After living here for a little over one month, I already cannot wait to move out. Most of my complaints come from the common areas, other residents, and general lack of attention the building gets from the staff. If I was paying less, I would have no right to complain but when I am paying well over $1000/month without utilities, I expect at least the basics.

The first complaint is the first thing I noticed when I moved in to my unit. To prep the unit, they simply painted over everything. By that, I mean they painted over metal fixtures like the metal bars in the closets, the metal in the sinks, outlets, and things like that. Not only that, but in the process of getting my unit "ready", they bashed a hole in the wall behind the front door hoping I would not notice it. Another problem I noticed with my unit was that the windows were filthy on the outside. By filthy I mean it looked like they'd never been cleaned. I had to take a razor blade to the glass to get half the crud off (that involved me taking the screen off my window and climbing out). What I have recently noticed with it getting a bit colder that there is no insulation at all. It is early fall and I already need the heat running all night.

Now on to the common areas......

Let's start with the mail room. Right now there are about 150 phone books just sitting in the middle of the floor. They block half of the mailboxes and I am not sure if they are for us or not, I assumed they were so I took one. They've been there well over a week now. That is the usual state of affairs down there too. On most days you will walk into the mail box room and will face hundreds of ads and flyers strewn about the floor. There are two problems here; the people that live here are pretty classless and lazy (more to come on that later) and the custodial/maintenance people are NOT doing their jobs (but they do congregate outside my door on most days).

Ok now for the 'exercise center'. This was a studio apartment (think <500 sq feet) converted to use for exercise equipment. That's it. Have fun.

The elevators are in pretty awful condition (and their permits are expired by 5 months as well). In one elevator it looks like someone spit or threw up on the buttons. It has been that way for almost two weeks (where are the custodial people'). Everyday I wait for the elevator on the bottom of the garage levels after I get home from work (which is not 5ish or peak time) for what seems like 5 minutes. There are three elevators that operate normally, the fourth is freight only. This results in terrible wait times. And every time I get on any of the elevators I am greeted by an empty beer or red bull can or an empty fast food bag (notice the theme here custodial staff').

This leads me to the people that live here. Alexander House has some sort of government subsidy for equal housing or something (not my area of expertise). This leads to people who could not normally afford the rent here suddenly able to live here (that's a whole different issue that doesn't need to happen here). Now just because they live here, doesn't mean they have manners or any class at all. I'd be very interested in seeing the occupations of all of the people that live here. You want examples of what I mean' Everyday when I walk by the previous mentioned exercise room, there are white cups on the floor or on the furniture there. There is constantly garbage everywhere. Even when people do put their trash where it belongs, they clog the trash chute. And instead of waiting until the problem is resolved, they dump their trash in the chute room all over the floor or try to jam it in to the already backed up chute. The last thing I need to say about the people here is that I REFUSE to let my girlfriend walk around this building alone. The first and only time I did, I walked up to here and some 'gentleman' asked me if that was my girl down the hall. I responded yes and then he proceeded to tell me that he wished he could 'tap that'. Classy.

I think what the problem is that downtown Silver Spring has very recently been 'revitalized' or whatever the PC term is these days. Accordingly the rent in the area has gone up. For example, I heard the Georgian, down the road from Alexander House, used to be priced under A.H. Now it is more than $1500 for a 450 sq ft studio. Anyway, the new downtown area has allowed Alexander House to charge high rent without actually improving itself in any way, shape, or form.

The only thing I have left to say is that I spend as little time here as possible and if you live here, you'll avoid being here too. lGjq8RUBjvsZjkb5ueji

User Responses
From: picardlx	Date: 10/14/2008
With all due respect, the fact that Alexander House is owned by the government of Montgomery County, MD should have at least tipped you off that this was a mixed income community. A simple Yahoo! Search would have given you this information. I myself have yet to write my full review as I have only lived here for little over two months. Thus far I have had no direct problems with individuals in this complex but have had to smell marijuana twice in the hall (twice more than the complex I moved from BTW) but thus far that's the only annoying thing. There are only two other high-rise complexes at this price point worth mentioning in Downtown Silver Spring; and Alexander House's computer lab and exercise room is better than both. The size of Twin Towers Apts exercise room is considerably smaller (2/5 the size). I knew moving in that nearly half the units in this complex were subsidized in some fashion. Therefore, I knew that not everyone here was a high paid attorney or a Washington lobbyist or even earned as much as me-- but since when does that make you a bad person? As you mentioned exactly 1/2 block down the street sits Georgian Towers and for over $2800/month you'll get a descent 2br apartment with a huge fitness center with a personal trainer -- but the building is much older than Alexander House and no amount of drywall, veneers and fresh paint will completely mask the problems associated with older apartment complexes (>40yrs old). Later I will write my own full review and comparison to other complexes I have lived in and visited in Downtown Silver Spring.
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/21/2008
This is sooo disallusioning. I find myself in the position of having to find a place to live and most of the reviews I read are negative. Right now I'm trying to choose between Arlington and Silver Spring. Most likely I will move to Virginia. I think all apartments have their issues and unfortunately you can't pick your neighbors. Management doesn't care because they are all about making money.
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/25/2008
Just out of curiosity; are you on their low income program? I just called the office and their one bedrooms rent for over $1300 and they seem to have a JR apartment that is $1200. I think it is funny that you would criticize the people that share in same benefit you have, which is why I ask. Have you asked the staff to take care of any of your concerns? I used to lease apartments and I love to hear how people complain but don't put an effort forward to help resolve the issue by letting them know what is going on most of the time in their absence. I guess this is why I switched careers.

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