The Laurels was a very nice place when I first moved in. The management lagged on getting everything together for the move in, but it was still nice. There was not much noise, the apartments are new, and most of the tennants seemed like nice professional people. (Cisco is across the street.)
Anyhow, the apartment is nice inside, the design is a little box-like but cute. There is little or no room for a kitchen table and chairs. The bar/counter area is the best place to eat meals other than the couch. The floors, counters, etc. are very hard to keep clean as they are all light colored. As the previous review says, neighbors leave garbage in common areas at times which obviously is unpleasant.
The grounds are very beautiful, which is a plus.
The parking is a whole different issue. Every one bedroom apartment is assigned one spot and every two bedroom apartment is assigned a tandem spot, supposedly. It just seems as though you lose out when you try to honor the system set in place by the community. We park in our tandem spot and juggle cars several times a day between work and school. This is upsetting when you see people in one bedroom apartments taking advantage and parking in all of the nicest single space spots. I am not certain if these people even work as their cars are there all of the time.
Concerning children: it is okay to gamble (play poker,) drink, and smoke in the common areas. The common areas are gorgeous, why filth them up and lower the appearance and standards of the complex by accepting behavior that is usually allowed only in Vegas and other established facilities' I definitely am opposed to these behaviors in areas that children may be exposed to. Who wants their children to assume that these are good behaviors' I find this very disturbing. I agree that it is okay to participate in these activities in the privacy of your apartment or even on your own balcony. I am uncertain if this has to do with the lower income apartments within the complex'
The noise on Zanker is bad. Saturday mornings are the most fun when you wake up to the entire building shaking due to the loud construction and heavy equipment. Tenants were given $5 Starbucks giftcards to compensate for the noise which was a nice gesture; however it does not take the place of the loud noise and lost sleep.
By no means is this the worst place to live. I am just concerned and aware that the newness will ware off and things will change. My advice is to really investigate before moving in. You may say: "If you do not like apartment living, buy or rent a home." Well, I would buy a home if I could afford it, and the houses in the Bay Area in this price range leave something to be desired. The best option for most young people is apartment living. Apartment living can be nice, but it takes interactive management as well as tenants to maintain the standards set at move in time. I hope that this helps.

User Responses
From: foodadvocate	Date: 10/03/2005
It is really judgemental of you to presume that the "gambling" activities in the common area is caused by the "lower income" tenants in the building. Just because a family is living in a low income apartment within the complex does not correlate to corruptive behavior. Most families in Santa Clara County fall into the "working poor" and the whole idea of affordable housing is so that these families will get the same opportunites as you or I but do not make quite as much money. You said it yourself, you would buy a home if you could afford it. Affordable housing is the number one problem in the bay area. As someone that works in the non-profit world, I would apprecite if you would not make judgements on people who live in the "lower income apartments." I certainly don't think a family of 5 with the father as the sole provider mean his wife and 3 young children will set a lower standard in the apartment. Please be more sensitive when you make comments like that.
From: biggeek	Date: 01/21/2006
The parking spots were assigned via some sort of distance metric so that there would be more or less the same distance between everyone's parking spaces and their front doors...The people with the "nicest single space spots" (presumably you mean near the elevators on the parking level) have a longer distance to walk to their front door once they reach their floor. As far as how those single spots are used, they are paid for with the rent and it's presumptuous of you to disapprove if I want to store my car in my own paid parking space and never use it. The Laurels is right next to a primary rapid transit station, for god's sake....That's a big reason I moved there in the first place: So I wouldn't HAVE to use my car. I do agree with your suggestion to "really investigate" before committing to a unit. If you like quiet, make sure you're not next to Section 8 units, garbage chutes, elevators, facing new construction or the pool facilities or on the ground floor.
From: stanfordlaw	Date: 07/26/2006
I can assure you that you won't be satistifie with the new management team in North Park. I lived there twice. first in Pines when it was just open and 2nd time, just the past year, in Laurels. The feeling is that you are dealing with completely two different kinds of people in this two leases. The 1st was pretty good. It may be because they were newly built and didn't have a lot of customers. In the Laurels, before you signed the lease, they tried everything to allure you in. After that, you are just piece of s**t. We have all the evidence showing their deceptive marketing and providing misleading information about the near-by constructions. They agreed to settle this by providing "free" services or waive charges, etc. But all of the settlement was just a whistle. They got millions of reasons to avoid anything they promised. With the incomplete constructions on their property, I am sure they will do the same to all the future residents. So be alerted and make all their claims about the completion date of the construction and construction's working hour in writing. City of San Jose has by-laws to restrict construction hours close to the residential area. I don't know how and why this company can get around that. Anyway, be very careful when you want to rent from this property. I have to admit that the look and facility of the property are pretty good, but sometimes you DO have to deal with the people who manage this property, don't you?

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