I am married college student and I live here with my wife. When we first moved in here we were truly disgusted. The first week of walking through the parking garage to the lobby and smelling the steaming garbage (it was summer) was almost unbearable. Then, there was an elevator that was broken for a good 6 months which was really frustrating.

This place is what you make of it. The smell has gone away or I've adapted to it. The elevators break down on occaision, but all high rises have that problem, and our elevators are pretty fast.

There is a nice quiet balcony to go to on the second floor (although the smell in the 2nd floor is still unbearable to me) and its a good place to go to be outside if you don't want to go up to the pool deck. The pool is actually very clean as I am a lifeguard and I've seen some dirty pools. I've also seen the guys in their underwear or jeans playing in the pool, but that's just a culture shock. A lot of the people, probably 80% are foreign, but very very nice.

The water issue is the same everywhere. And for people saying it happens all the time is just false. It happens maybe once a month the water might be down for 8 hours while they make repairs. The worst was two years ago when the water was off for two days. That just gave us an excuse to try some wonderful area restaurants. We walked over to Teresa's Pizza which rocks btw.

The security is 10x better than the Reserve Square. We have a friend over there and we visit a lot and their security is twice as beefy with no view. One person complained that there was a double murder in the park. That park sits in plain view of Reserve Square, not the Chesterfield, and they were the last ones there. The bar attached is a trouble spot because I look out every once in a while and see cops making the arrest.

The maintenance crew is great. I've read your horror stories, but have you ever talked to them like peopple' We have only had to call them up once to fix our nonworking garbage disposal and it took 2 days, but they were in and out. The management could hire a few more to clean up the garbage shutes and the service elevator areas and restoring the trashed apartments to free these guys up, but these guys have a lot on their plate and work loooong days.

The location is what you pay for. It is downtown living at its average. Statler is a bit pricier, but from what I've heard they have the same problems and talk about switching buildings. You are down the street from CSU, Playhouse Square, a ton of restuarants, Progressive Field, The Q. One negative location is if you are on the west end, 6am everymorning, as one poster admitted there is a garbage truck and it is pretty loud. I felt duped the first couple of weeks. We thought about rearranging the apartment to sleep in another room, but the novelty wore off and we sleep through it now, but is an awesome alarm clock when you need it! The view on my floor of downtown is amazing and I leave my blinds up most of the time so I can enjoy it.

Some of the services are very underfunded. I believe they could revamp or repair a lot of their gym, they can hire a few more maintenance people. And security is often scarce through the private contractor that provides the night guards. During the day, its just a glorified secretary.

Bed bugs is an issue that comes from a few people moving from really poor areas bringing their bed bugs. They don't crawl through walls and pick random apartments. I've never had any bugs. I've never seen a cockroach while living here, and I've seen some pretty vile conditions.

The laundry room is great. I do my laundry in one swoop. Wheels on laundry baskets are the answer. I just go during nonbusy times and there are plenty of machines. The vending machines won't dispense the tropical skittles, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker.

It seems to me that the only people who post here are people with horrible experiences. I'm not one of the staff members or the leasing office. I'm just trying to balance some of the giant rumors. I love my neighbors, though they change a lot. The maintenance men are ridiculously nice, though stretched too thin. The security has never been a problem. I've never lost a package. I don't have to drive every time I go out. I don't have bed bugs. The smell is unnoticeable now. And that double shooting was a drug-deal gone bad... not random violence and could happen anywhere.

If you do move here, stay away from E13th street as much as possible. Those apartments are sketchy and the cops regularly have to patrol that street. Almost every 5 minutes like clockwork. Paint your apartment. Its unnecessary work and you have to cover it when you leave with white primer, but it really adds to the apartment being a home. Everything else that happens that is inconvenient one day probably should be gone the next. If you have a small dog, let them know before you move in. The leasing office will likely bend, especially if they are paper trained and not peeing everywhere. If they give you a problem, one of the managers has miniature dauchsaund (sp). They might say that people were grandfathered in, but I sure wasn't, but we don't cause any problems and haven't destroyed anything yet.

Parking: I feel the need to address the parking even though the parking company is separate from the chesterfield management wise. A different company runs parking. My favorite attendant retired. They understand that some of us have no choice and have been known to change the rates. This hike is mandatory and has happened twice. There is no "well I'll just have to find somewhere else to park." But that might be everywhere as well.

There is the unbiased I-still-live-here report that you need to read.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/23/2009
This person has obviously become used to substandard living conditions. The problems mentioned by all the other people are really true, and horrible to live with. That park where the murders were at IS across the street, 50 steps away. If you are not worried about safety, move in! If you think having bedbugs and roaches is no big deal, then move in! This man dosen't know what he is talking about. The bedbugs do move through electrical outlets. When he gets them he will find out for himself. My friends got them from their neighbors and were moved into a new apartment by management, and guess what? THE NEW APARTMENT HAS BEDBUGS TOO!!!! If you don't mind going to work once a month without a shower, then move in! If swimming in a pool with guys in underwear is cool, then move in! This guy is nuts! Do not make the mistake of living here. Go to west 6th street or the new fourth street area, it is awesome there.
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/23/2009
So you addressed and confirmed nearly every problem. Maybe it's because you're a college student and haven't grown in your living requirements further than glorified dorm. 3 months ago (since my last post) I have moved to another more upscale downtown apartment. I have had no smell issues, no need for a 2nd floor balcony, no water issues (and there is actually hot water in the laundry room), the management office actually calls me back, every desk worker made it their friendly goal to know me by name, and I haven't had a bedbug bite since. That was the last straw for the chesterfield. 4 times sprayed, $1200 in expenses or material thrown away and a hundred lost hours of sleep. This reviewer may find it okay, but I suggest you use your money better and move to one of the other 15 or so apartment complexes with better than a 18-20% rating on here.
From: spazzattack2	Date: 09/24/2009
That's great and insulting and all, but its highly suspicious. See, I get an e-mail updating me about people replying to my post and its odd that 3 people comment on a review of a place within 24 hours. I'm really just suspecting that this is someone who has a biased towards the place. That's the purpose of my post. To show that the reason this place has a low ranking is because some people troll this site and complain about odd things. The maintenance people do not work in pairs, and when they are together, mainly in the lobby, they speak spanish to each other. Your story gave me a good giggle though. I've mainly grown up in one house in a decent neighborhood. Then I moved from a dorm to an apartment, and now to the chesterfield. I just have to assume that the only person who feels the need to rag on the one person saying a place is liveable. I did not say that this place is a palace. I said that you accept some shortfalls and you find a comfortable place for the value. If you want to spend considerably more, yes, go live on public square, the wyndham, reserve square, or statler. I've heard some same gripes from friends in statler and reserve square. I really think this responder is just a biased responder, and this is why the place is at ... I will repeat that I will probably resign my lease. And please stop responding with insults, I was just trying to apply an unbiased view of the place.
From: AKSmith6	Date: 09/24/2009
This reviewer must have been from the projects because the Chesterfield is horrible. The maintenance crew are thieves. One time they came in and I was sleeping on the sofa and my boyfriend let them in. He then said he had to go to work (he teaches at Cleveland State). I am guessing they thought they were alone and did not see me. I was awake by this time and watching them. I saw one of them come over to our vast collection of DVDs (They were fixing the sink and our DVDs are in the next room, they had no reason to be in the living room). He was talking to the other guy saying "This guy has an awesome horror collection" he then proceeded to take some from the shelf and set them on the ground. That's when I "pretend sneezed" and he realized he wasn't alone. He sheepishly put the DVDs back and went into the kitchen. I reported it but nothing became of it.

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