Stay away! You must give 90 days notice of intent to vacate apt. and not renew your lease! I tried to coordinate a move several times with other complexes which had a 30 day policy. The only other way out is through a "lease buyout." I had to pay two months rent just to get out of my lease AFTER HAVING BEEN A RESIDENT IN GOOD STANDING FOR NINE YEARS!

I want to clarify up front why I stayed so long. First of all, when I moved into the apt. in Dec 1997, it was a pretty nice place. It was family owned and run, and the old man who built the place would walk the property every day looking for things to repair. Sometime after the new millennium passed, the property was sold to a firm in New York, and management changed hands. Overnight, the place went right downhill. I kept hoping after hope that things would get better again, but it never happened. As far as the noise goes, I would slip into headphones to escape it, unless the bass was so loud that it penetrated them (they were not BOSE Quiet Comfort), at which point I would try to work it out with my neighbor first, then the office if I got no results. I had to call the police once. I am not one to get into stereo wars, because that makes me as guilty as the perpetrators, so I didn't go there. I sprayed and sprayed for the bug problem, but it never went away, and the office would not provide a service. I did train the spiders to move to the front door after destroying their webs in the other parts of the house. They soon found that the best prey was to be found near the crack of the door at the bottom. I purposely left them there so they would eat the other bugs. If I started finding webs elsewhere, I would quickly vacuum them up. Generally, I can take a lot of abuse before I have to move, and I HATE TO MOVE. It is such a hassle, and I fought the urge until I couldn't take it anymore. Some of the obstacles I took on as challenges, because I was determined to beat my opponents at their own game. I wish I had taken photographs when I removed the air intake vent. Read below to see what I found. As for the grasshoppers: There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says if you have a grasshopper living in your house, it will bring you good luck. And if you kill a grasshopper living in your house, it will do just the opposite. I'm not sure I believe that, but I did attempt to kill six at one time with RAID. They took off jumping in different directions, and the spray did not kill them. I could never find where they were hiding, and I had grasshoppers for roommates for one entire winter. When I moved, I found their dried-up bodies in their hiding places. It was kind of eerie. Morningside Heights qualifies as the worst place I have ever lived. Now on to the details...

In the summer, I had bugs everywhere, including spiders, ants, and silverfish. In the winter, groups of grasshoppers came in to escape the cold. An army of six of them entered from under my sink in a straight line, as if moving into battle. I never had cockroaches, though.

One day, I decided to take off the A/C air intake duct in the hallway. Much to my astonishment, I discovered dust that was (I swear on the Bible) about three inches thick, tapering off toward the back for a distance of about three feet. This would explain why I had pneumonia for two years in a row in this apt. I vacuumed the entire intake shaft, installed a charcoal filter, and the air was so much cleaner after that. Why could Maintenance not do this, and why did they tell me that a filter was not required at that junction' There is another filter outside that supposedly gets changed twice a year.

I was flooded twice in as many years from the apt. upstairs. I had a mold and mildew problem that management would not address. The first flood involved toilet water. I had liquid feces in my carpet that took forever to purge. The mold and mildew never went away.

The apts. are very noisy, due to poor construction and not enough insulation. You can hear everything your neighbors do. I mean everything. Loud water noises and stereos are common. There were children above me who liked to see how high they could jump down the stairs, which were right over my bedroom. It was like a bass drum going off. Management did intervene on my behalf on that issue, and the jumping stopped. They also did put the fear of God into one of my neighbors who played his stereo too loudly. It was so loud that it sounded like it was coming from my apt., with the walls vibrating from his sub-woofer.

If you are late on your rent by more than ten days, even if you've notified them in advance, management slaps an eviction notice on your door and you have to pay an outlandish fee to get your lease reinstated. No quarter is given for unexpected circumstances such as losing a job or prolonged illness. However, I have to admit that a ten-day grace period is rather liberal. I have no grace period where I'm living now. It forces you to become more responsible, which is a good thing.

The addresses are very similar in different parts of the complex. My mail often got diverted to a wrong address. I lost several very important pieces of mail this way.

Gangs often walk by with menacing looks in their eyes. In a nearby complex on the same road, there are frequent shootings.

In the nine years I called this hell hole "home," there were three fires in nearby buildings that destroyed many apartments. These wood frame apts. are like kindling and burn very quickly.

Traffic whizzes by very quickly on Pleasant Ridge Drive. Very bad if you have kids.

Management for the most part is rude, inconsiderate, unprofessional, slow, and forgetful. There are exceptions, though, like the lady who took care of my noise problems. Some of the employees have a God complex. You must grovel at their feet and lick their boots in order to get anything done. BTW, the javascript on this page is funky. There was a laundry room in my building, contrary to what is checked below. However, finding a washer that didn't have clothes in it for hours was rare. One more thing: if you work nights, you can forget about finding a parking spot near your apt. I often had to park in the office parking lot because I got home at around midnight.

Believe me... YOU DON'T WANT TO LIVE HERE!
Turn around and run the other way! Quick!

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