If you're just looking for any place to call your own, Rolido Parque will do you just fine. If you're looking for something upscale for a low price, this isn't it. You do get what you pay for. I'm the starving artist type, a designer and a journalist, and so I need some place low-rent to accommodate the fact that people in media don't make nearly as much as others think we do. Problem is, low rent tends to attract other types that you may not want to deal with.

The apartments are compactly arranged, and nice enough for the price, though my little one-bedroom costs far too much to cool in the summer, and I can't blame it all on Reliant's rate hikes--my front door has a gap under it so large that I can see my welcome mat under it from across the room, and I get hordes of insects coming in as quickly as the cold air goes pouring out. They do free pest control on request, though, very prompt about that--and in my experience, living here less than a year, the management staff is very sweet and accommodating (save for one particular person, can't say I like her, but I never have to deal with her much, either).

Since I don't have a car and tend to be up and about all hours of the night, living across the street from both a 24/hour Wal-mart and a theatre is great for me. Truthfully, my neighbors are my only real complaint. They're loud, and quite nosy--I've had people try to cruise my place, and I can't be sure they weren't casing it--and since I live on the first floor I have to deal with the noise of people thundering up and down the stairs and trundling what sounds like a sack of elephants across the floor above me--not to mention some people seem to think that outdoor conversation with the person next to you requires shouting at the tops of their lungs. For a while there were problems with people playing horrendously loud music, loud enough to shake things off of my shelves, but that hasn't happened in a couple of months. Every once in a while we get a screaming weirdo on the property making trouble with some tenant or another.

There's little security, which bugs me a bit; there's supposed to be a rent-a-cop, but the one time that a few neighbors noticed someone peeking in windows and called, he never came out. The grounds are all right; they clean once a week, and I'd rather put up with the noise of the leafblower than deal with the mess that can accumulate. I don't mind all the stray cats around--in fact, I feed them sometimes--but it really annoys me that people take their dogs out for walks around the grounds and let them...y'know...all over the sidewalks and grass, as I get a good noseful any time I go out to get the mail or even just head out my front door. I like that we get front-door trash pickup three days a week, but it would be nice if my neighbors could remember which days, as they tend to toss their stuff near my door (as they're above me) and I'm sitting there with their trash on my patio until the next pickup day, when the dumpster is less than 100 feet away and it wouldn't kill them to take a walk. Also, there's a huge problem with people leaving Wal-Mart carts everywhere. When I moved in I was told there was a strict rule about leaving the Wal-Mart carts in the Wal-Mart parking lot, no matter how I have to kill my arms carrying everything home in one trip. Still, I do it. On rare occasions I have snitched a cart, but the moment everything's unloaded I take the cart right back to Wal-Mart. Still, so many other people don't that at times we have trains of carts stacked up in the parking lot near the dumpster, and sometimes they'll just leave them in the stairwells or on someone else's front area (I'm getting sick of having someone else's stolen carts parked in the dirt/grass just past my patio).

Like I said, the average tenants really are the biggest problem. I'm a fairly quiet person, work from home, so I keep to myself a lot--so when they're a problem for me even when I rarely have to see them, that should tell you something (other than that I'm uptight). To be blunt, most of the residents are rather...ghetto, and this place was my last choice--I've got a good renter history, but bad credit, and this was the only affordable place that wouldn't run my credit. You know how it is--you make mistakes when you're younger, and spend the rest of your life dealing with the repurcussions. So for the credit thing, I was grateful. But that doesn't change the fact that this was the last place on my list of apartments in this vicinity, as I was really much more interested in the Arbors across the street. It's not safe here, and half the break-ins can be traced back to the residents or their friends. I usually go out to do my Wal-Mart shopping at about three a.m. (I'm an insomniac, plus prefer to avoid the insane day crowds) and yet I'm always looking over my shoulder, and I hurry back quickly.

I've even avoided taking an out-of-town vacation for more than two or three days because I'm nervous about leaving my apartment unattended for that time; while there are two deadbolt locks on the doors, only one locks from the outside, and the door wouldn't be that hard to break down. A lot of the downstairs apartments have fencing around their patios, affording them more privacy. You'd be better off in one of those unless you like people occasionally peeking in your windows or snooping around your front door.

I haven't seen the prostitutes that others complain about, but then I don't make a habit of hanging out in the parking lot after hours, either. Though some of the banging I hear is pretty suspicious...who knows. Can't pass judgment on that without seeing proof, and frankly I'd rather spare my eyes.

Addition, 08/03/06:
I've just about had it with this place at this point. They've gotten in the habit of making "modifications" to my apartment without my permission, and sending people in at all times of the day when I'm trying to work, usually on phone calls that can't be interrupted. Do they knock' No. They just unlock the door and walk right in. Not only that, but sleeping at night is impossible. If it isn't the tenants, it's the police coming after the tenants and leading them out at gunpoint, yelling and screaming the entire time. There are strange people wandering around day and night that I'm pretty sure don't live here, and I'm damn tired of going outside at night to see people camped out and living next to our goddamn pool.

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