I lived here for a year and it was quite an experience. The Village (now known as "Gateway at Tempe") is a place marketed to college kids and features leases that center around the school year, and allows you to have a separate lease from the others in your apartment. It's also down the street from ASU. Appealing to a Sophomore at ASU, let me tell you.

However, you're better off finding somewhere else unless you *are* a drunk, a thief, a rapist, or a kid looking to go completely wild without consequences.

Every weekend, it's party central. The Village hires "event staff" like you'd see at a concert, to roam the grounds. They called in the police a handful of times I was there, but more than likely they will let the noise go on and on and have a beer with the partiers while on duty.

Things I saw in the year I was there, on a regular basis:
- People walking out of their apartment, going behind the buildings, and urinating.
- Mountains of beer cans built like shrines in kitchen areas
- Busted Sparkletts water jugs (why not' its fun! right kids')
- A ------- loud ass dirt bike running up and down the alley starting at 6am to 8am every day
- Someone taking a brick, putting it inside a cloth, smashing someone's rear window, jumping into his buddies' car, and driving off
- Multiple car break-ins, including my own
- A paint-ball war that involved you whether you had a paint ball gun or you were just taking the groceries up to your apartment
- Lots of violent physical arguments between couples
- A guy taking his morning bath at 8am in the public jacuzzi
- A car alarm going off every time a mouse farted or a rain drop hit it, right outside my g*ddamn window
- A guy, naked save for his boxers, out on his balcony at 3am howling like a wolf for a good hour.

One incident stands out from the rest though. I was on the third floor. A local thug thought he should break into the apartment on the ground floor of the same building, and steal whatever he could. A couple minutes into his robbery, some of the residents came home and found him. The thug grabbed a kitchen knife and came at the residents. Thankfully the residents were able to pin him to the ground and disarm him while calling the police. They were so shaken up they left the apartment complex right after.

There were a couple bright spots though I have to say. One, there was a hardbody competition sponsored by a sports drink out by the pool. It was like girls gone wild right in your own back yard, and I'll leave the details to your imagination. It was the same with halloween, you would swear you were either in girls gone wild or at mardi gras. That said, treat the village like a hang out joint if anything - just don't plan on living there if you plan to actually go to school or get a good night's sleep.

Oh, lastly, if you don't have a friend willing to room with you, they will set you up with a stranger. It can be a good thing or a bad thing, just like a dorm room.

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