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So-so
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
7/10/2007
Years at this apartment:
2004
-
2007
1 response
Overall, this place has its ups and its downs. I have lived here for over 3 years. In that time, I have had some good, and some no so good experiences. First, this place was built in the 60's. It has older fixtures. They have been upgrading the facility recently: They replaced all the water piping (water was coming out brown before that), they have replaced all the decks and re-painted the entire complex. So there are some improvements. You can hear sounds of your neighbors, but, I have heard far worse in other complexs, so I would describe the noise situation as fair. Security is on and off. They used to have regular security on site at night. Then they cut back to security on-call. They seem to have upgraded again to intermittent security at night. There have been a couple significant security problems here in the 3 years (car break-ins, robbery). In general, I feel fairly safe, but make a point of looking over my shoulder late at night, since it is a bit spooky, wandering around.
The staff here are pretty friendly, at least I have not had a major problem with them. If you make an effort to be on good terms with the office staff, they will generally make the extra effort to help you when you need it. If you only go to them with problems, they will probably be less responsive.
Parking here is adequate, except when they are doing construction, which seems to cause people to park all over the place. For a couple of months, one had to call security nightly to ticket & remove cars that were blocking the driveways.
Maintenance is an on and off thing. In large part depends on staffing. If you submit a general maintenance request, online or by phone message, you can wait forever. If you stop by the office in the AM, you can usually get a response the same day.
Given that the apartment complex is built on fill and of an older design, my biggest concern is a major eartquake. I thing many of these structures would collapse. There is some superficial cracking on the buildings (before they repainted) from the 89 quake. Half of Alameda is built on fill, so if you choose to live here, you run that risk.
The washing machines suck, they seem to break down almost weekly, and since it is under contract to an external agency, you can wait a long time for repairs.
The pool kind of sucks. There is only one for about 400 residents. On warm summer days it is nearly overrunning with kids and crowds of people. It is not nice to live around the pool during those times. There also seem to be a fair number of kids who also sneak in the complex from the outside to use the pool.
Weight room seems to be ignored by the management staff and has gotten no repairs or upgrades to the equipment in the nearly four years since I have been here. Weights are missing, equipment not operating properly.
Like I said it is so-so.
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User Responses
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From:
unhappyatballena
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Date:
07/13/2007
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The sales agents WILL LIE to you
From: unhappyatballena
Date posted: 7/13/2007
Years at this apartment: 2006 - 2007
When you come to look over this place, there are some things you should know- they will tell you there is security at night- yes, three or four night THIS year- otherwise there is NONE. come any night and see (or not) for yourself. They will tell you that the ponds that look like they are polluted and breeding West Nile virus just happened that way and that they are fixing them- they have been like this all summer and were this way last year too- the pond water is so toxic it has killed the cute ducks you will see walking around. They will sell you on the nice pool area - that is overrun by kids from the outer neighborhood who don't live here most weekends and lots of times late at night. On the weekend, they will tell you the laundry room flood just happened- it happens every week and by the end of the weekend the place is a pig sty. They will show you the fitness center where equipment has been un-repaired forever. BEWARE- go into this with your eyes open.
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Disclaimer: No attempt has been made to verify or assure the accuracy of the claims made by the author of this opinion or responses. You must judge the truthfulness of any review and accept responsibility for your use of this information.
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