The title of this review is how the sign should read at the entrance to MetroPointe Lofts in Atlanta, Georgia. Instead of "Under New Management!" and "Win Free Rent!", it should flash messages like "Welcome to all nine levels of hell!" and "Win inflated rent prices and fines for everything!"

In all seriousness, MetroPointe Lofts is the worst place that I have ever lived in. Located in the most unsafe part of Atlanta (right off of Joseph Lowry Boulevard, and within walking distance of the Fulton County State Penitentiary), MetroPointe is home to thieves, drug dealers, rapists and alcoholics, all of whom probably carry a weapon of some sort. I never felt safe, even whilst sitting in my room with all the doors locked.

When I first came to MetroPointe Lofts on a tour with my college, it seemed like a great place to live. There was a swimming pool, a workout area, and a game room.... and it all looked great. There was parking for my car, security cameras everywhere to make sure that things were safe, and the room that they showed us was really nice. Moving in, however, I discovered that all of that changed very quickly. When I say "very quickly," what I mean is "in the blink of an eye."

The people who took us on the tour did not walk us down the bad hallways or in to the places where people had destroyed things. They did not take us down the hallways where people had scribbled obscenities or smeared food on the walls. They didn't allow us to see the floors where people had left broken glass bottles, spilled alcoholic drinks or vomited on the walls. They never showed us the places where people had run down the hallways, having paintball fights with each other. The walls of my hallway were quite colourful. They did not tell us that the elevators, whenever they *did* happen to work would frequently and randomly stop working, even while there were people on them. In fact, a friend of mine was on the orange elevator one evening, and it dropped a few floors. The staff at MetroPointe does not care about the safety of the residents.

There was a rapist roaming the halls of MetroPointe while I was living there. The rapist didn't even live in the complex, from what I understood; some of his friends did. It isn't as if it is particularly difficult to gain entry into the building; in fact, getting inside is remarkably easy to do. Anyone standing outside, wanting in, is sure to be granted access by some random passerby. The person outside doesn't even have to make up an excuse, such as "I forgot my key." No one cares, especially not the staff, who comes in and out of the buildings. In fact, it is encouraged to invite one's friends over, no matter that supposed "friends" are thieves, rapists and all number of other things.

Now let me introduce you to the false alarm problem. No one likes to be woken up in the middle of the night in a rude manner, do they' I didn't think so. But more often than not, I, and every other person in the complex, would wake up at two o'clock in the morning to hear a cacophonous symphony of fire alarms going off. The very first night that I stayed in MetroPointe, I was awakened at six thirty in the morning by a fire alarm. Thinking it was something serious, I left the building and went outside, covering my ears from the pervasive, annoying sound. I was joined by several other people, and we stood in the cold for upwards of thirty minutes, whilst waiting for the situation to be taken care of. It turned out, there was no fire; it was someone playing a prank. The fire alarms have been pulled so often at Metro that no one bothers to go outside anymore (except for, perhaps, the newer residents, who haven't gotten used to the fact that the alarms are often playing their shrill, ear-piercing melodies), and more often than not, the fire department doesn't even bother to respond to the alarms any longer. One time, there was a kitchen fire on the third floor, and not many people left the building because they didn't know that it was a real alarm.

The noise problem didn't come from the random (and frequent) fire alarms alone. The walls at MetroPointe Lofts are practically paper-thin; you can hear a pin drop in the room above you, not to mention the scooting of chairs and furniture. So when someone is playing music at full volume, you can be sure that you will hear it at some point. I was on a hallway that played home to people who predominantly listened to rap, R&B and hip-hop, none of which I cared for. More often that not, I was kept up by the bass thumping in my ear and the sound of people caterwauling to loud music.

The hallways of MetroPointe do not contain scents that I would have liked to introduce to my ol'-factory senses on a daily basis. In fact, each of the hallways (and floors) had its own different scent, none of which were particularly pleasant. One of the floors smelled of rotting garbage, left out in the sun for far too long. Another smelt of wet dog and soiled diapers. A third smelt of decomposing corpses, with a bit of burning sulfur thrown in. A fourth hallway smelt like a vacuum cleaner that had caught fire and exploded in a cloud of dust (not that anyone would need a vacuum cleaner there; there was no carpet). A majority of the hallways carried the (sometimes-not-so-faint) scent of marijuana.

Cleanliness is a big issue in MetroPointe. The attitude of the cleaning staff and their approach to tidying up seems to be something along the lines of "I'll do as little as possible and get paid as much as I can." The hallways were almost always filthy. There were broken bottles lying around, drinks had been spilled and left for someone to slip in (they often smelt of alcohol), and food was smeared across the walls. In fact, beside the door to the apartment of one of my friends, there was what looked to be either apple pie or vomit smeared down the wall. That streak (complete with chunks) stayed there for over a month, and no one did a thing to get rid of it. A girl, who was having a fight with my old roommate, took slices of pizza and smeared them down our front door, across the handle and over the lock. The door was greasy for weeks. Another time, some of my friends and I got into the orange elevator, only to be greeted with the overwhelming stench of feces. We happened to locate the source of said odour lying in the back corner of the elevator-- it was a used condom that was covered in defecation and leaked sperm. It took a week for the staff to decide to clean that one up.

There were random room inspections, many of which were not even carried out by an R.A. In fact, I'm certain that one of the room inspections was done by one of my neighbours. Many things come up missing during these "inspections", which frustrates me to no end. I have to work for my stuff and I don't appreciate it getting taken by someone who had no business being in my apartment, let alone my bedroom. The staff shoves people who have no chance of getting along into rooms together, as my roommates and I discovered. There are four people to a room, and while two of my other roommates and I got along very well, the last roommate did not fit in with us at all. At all hours of the morning, she would have her massive group of friends over, all of whom would be running in and out constantly. Chelsea (name has been changed to protect privacy) liked to pass her room key out to her friends, where it remained in circulation, allowing her friends access into our apartment whenever they chose. I would frequently come home from school to find that my apartment door was open, granting access to anyone walking down the hallway.

My car got broken into in May of 2007, and both my CD player and several of my CDs were taken. Before that, another of my roommates, Tara (name changed) had her Wiimote stolen, and my next-door neighbours and friends had their game systems taken right out of their living room. Theft is a big problem at MetroPointe Lofts, and none of the security cameras work. If you do decide to move in and you have valuables that you would rather keep, leave them back at your parents' house(s), because you won't keep them long if you bring them with you.

Besides theft, uncleanliness and noise pollution, there are other reasons not to live in MetroPointe Lofts (a.k.a. "Hell on Earth"). Many of the people who live in the lofts, besides being rude and inconsiderate, also sell drugs and alcohol out of their rooms. The maintenance crew has, generally, no idea what is going on. It takes at least two to three complaints to even get the maintenance staff up to your room to fix any problems. When they get there, they usually do not know what the problem is, or, if they *do* know, they don't know how to fix it. A water pipe busted in one of the walls of my apartment and continuously flooded the common room (and often, one or two of the bedrooms). It took the maintenance crew a month to respond to our complaints, and when they arrived, they simply tightened the screws of two of the bathroom sinks, then declared the problem "solved." Of course the problem was not solved a bit, and a few days later, the floor was covered in water yet again. I'm still not sure how the problem was resolved, but about a month later, the walls stopped leaking.

People get stabbed, held up at gunpoint, raped and robbed all the time in MetroPointe. If you are a female and you are moving in, carry some sort of small weapon or a can of mace/pepper spray with you at all times, because you will get cat-called, harassed and followed to your room.

The shuttle service is terribly unreliable. The bus drivers are generally rude and run whenever they feel like it. If you have to go to AUC or Georgia Tech, it's not quite as bad, but if you have to travel all the way to the North Avenue MARTA station and then ride the train for about thirty minutes, it's terrible. If you have late classes, you most likely won't be picked up from the station. The buses stop running around ten at night, and with having to switch trains at the Lindberg Station at nine, you won't get to North Avenue in time to catch the shuttle. There were numerous times when I had to walk through downtown Atlanta at eleven PM to get back to my apartment.

All in all, I hated that place and I was so thankful that I finally turned twenty-one and was allowed to live in Dunwoody Place. They say that MetroPointe Lofts is "safe, clean student living", but that's a big lie.

DON'T "GET (TO) THE POINTE!"!

User Responses
From: metropointesucks	Date: 02/14/2008
Couldn't have said it better myself. Metropointe is definetly unsafe and unworth the $685 they charge to live here. I won't renew my lease and I will spread the truth about this place.
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/15/2008
WOW! I couldnt agree more! Although ima georgia statestudent n cant say ive seen it as worse as the author of this article(im musta just lucked out n got one of the "better" buildings). But its true security is a joke,you cant even depend on the shuttles(in which the drivers hold no responsibility but to themselves), and the nasty smells are overwhelming. Being put at the end of the hall really doesnt help when u havta smell all the crap on the way to ur room. The list of complaints could go on n on. Bottom line, if u have ANY standards of living in a decent place with decent security,plan on being able to sleep comforttable w/o bein blasted awake by fire alarms, n expect to get good service n quality living for the over $700 you pay to stay here (rent utilities), dont even ATTEMPT to apply to live at Metropointe. The only thing ull be gettin is 6-12mnths of hell on earth

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