I lived at Prairie Woods for 3 years.

During that time, my boyfriend's vehicle was broken into and his car stereo along with some CDs were stolen. I often saw vehicles with windows broken out of them when I left for work in the morning. A boulder was dropped onto my sister's vehicle and was spray painted, which required hundreds of dollars in repairs. Management was made aware.

One night I woke up to hearing a man outside beating up a woman, threatening to kill her. Police were called, my boyfriend had to testify in court about what he saw.

A strange man knocked on my door with some sort of powder in containers and was trying to sell me some. Easy for strangers to enter the building since the locks were ALWAYS broken. Occasionally they put new locks on, but they always got broken soon after.

I noticed one day that someone had etched an obscenity into the wooden door of my apartment.

I was told by the Des Moines Police that they are always at Prairie View for some reason or another, and don't consider it to be safe.

The garbage disposal was broken from day one, after maintenance "fixed" it twice, I just gave up on that one.

The bedroom ceiling fan needed repairs. After maintenance "fixed" it, it fell on me in my sleep. Nice.

Wasps nests outside every window of my apartment. Impossible to open up a window in the summertime without them getting in. They also found a way to get in through the air conditioner. Made the Summer months pretty unbearable.

Offensive odors in the kitchen and bathroom cupboards located below the sinks. Tried to get rid of it, but nothing worked.

Multiple times plumbers tried to fix the leaking in the bathroom shower. Not only was it leaking out of the faucet, but I guess the downstairs neighbors were getting leaks through their ceiling.

After 2 years, mold started appearing through the walls in the bathroom. This is VERY UNHEALTHY. I'm sure maintenance just painted over it after I moved out.

The wiring was pretty suspect. We were constantly changing lightbulbs. Hardly any of the electrical outlets worked, they were misshapen and needed repaired right when we moved in.

I can not recommend these apartments. Though I was lucky and had nice neighbors, I more often than not felt unsafe. These apartments are getting older and more dilapidated and will soon be beyond repair unless major renovations are made. I am so glad I no longer live there.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/18/2009
As being a former resident, this place is a dump, windows dont have latches but sticks to keep them from opening, had a break in, was accused of having a master key to everyones apt after the breakin, cars in the parking lot do get stripped, and yes their is tons of drug activity going on in that complex, my 2 cents stay away from this low life gehetto, btw if the same apt manager is there from 2004-2005 she doesnt have a high school diplomia, now that would tell you something about how this place is ran, very shady swallow people who run that so called, dump,

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