I hated every single moment of living here.
There is zero sense of community here, and some of the neighbors are downright awful. We have had our dryer doors opened by someone else many times while they were clearly running, and just left sitting there to waste our time and our money. No one speaks to or even smiles at each other. And while we're on the topic of laundry, they just replaced our laundry machines with smaller ones that cost more. At least these take credit cards.
Management claims to host community events, but these are a joke. For example: I used to go to the "Taste of Home" event where, in theory, everyone helps cook a meal from someone's home culture, and then you all eat together. In reality, a few people (almost all women) showed up to do the cooking, and then a ton of other people who did not help cook (almost all men) showed up and ate it all, leaving us almost nothing. No thanks; I'm not here to be some random guy's unpaid cook.
It seems like most of the programming is for children. If you do have children, I am sure you keep a better eye on them than some of my neighbors here do. There are unsupervised small children who scream at the top of their lungs outside my window every single day. No, I do not live near the playground. I have never seen an adult with these children, who look to range in age from about 5-8.
Let's talk about management some more. Get ready to be treated like a child. There are fire drills here (you heard me), and management makes a big deal about not announcing them beforehand, not even a range of dates or times. If you ask them about it because, like me, the fire alarms trigger your migraines and leave you effectively incapacitated for a day or two, you will get a snarky email about how "in a real emergency you would have no advance warning". I will tell you that these are not done during normal business hours; they've done them around 7:15 in the morning. There is also frequent testing of the fire alarms, which you do get advance warning about, and you really can't be in your apartment at all that day. And there are fire inspections, just like you may remember from your time in the dorms. So if you are an adult who doesn't know what to do when the fire alarm goes off, or if you are incapable of teaching your own children what to do when the fire alarm goes off, or if you are the sort of person who enjoys seeing terrified children forced out of bed and made to stand outside in their pajamas, then you should live here.
Every maintenance request I have ever filed has been done very quickly, usually on the same day. The work is usually but not always very good. There was black mold over my shower; the maintenance people came and sprayed some cleaner on it, then painted over it. After they did this twice, I gave up. Also, either some poor person or the maintenance request system consistently replaced the word "mold" with "microbial growth" in my requests, in what I can only assume is a bid to cover their rear ends.
The location is actually pretty good. You can easily walk or bike to campus, Albertsons, Trader Joe's, or the gym. Also, if you're stuck living here, you should sign up for Sustainable Transportation, which gives you free parking passes if you don't buy a standard pass. In fact, the location and the hassle/expense of moving is the only reason we put up with living here for so long.
You can also reserve meeting space in the complex. Let's break that down a bit. There is a very nice "lounge" that is kept locked. The front desk people acted surprised that I wanted to sit in there and study (because they were setting off fire alarms in my apartment). There is a "clubhouse" that is usually filthy and I am embarrassed to host events there. There is a "community room" which is basically a big open space with a kitchen, and is pretty nice.
There is no air conditioning here, and only baseboard heaters, which drink electricity and do a very poor job of heating. You are not allowed to have a window a/c. You can have a portable a/c, which will cool one room and cost you about $300 new. If it gets very hot, management leaves the "lounge" unlocked after hours in what they consider to be an act of great magnanimity. It does at least show that they know you might get heat stroke if you sit in your own apartment, but I don't know how they expect you to sleep.
Cable and internet are included in your rent. You get what you pay for here. The TV is mostly channels you have never heard of, and the audio/video quality varies a lot. You are forced to install a program on your computer that you will have to log into every Monday to access the internet. The internet quality is fine during non-peak hours; at night, if you can stream decent quality video, you're lucky. You can pay a ridiculous amount for better TV, but you have no choice but to use the awful internet service. read more
