I lived in the Drake many years ago, from 1998 to 2000. I'm not exactly sure why I stayed that second year, except that both my roommate and I hated moving. But it wasn't worth it. That place was awful.


The insulation was terrible in this place. There was a constant draft blowing from under the front door, through the dining and living rooms, and out the sliding glass door. Freezing cold in the winter and blazing hot in the summer. Just no escape but to leave and hang out somewhere else.

The windows didn't keep any sound in or out, either. I was waken up on numerous occasions by neighbors having REALLY LOUD SEX across and down the way. Not even right next door or anything, but several doors down, but it was like they were right outside my window screaming in at me. With the window shut, even.

My roommate's window had a constant stream of cold, cold air blowing in to it all winter. The window was so loose he could never really close it and so he could never keep warm or keep out all of the noise from the frat house across the parking lot. We asked them to fix it and they told us to go buy some weather stripping. We told them that was absolutely ridiculous and that they should fix it, and the lady practically started laughing. She went on to tell her sob story about how where she lived she paid almost $300 per month in electric heating because her windows were bad too. These people really missed the point.


Getting anything fixed there took for ever because they didn't have enough maintenance people on staff, or something. Once, my roommate and I went into the office for like the third or fourth time to complain about not getting something in the kitchen fixed (I think it was one of the electric burners or the garbage disposal). The lady then had the nerve to tell me that the reason it hadn't gotten fixed was because she had put their black maintenance guy on the job (though that's not quite how she said it). "Oh, the boy. Well, we've just got this new maintenenace guy. He's white. We'll send him over and get you fixed right up."

We were just stunned.


Once, while trying to make better use of my small bedroom, I removed the closet doors and put my bed halfway into it. Hey, I had to try something, because the bedroom was too small. So I asked her if there was a storage room I could stick the closet doors in for a little while. I wasn't being pushy or anything, just a casual question. She got all mad and snapped at me: "At the Drake, we provide closet doors. We do not store closet doors."

Um, OK. I just stuck them behind the couch until I decided to rearrange my room again. Whatever.


The place was also moldy and gross. You could smell it, and I always felt stuffy and sick when I woke up in the morning, even sleeping next to an open window. When I moved out there was a big green mold spot on the wall behind where the couch had been (and so I hadn't seen it growing while I was living there). I stopped back the very next day to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything and they'd already painted it over. I could tell they hadn't cleaned off the mold or anything, just painted right over it.


I'm sure I have more stories to tell, but honestly, isn't that enough'

DON'T LIVE HERE! qmzu4EHcaGAPVCPw2Fai

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