Just moved back to Northern Virginia after a few years out-of-state. Economy tanked, career nose-dived, credit ain't what it once was, bank account drained, and income severely reduced ... Brookdale at Mark Center seemed like the most viable option given my situation.

Since moving in: my car has been damaged, parking has been a daily nightmare, foreign neighbors eye me like I am the ----- and won't return a friendly smile or reply to a kind 'hello', my electric bill is nearly $200 a month for no apparent reason (am I paying for more than just my unit...), there was a mystery allergen that gave me hives until I had the carpets steam-cleaned twice and the air ducts cleaned out (never had this problem prior to Brookdale), there have been numerous roach sightings in and around my unit and building lately, there is broken glass throughout the grounds and even hidden in the grassy areas, there was a dead squirrel laying 1 foot from the sidewalk the other day (I shudder to think how it died or why it was still there in the middle of the day), I am the only person that I have seen that uses English as my first language, there are strange religious, cultural, and ethnic cliques/communities here that seem to shun and distrust everyone not of their same clique/ethnicity/religion. Numerous major maintenance issues in my unit have caused me to request service but they go unaddressed by the management office. AND SOME OF THESE ARE BIG ONES ... WE ARE TALKIN ABOUT BASICS THAT ANY NORMAL PLACE WOULD GET RIGHT ON ... IF FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN TO MITIGATE LIABILITY ISSUES

What at first appeared to be a down-scale apartment complex with affordable, comfortable apartments dominated by nice families has revealed itself to be a roach infested slum with 5-10 people each living in these small 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. The laundry basement areas are sketchy, the parking areas are unsafe, and to my misfortune the neighbor's bugs have started coming by for visits and now I am afraid they want to move in with me permanently.

This is a true story: Ran out to the grocery store at 8:30pm Monday night for a couple things I needed. When I got home my parking lot was completely full. The street was fully parked. The next two parking cul de sacs were also parked tight. Moments later, I saw the tow truck barreling up Sanger Ave so I got hot on his trail in hopes he might clear me a spot. I stalked the tow driver for 30 minutes as he examined people's cars and eventually found his prey. He had the car on his truck within 1 minute of identifying it as a parking violator and I was able to pull into that spot (which was only 50 yards or so from my building). All in ... about 40 minutes of parking adventure. And I shold add ... this Monday night entertainment isn't free. They charge an arm and a leg for a parking pass.

Trust me. I wish I didn't live in this crappy apartment complex and you won't like it either. I even have one of the "new" "oversized" and "renovated" units and I feel like I am living in a third world slum.

I don't know which is worse .. the rude neighbors that cohabitate like sardines, the incompetent, uneducated and useless management office personnel, the "renovated" unit that has a mile long list of maintenance problems, the bugs, the parking issues, the hoodlums that hang in the parking lot, the inadequate overpriced laundry facilities in the dimly lit, dank, and sketchy basements, or the lingering raunchy odor that I still havent been able to completely abolish from my unit after months of living here.

If you still sign a lease here after reading this then you deserve to live in this slum and you might even enjoy it.

Cheers all! Anyone have a place for rent'' LOL

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/23/2009
So true...my ridiculously over-priced 1 bedroom was mice infested. When I first moved there were no holes in the adjoining walls but soon enough I noticed holes on both sides of my unit where the mice were running from apt. to apt. There were never any exterminating done. Also the roof that was leaking when I first moved in was supposedly fixed but was just a quick fix & soon repositioned itself and started leaking down the windowsill and inside the closet. Parking was a nightmare with/without parking pass..on sunday mornings don't u dare run out to get some breakfast because you will come back to find no parking because the afrikan community that meet across at the school for services take over the parking lot and they don't even live there.

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