LIVING IN STATESIDE IS LIKE LIVING IN THE STONE AGE. This building is the definition of late stage capitalism. Every appliance, piece of furniture, the walls and floors themselves were the cheapest, ugliest material known to humankind. I will say that maintenance was always efficient in fixing these horrendous appliances when they inevitably crapped out. The dishwasher would break at a simple touch and the windows would mysteriously lose parts at gentle gusts of wind. The laundry room was a torturous experience. Half the washers wouldn't spin, leaving your clothes soaked in mildewy water and the smell of failure. The dryers were always working at half capacity, many being broken yet appearing to be in working order. Me and other residence would have to come down several times to restart their dryer to make sure their clothes actually got dry. There was always a smell to these clothes whether it was due to poor cleaning or a burning odor that came from the high heat setting which was a necessity when using these shoddy excuses for appliances. They installed two new dryers a few months ago and then immediately kept them off for months without reason. There is no air conditioning in the apartments at all despite them having air conditioning in the hallways. It makes zero sense. The rooms are the size of sardine cans and for 950 a month, it is outrageous. The furniture is so uncomfortable, me and my roommates often opted to sit on the floor rather than on the couch that no doubt gave us lifetime back issues. I don't think there was a single piece of real wood in that entire apartment. It was all plastic including the fibers of the couch which scratched the skin at every touch. The chair that came with the apartment was as hard a rock, as if humanity has made no improvements since we lived in caves and slept on boulders. The television was barely functioning. We would have to wait a good five seconds before a button on the remote would even be registered by the thing. The loading times were immense and actually getting something to load was a feat comparable to competing in the Olympics. Worse even was the wifi if you can even call it that. We had to turn off wifi on our phones every morning because our data worked eons ahead of the stateside "wifi" which would make things fail to load indefinitely. At one point, we lost hot water for over a week. When washing my hair, my hands and feet turned purple from the freezing cold temperature. They then "generously" gave us 100 dollars off the next month of rent. Rent is 950. NINE FIFTY. Compared to many other apartment complexes in Bellingham, that isn't even a discount. The elevators would constantly break, leaving most residents waiting ages to get to their top floor apartments sometimes with many bags of groceries. So far, the washers/dryers barely worked (we would have had better luck washing them with a bucket and washboard at Lake Whatcom), the wifi was nonexistent even affecting our text messaging, the furniture was as hard as rocks, and we literally lost access to even luke-warm water. In other words, Stateside asked for nearly a thousand dollars a month to live in the stone age. Except for one thing, which was the AI assistant, Luna, who pestered us constantly asking for our information and for us to answer unpaid surveys to help "improve" the building. Using AI when you have a "commitment" to sustainability is low and thinking we wouldn't notice is pathetic. Just hire a human to answer questions, you cheap excuse for a shelter.
The greatest insult came at move-out when me and my roommates were charged over a hundred dollars for literal specks left in the corner of drawers which we vacuumed out and wiped down with cleaner. The pictures they attached were of microscopic dust particles that could have built up in the days it took them to do the inspections. I should have spit in the drawers and cleaned them with that! But unlike stateside, I have the decency not to be so petty.
It is absolutely disgusting and abhorrent the way Laird Norton Properties treats the hard-working, struggling students that simply want a clean, comfortable place to live while attending school and working in a society that already squeezes the life out of our very souls. Shame on you, Stateside.
The one thing that makes this pleasurable was seeing all of the begging posters on doors asking people to renew their leases. These and the constant emails and extended deadlines tell me that justice is being served, hot. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the apartments are empty next year. Stateside, your failure brings me more joy than you know. read more
