[roofgoat]

God Forbid anyone criticize a Corporation and its decision to maximize its Profit. Afterall, what would the shareholders think.

[MizSterious]

This isn't that unusual, either. One very cold winter at Otis AFB, housing informed us that they were turning off the heat to save energy for Cape Cod. And they did. They wanted us to "evacuate" to a local gym, but we couldn't bring pets, etc. so I stayed put. I was young and healthy at the time--but some people had kids and babies. From that moment on, I refused to stay in military housing, even if it meant living far from the base.

[taxcontrol]

Question. Unless the company comes around and tries to shut off power or evict the tenets... 1) how would they know it was an air conditioning unit and 2) what other legal action could they take?

[MD_Willington_1976]

Are they allowed to have sprinklers?

I'm giving this a shot at my place:

Condensor from a late 70's Cadillac, running the water that I use for sprinkling through the condensor that is placed in an open window, 20" box fan draws air through the condensor while I water my lawn...

[Lovebloggers]

It is probably in the base housing regulations for that section of housing. You don't break housing regs or you will not only get kicked out of that base housing, you jeopardize any chance of getting base housing in the future at a different base.

[Gay State Conservative]

SD usually doesn't require AC, but it's been abnormally hot there lately...

I always thought that San Diego was kinda like San Francisco in summer...comfortable when you're within 5 miles of the ocean but any farther away and you were dying.

[Sarajevo]

This was brought on by permitting military housing to be privatized. Just another level of BS regulations for troops to put up with.

[newgeezer]

Okay, since the article doesn't mention the temperature, my first thought was, what is considered "sweltering" in San Diego? 82°? 84°?

And what's the dew point? If it's not at least 60°, no big deal. ...

Anyway, I looked it up. Today's forecast high is 85°, and the dew point is 63°. So yes, that is hot, especially for people used to SD weather.

[kingu]

My brother just retired, but he lived in the Areo Ridge development. I had to call him and ask if he had air conditioning, because I never recalled if he did or not. He said nope, they didn't, and indeed, the property management forbid installing air conditioners.

I asked him how bad it was, since I never heard him complain about it. He said on the hottest of days, you opened the front and back doors, set up a couple fans, and didn't go upstairs until after sundown. The ceiling fans worked pretty well, but you just made plans to be out of the house on the worst days, about three or four a year.

The newer developments (vs Areo Ridge which was just a rehabilitation), comes with air conditioning, but a lot of families would still try to get on the Areo Ridge waiting list because the neighborhoods just worked better over there.

[taxcontrol]

But wouldn't that then be a base housing issue... not a Lincoln Properties issue. And couldn't the base commander issue an over ride order?

[kingu]

But wouldn't that then be a base housing issue... not a Lincoln Properties issue. And couldn't the base commander issue an over ride order?

Prior to the rehabilitation of Areo Ridge by Lincoln Properties, my brother lived there on the south side of the development, and the rules then were no air conditioners, only one refrigerator (though many still hid one in the garage), etc. Violating the rules, as the other poster said, could get you kicked out and prevent getting housing at other bases. (And watch that damn lawn...)

China Lake, for my brother, was the worst.. The swamp cooler worked great so long as the humidity stayed down, but on those few days when it was up, you made plans to go into town because the house was unlivable. Oh, and he always was getting warned for not keeping his lawn green enough.

[SoCalPol]

As a native of San Diego, we are use to warm to hot weather. Right now we have high humidity which we usually don't have.

In Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec it is 70s to 90+
Whale watching in Jan, 80s.

The past several weeks our over night low in the 70s
No big deal just the high humidity we arn't use to.

[sagar]

"That said, prohibiting the residents from purchasing and using their own AC units is really, really low."

I think the property's reasoning is that since electricity is included in the lease and fixed, added COSTS of AC's running would be coming out of the their own pockets.

I think they need to make it so that those who want to have their AC's should also have to pay their electricity bills. That's only fair.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I always thought that San Diego was kinda like San Francisco in summer...comfortable when you're within 5 miles of the ocean but any farther away and you were dying.

I don't know about the ocean thing - I went to college in La Jolla and I remember some very muggy summers. Sometimes so hot the Chargers would cancel training camp workouts on the UCSD campus.

[JackDanielsOldNo7]

God Forbid anyone criticize a Corporation and its decision to maximize its Profit. Afterall, what would the shareholders think.

For some reason people love Exxon for their profits but for Lincoln they shouldn't maximize theirs for the shareholders. What is the obsession with Exxon?