I am surprised this place has such a high rating. I've never lived someplace so bad.
Paint: Peeling and blistered in many places throughout apartment
Parking: About 50/50. Sometimes I get a good spot, sometimes I'm several buildings away from my apt.
Maint.: Good for routine run of the mill calls. The paint and plaster peeling from the ceiling of a bathroom due to a leak in an upstairs apartment- we've been waiting months, and more calls than I can recall, to get this fixed.
Kitchen: If you get a choice between a renovated and unrenovated kitchen, do yourself a favor and get the renovated. In our unrenovated kitchen we have had burns on the counter since move-in, the cabs and drawers have such caked on grime they can't be cleaned (they need sanded and refinished) and some of the hardware is worn out, the oven has probably been here since this place was built.
Safety: On our side of the complex many of the lights are often out, and even when on there are some very dark corners. I often am out at night and coming home there are far too many people hanging out outside for comfort.
Noise: The walls are paper thin. It also doesn't help that several people in my building like to blast their music and scream at all hours of the day.
Pests: Ongoing issue with bugs of all types and mice. Occasional issue with rats. They routinely send exterminators but it is never more than a temporary fix. The worst was last summer when someone in our building got bed bugs.
Laundry: The laundry room is filthy, sometimes flooded, poorly lit, the lock has been broken on it since we moved here nearly 2 years ago, one machine was out of order for months, and currently the entire laundry room is out of order and has been for about a week.
Staff: Mixed bag. Maint. is very courteous, the office staff seems to be hit or miss depending upon the person and their mood for the day (my roommate has had several complaints about them, they've been OK with me).
Positives: Not many. The neighborhood is halfway between Upper Park Heights and Mt. Washington but the feel is more Mt. Washington so it has a nice suburban feel while being close to 83 for easy access to the city. It is nicely diverse (Russian, Black, Hispanic, and Orthodox Jewish), so if you appreciate that sort of thing (as I do) you will be pleased with that aspect of the community.

Edited to add photos and to note I finally got out in May 2009 and I am very happy to be gone.

User Responses
From: cpviolet	Date: 04/11/2009
Your thoughts/expectations on apartment living is ridicules. If you did any research, these apts are older than I am! (I am 28) The paint peeling...totally normal. How inthe world would you fix that? The walls probably have about 18 different coats from the many yrs of move-in/move-outs. The only solution is to completely tear the walls down and sstart over. Do you want that in your home?? Parking---Isn't it 50/50 everywhere??? Its first come/first serve. If that was so important to you, you should have asked when you moved in if it was assigned parking. In the last 10-15 years most familes now have 2 or 3 cars as opposed to only one back when the area is built. Should they tear a building down to have more parking?? Again, you choose to live in an older place. I agree with you on maint---they CAN be slow I also agree on several other issues, but nothing too terrible. Again, you choose where you live. If you don't like "old" why live in a building that was built 30 yrs ago??
From: Jeff10236	Date: 04/12/2009
My expectations of apartment living are far from "ridicules" (sic). I have lived in several apartments over the past decade and a half, and I've also seen the rentals many friends have had. Lets address some of the areas you thought were ridiculous. Parking here is just poorly designed. I've lived in buildings without assigned parking where the lots were much better designed (yes, older construction apartments). I've visited friends at places with good and with bad parking. Here, it would be easy to fix. Through the entire complex there are spots on both sides of the road. Some of the complex has buildings on both sides, whereas in some of the complex the buildings are only on one side of the road, yet there is always parking on both sides. There is also a large overflow lot by one of the dumpsters. An easy fix would be to give each apartment one or two assigned spots and make the overflow lot and extra parking in front of the buildings where there isn't a building on the other side of the road for visitors and tenents' extra cars. For the paint, it is easy- sand the walls then repaint when it is peeling or blistering- if it is as you suggest and we are talking about paint going back to construction then there is also a legal/health issue here (the potential for lead paint peeling). Pests: be more proactive and have a good exterminator service (at my parents' house when there was a serious bug problem they were drilling into walls and putting time release insecticides into the ground), don't have someone hit a few corners with spray and throw loose (not in the poison traps) rat poison around my kitchen (thank God I don't have any pets or kids). A week without a laundry room is far from acceptable. This is NOT normal in an apartment. Yes, I chose to live here, but the apartment they showed me didn't have any of these problems (or they weren't apparent at the time), otherwise I'd have gone back to London House (cheaper as well) or Park Place where I did not have most of these issues.

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