I am on the fence about this place. Some days it is nice and quiet and the birds are chirping, and other days it is like living in a low income housing development. Just last week I was home during the day and four boys all aged about 12-14 were riding their bikes in the parking lot, not paying attention to the cars, and leaning their bikes on the parked cars and sitting on the hoods of cars. They also all had water bottles and were trying to aim and throw them into the sewer at the end of the side walk. One of the maintenance men just so happened to be getting in his golf cart at the next building over and he yelled at them and told them to move. The boys in unision told him to go f*&k himself. These same four boys are also always at the pool with no adult supervision. The pool is not supposed to be a babysitter for your kids. Montgomery County has pleanty of resources for these children to be doing productive supervised activities during the summer and not just freely roaming the neighborhood getting themselves into trouble. Why isn't the leasing office or anyone managing the pool' I know it's a great idea to employee the foriegn exchange students to work at the pool, but when they know little English, it is hard for them to enforce the rules. Another incident at the pool was when a ghetto-fabulous mother in her skimpy white see through bikini yelled across the pool at her daughter that she was "going to f*&k her up" because she splashed water on her. There is also a young girl that frequents the pool unsupervised who wears skin tight white t-shirts with her white bra on underneath so when she gets wet you can see right through her shirt. Why send a notice to the entire complex with pool rules if the management is not going to enforce them''' Oh, and I agree with the dog issue. I have seen full-bred pitbulls being walked on the property (and in case you are speculating that perhaps they don't live on the property, the owner and the dog walked straight out of one of the buildings). I have a guy that lives downstairs from me who blares his music whenever he is home, and his stereo is in the room direcly below my daughter's bedroom. We tried nicely to go downstairs and knock on his door and explain that we have a 7 year old that needs to go to bed, but he refused to answer the door. This went on until 11:30 at night until we finally had to call the police. The police showed up and banged on his door and he still refused to answer the door, but he did turn the music off. It wasn't until 2 weeks later that management put a note on all doors in our building that it was in the rules of the lease not to be noisy past 10:00p.m. So now the guy still blares his music but makes sure it is turned off at 10:00 p.m. -- 2 hours past my daughter's bedtime. Oh, and I have lived in major cities -- Brooklyn, Baltimore, and London -- and none of those experiences have been like what we have experienced here so far.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/23/2008
I agree 100% with everything you said, although I avoid the pool for the reasons you list above. GROSS. My neighbor plays the DRUMS, but he is nice and stops at about 7:00, when I am putting my toddler to bed. The dog thing is exaserbating...I asked to adopt a dog, but they insisted on a vet check to confirm it is below 35 lbs, while I have seen at least 3 pit bulls in the buildings right around mine. I never let my baby play outside and always carry her back and forth to the car, mainly to avoid getting bit. I am moving in a month to Potomac and am paying just $200 more a month for a SIGNIFICANTLY nicer place. My kid can play outside, shopping is high class, neighbors are employed and educated and there is no drug dealing outside. FINALLY. 12 months of misery...
From: ImissUkraine	Date: 06/23/2008
I live at 205 seabreeze ave but the reason I chose the user name I did is that this place can make you miss evn the grim Ukraine! Like you, it can be lovely. There is a big park across the street, and youc an see the boardwalk, beach and ocean from the window. But you you, there are those that ruin it for everybody. So aside from a landlord who threatens to evict you if you ask for the smallest thing to be fixed, and who tells you he can fill your apt in 5 min for twoce as much as you're paying him, it gets worse. There is a nightly soccer game across the st in the park here. My husband and I get no sleep because for years this has gone on. It's illegal in that there is no ball playing allowed there, the pks dept put up fences in the fields, they get knocked down the next day. The grass is gone too from them. The park is also closed at night but they play anyway. Tow fullsize teams, with spectators, so imagine a full on soccer game, all year long, snow, rain? Doesn't matter, short of a monsoon, they will be here. They scream, fight and yell all night long. They start 9 pm and dont end until close to 2 am or later. We all call the police, they come but the players don't respect the police or the community at all, and come back later or the next night. Our grand daughter visits and cannot sleep here though. You have kids in the building who ride skateboards all the time for hrs on front of the building, with their friends who will tell you to suck their, well you know, if you dare to ask them to go acorss the st. to the park. The parents live in the back, so they are not subject to this, they know about it and say too bad. There were weeks and weeks this and every winter where heat was given for a few hrs a day at most, some none at all. Yes at times does make me even miss the Ukraine, where I was born.
From: thomboone	Date: 06/24/2008
I empathize with the concerns expressed here but I do see from the language chosen -- ghetto-fabulous mother, for example -- that we have a clash of cultural backgrounds and a certain intolerance still to accept others from where they are coming as they are. Surely if you have lived in Brooklyn, you are familiar with the f*ckin A and are not offended by language. Do you really want everyone to look and act just like you? The young men who are guarding the pool speak English quite well and certainly have been enforcing the pool rules when I am there. I have not seen the young girl with the tight white t-shirts with her bra underneath, but I do distinctly recall most of the girls at Barnard College (in New York City) burning their bras back in 1972. What is a full-bred pitbull anyway? Pitbulls have gotten a really bad rap -- what on earth is wrong with a person owning a pitbull? Now as for the problem with loud music, I did have that problem very briefly but management did act quickly and that problem has no resolved itself. I wonder which neighborhoods in Brooklyn -- I do not think this neighborhood even begins to compare with Bushwick or East Flatbush or even Williamsburg when it comes to any of these concerns. I guess our perceptions are colored by our underlying value systems. I do think that if everyone living here were eating homogenized middle class white bread, people would not be so quick to write reviews like this complaining about the kids, the pool, the pitbulls, and the stereos. If others' styles, dress, language, and behavior does not conform to your own paradigm of what is correct, does that make them "ghetto"? I think the answer to that is "no" -- it simply reflects our own prejudices. This neighborhood may not be a place that everyone will find happiness. It may be a little unruly from time to time. Certainly, I spend enough time walking around picking up trash in front of my building that my neighbors thoughtlessly toss out on the ground. But that is good exercise for me and God knows, I have tossed a few soda cans out while driving myself. I really think everyone should try to look past their own individual cultural and class background and make a more spirited effort to be a driving force for positive change. It is, however, very apparent to me that this is going to be very hard to accomplish because we each bring our own inherent and faulty value sytems and prejudices to the table -- even when it comes to defining what is and is not "ghetto". I really think everyone can do better than this and while I do see some of what is being "complained" about here, I am not at all sure that I agree with what it is or is not supposed to prove. And, actually, except for one very fine apartment I had in Bayridge, this apartment and neighborhood are at least equal to, if not superior to, the several places I lived in Brooklyn. (For one thing, we actually have dishwashers, garbage disposals, and washing machines in this apartment. Most NYC apartments do not have these conveniences.) As for drug dealing, I have not seen this going down. Of course, if I do, you can be sure that the appropriate authorities will be fully notified and fully involved. So I guess the answer here has a double-edge.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/25/2008
My apologies. That reflects poorly on the parents and poor parents can be found in virtually every community. I am sure this community can do better, but I still think it is quite nice. And certainly there is no comparision to places like the HUB in the South Bronx where heroin flows quite freely (even still, despite all best efforst to curtail this) and children are being "sold" on the street. The glass is either half empty or half full. These issues out to challenge the parents -- and the community. Also I do not think it is the responsibility of landlord, government or the community (County) or otherwise to supervise people's children. I also do not believe children should be overly supervised. Watched, protected -- yes. But they need space to grow on their own too. I do not think either the examples are that egregious and I think that the entire community deserves to look at itself in a better light, so that people can really take initiative and can really make positive changes that benefit us all.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/30/2008
Gross!
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/11/2008
My response to thomboone: When did shouting expletives around young children, children shouting expletives at adults, women wearing see-through clothing around children, and people being just plain rude with their music become a "cultural background" of anyone? And I don't know where you get off thinking it's cool throwing soda cans out the car window once in a while 'cause "God knows you've done it." I certainly don't remember ever doing that, for that's horribly trashy, immature, and irresponsible. You said, "We each bring our own inherent and faulty value sytems and prejudices to the table -- even when it comes to defining what is and is not 'ghetto.'" Well, I can clearly see that you have brought your own inherent and faulty values and prejudices to this table, and you obviously cannot recognize when someone is being "ghetto" becuase my guess is that you have a bit of the "ghetto" in you too.

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