What a great forum this is! It’s refreshing in today’s America to find a place where freedom of speech still reigns and the little guy can educate his peers about the misdeeds of the powerful. Let’s hope apartment managers will learn that mismanagement can come back to bite them.

I lived at Old Farm from 1996-2001. Here’s a summary of my experiences:

MAINTENANCE—an absolute disgrace; the worst part of my Old Farm experience. Throughout my 5 years of residence, the typical scenario would be as follows: I’d call the leasing office, a cheery voice would promise that a maintenance person would arrive at my apt. before the end of the day, I would wait and wait and wait, the day would, then I’d wait another day or two, and finally in frustration I’d call the leasing office and ask where was the maintenance person. The response would be, “Sir, we seem to have no record that you ever made a maintenance request.” Since I wanted to be present when maintenance was done, I wasted countless days—when I could have been doing something more useful—just sitting around the apt. waiting for a maintenance guy who didn’t come. Some of the problems were serious. For example, the AC had some sort of drip pan located in the bedroom closet. In the summer the pan would fill up and water would overflow on to my clothes. Maintenance person never showed despite repeated calls to the leasing office, so I learned to drain the pan myself periodically. The worst maintenance problem was a leak in the bedroom ceiling from which dirty water flowed after hard winter rains. It was above my bed. Maintenance brought a 5-gal bucket as a band-aid (which filled up quite fast), did some minor patchwork on the roof, and confidently proclaimed they had fixed the problem. Foolishly, I believed them, and removed the bucket, only to come home to a soaked bed during the next rain. I called management again, but it was the same old story: guy doesn’t show, management has no record that I made a request. At that point I gave up and decided that rather than fighting management it was easier to put a bucket on the bed whenever I went out.

WATER PROBLEMS. A typical scene at Old Farm involved a circle of reflective barricades surrounding a 6-ft hole in the pavement where workers repaired water pipes as thirsty residents waited for their water to be turned on again. It seems that as soon as a burst pipe was fixed and the road repaved, the water was shut off again and another chasm had been dug. Old Farm just couldn’t get a grip on the situation during the five years of my residence. Usually, however, the water was shut off during the daytime on weekdays, when many of us were at work.

CRIME. Old Farm made the Tucson Police Dept’s list of high risk locations for car theft. (Visit TPD’s website for more info.) Two unsavory characters moved into a nearby apt. My observations led me to conclude they were most likely crack-addicted prostitutes. I contacted the cops, who made some undercover observations from the parking lot. The women were gone within a few weeks, though I don’t know whether their departure was directly related to the cops’ involvement. Curiously, one of the cops with whom I spoke told me that they deliberately investigate such matters independent of apt. managers, as managers tend to be uncooperative—i.e., managers sweep such matters under the rug in an attempt to preserve the reputation of the apt. community. Also, the mailboxes were broken into at least once during my residence.

LAUNDRY ROOM. It’s frustrating when you wait 45 minutes for your laundry only to find it still soaking wet once the dryer stops. People would put “out of order” notes on the dryers quite often. The notes would disappear quickly—perhaps removed by management'—but the lack of a note was not an indicator of whether the problem was actually fixed.

PESTS. Another resident on this forum referred to Old Farm as “Ant Farm,” the very name I lovingly called the place for a time. I had serious ant problems, too, but I dealt with them on my own. I figured the maintenance people would just address the problem with a bunch of poison—if, that is, maintenance showed up at all.

NOISE. The neighbor beneath me would bring over a big fat woman every weekend and have sex with her. I’d hear the loud smack of gelatinous flesh and a crescendo of moans. Aside from that, the community was reasonably quiet.

OTHER EXPERIENCES. My particular apt. overlooked the Pantano Wash, making it an almost rural experience. The groundskeepers did a decent job, keeping trees and bushes trimmed and trash to a minimum. Parking was either ample or inadequate, depending on one’s apt. location. The rent was cheap for the junior 1bdr. If it weren’t for the abysmal maintenance, I’d recommend Old Farm.

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