We moved from Boston two years ago to start a new life with our brand new baby. We live in a huge 2 bedroom unit. My wife and I both work in Cambridge and exclusively utilize the T. We have really enjoyed our experiences here thus far, even with several glitches along the way. The maintenance staff is absolutely fantastic, everything is fixed well within 24 hours. The cleaning staff also does a very nice job keeping the common areas clean. If there is any mess, it is usually due to the same breed of unavoidable social cheaters that exist in every community. The management staff is friendly, one has to remember that it takes two to Tango. Stacy, the building manager, has always come through for us whenever things needed attention, and she is very receptive to our concerns and feedback. It could get frustrating at times when you go to the office and find the doors locked because they are out showing the property to potential tenants. I often find the office closed down for the day before their stated hours. This is usually not a problem since you can always retrieve packages through the security guards 24 hours a day. Yes, they receive all of your packages on your behalf and keep them in a secure room until you are ready to retrieve them.
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The majority of the tenants, at least from our accounts, appear to be young professionals like ourselves. We do not notice much turnover, although in a high-rise apartment community you are bound to see some movement. The hot tub seems to have been out of order forever, but the pool is always functional. The gym is pretty nice with modern equipment. They also have a communal room with a large screen TV and a small kitchen. I don't know why anybody would need this, it would be more useful if it was an entertainment room with a pool table, darts, shuffle board, ping pong table, etc. The community is generally very quiet, with the exception of the few transient oddballs that usually come and go at a faster rate. The elevators are pretty old, and one out of the two (at least in the South tower) show more symptoms than the other. There is an underground and above ground parking, but the residents have to shell out another $90 (I think) per month, and visitors can use a voucher at $6 per day. We do not have a car so we find the 5 zipcars that permanently reside within the building quite useful. But having the T literally across the street is the best part. Although we are pretty high up, we face the T station, and the noise from the trains are pretty loud (especially when the commuter rail passes by) when the windows are open. When the windows are closed we generally forget that the trains are even out there. Air conditioning and heating work well, and they proactively replace the air filters on the units several times a year.
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We rarely hear our neighbors. However, we did face a rather serious issue with a neighbor who had moved in after us. These guys were chronic smokers and at least one of them never left their apartment and smoked within their apartment all day. These guys were smoking so much that the smell reached the hallway, and unless the air was blowing in the halls it smelled like a bar of the old. It was really frustrating to come out of the elevator and fight through the stench before entering our apartment. More seriously, however, the smell began seeping through the shared walls between our unit and the smokers'. This happened to be in the room of our toddler. The maintenance staff tried everything to find out and block the problem, but they could not fully stop the problem. They brought in a HEPA air filter into our toddler's room and politely asked the smokers' to not smoke in the room with the shared wall. This seemed to alleviate the problem somewhat, but it never fully went away and from time to time we would smell smoke in our toddler's room. Given that there appeared to be no permanent resolution to the problem we were preparing to leave. Fortunately, the smokers moved out! However, one should keep in mind that if you get unlucky with your neighbor you might face the same problems as we did.
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Besides some inherent issues, we find this building to be an ideal place for a new family. Everything is within a few minutes walking distance, including our Pediatrician's clinic and there are ample choices for family based daycare in the nearby neighborhood. There are several small parks as well, and having both the police station and the fire station nearby adds to the general security. The rent could be cheaper, but we feel that we get our money's worth here.

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