We left Cornerstone after 2-yrs of tenancy. The Gaslamp is NOISY... it's tourist & party central, so if you're not into nightlife & all that entails, find housing in another section of the city. Street traffic is always heard. Tipsy tourists headed back to hotels or partying dolts walking to parked cars will often be yelling outside your balcony. In addition, there is a downstairs cafe (Tabac, a lovely place), open 'til 3:30am & stuffed nightly with chatting foreign students at outside tables. They're not overly-boisterous, but you'll hear them & may smell hookah smoke.
The worst is the bldg is filled with mostly partying 20yr olds, who don't seem to care about the comfort & peace of other tenants. The deceptively thin walls don't help. It's a stone bldg, so one feels it would be sound proof... it isn't. We could hear phone calls thru the walls! 2 heavy metal doors on each apt & continual slamming day & night is VERY bothersome. We daily heard too-loud music/TVs, walking overhead & lost sleep due to weekend parties inside the complex & the vibrations from the attached club, Fluxx... where several idiot celebs having dalliances have been caught by paparazzi (ahem, Ashton Kutcher). Also, although carpeting is pro cleaned, ours was old, dirty & smelled of dog. White socks were filthy after 15-min of walking around the apt.
Downtown has the worst homeless population I've ever seen. Be prepared for continual begging the moment you leave the bldg. No amenities for your pricey rent except 1 narrow, underground parking space, where you must back up/forward multiple times, as well as maneuver around large, stone columns & a rooftop deck on the adjacent Greystone Bldg, which has 2 grills (usually with propane, but never cleaned) & plenty of chairs/tables.
Gerry, the apt mngr, is friendly enough, although we have been given killer looks when walking into her office if she's on the phone or it's not her fave day. She is hard to catch. The office is often locked & closed at odd times, afternoons or on Fri's for 'the balance of the day', according to her posted signs, or she shows up 30+ min late, although she lives next door. Can I get 1 of those jobs, please! She's also the nosiest adult I've met. Embarrassingly, we'd twice overheard tenants repeating personal details in the elevator, which were about us! Nothing awful, but... why? She uses strange verbiage, such as 'I don't do bed checks, but...' when talking about guests or visitors, which I find insulting. She's abrupt & not always professional, but if you need something addressed, it will be when you finally catch her.
There were break-ins of the 1st floor retail shops & 2 cars, while we were there & also several bikes were stolen from the garage. Nothing unusual for downtown, although there is a nightly security guard & the garage is gated... perhaps an employee or tenant issue, then?!
Lastly, I will state a problem we found unsettling was the maintenance staff. When we first moved in, J was there & he was professional, friendly & efficient. Sadly, he left & N took his place. We heard from 2 female tenants they felt uneasy around him. He'd appear behind them in the laundry room & take off his shirt, forcing them to do off-hrs laundry so they wouldn't run into him & 1 reported she felt he followed her around the bldg, to Ralph's & the garage, where she turned around late night 3-4 times & he was suddenly there, just standing & staring!
One neighbor had a chilling event when he barged into her apt using the key, without knocking, she had NO service request in & was in the bath! She felt he'd been following her, too, making odd comments & she later realized MOST of her lingerie was missing (meaning he'd probably been inside her apt more than once). He's lucky she didn't call the police, but she was afraid of him & moved out. I found him strange & avoided him. After he walked into that tenant's apt, he was gone 2-wks later. Whether that was the incident which caused it or others also complained, we don't know, but it's pathetic Gerry didn't do a better job vetting employees who have keys to everyone's home! Also, why was he allowed to remain around for 2-wks after the 'break in' & complaint?
Before we left, there was a 3rd janitor, who was also odd, but we had little contact as we were on our way out. Even my SO felt he was a bit off. Just a warning to women... be careful & use a doorstop alarm when home! Maybe even an inside-door camera!
Better yet, we'd say skip living here. There are plenty of apts around this area & you can find something same price nearby (Seaport, Little IT, downtown) with pools, a/c, in-unit w/d or modern features. Just look around (some don't advertise online or have websites, but place vacancy signs in windows), visit once people are home to get a better idea of neighbors, traffic, noise, etc & ask about maintenance complaints! read more