I moved in on December 20th and have been in the community for 41 days now. Given where I came from in West Seattle I have to say that I am very happy with Lakeside. I find the current staff to be friendly, warm and inviting. I like my Suite. It has high end new carpet. The appliances are modern and higher end and the unit is very spacious. They have been re-roofing my building but the roofers have made very little noise and done a good job of cleaning up after themselves and they are gone within an hour of me coming home from work. There is plenty of parking and the only time I hear my neighbors is when I go into the hallway. Otherwise the suite is very quiet.
The only issue I have had is very minor. The laundry machines do work on a card that you have to charge in the office and by the time I get home from work at 6pm the office is closed and it isn't open when leave for work at 8am. I typically do my laundry on weekends anyhow so I just charge the card on weekends but one weekend I went home to Portland to see family and wasn't able to do laundry for the whole week as I was out of funds on my card. It would be nice if one could leave their card in the rent box with cash and the management loaded the card for you but on the other hand it really is not a big deal if you remember to load your card with a good amount of money the weekend before...
Bottom line, I see Lakeside has had a past but I believe the new management team to be doing their best to change that reputation and i certainly recommend you give Lakeside a shot. A community is only as great as their tenants!
Tyler

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/31/2009
The new management is really good compared to the old staff. But what you haven't mentioned here is the two arsons that we've had in the last month. 2 vehicles were set on fire in the parking lot, one of them exploded and woke us up as it rattled our apartment, numerous cars have also been broken into in the last month as well. Walk around the lot more and actually look at the cars, you'll see a lot of shattered windows. As for new appliances must be nice. You are probably one of the few lucky ones to have new anything. We had a problem with one of our appliances and they kept bringing in old replacements that still did not work today our "new" one still doesn't work as well as a "new" one should. Grounds? Have you seen the trash bins? By Monday every week they are over flowing out of the fence they are kept behind. The re-roofing? Give me a break. They just did our building and we almost left before they were done. Our ceiling fan fell completely out of the ceiling with the way they were throwing things around and jumping on the roof. Our hallway light fell out and the glass globe shattered, luckily my 2 year old was taking a nap when this happened. The whole apartment rattles when they walk around up there, ask any resident that is home during the day. You are the only positive review on here, I think you either got paid by management for this one or you work for them.
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/10/2009
Hey, Tyler, thanks a lot for your persistence to balance out the experience of living at Lakeside. I'm considering moving there right now and I agree with what you said about the members of a community taking ownership in the quality of the neighborhood, etc. I also liked the looks of the grounds when I checked it out last night. I hope the car-torching isn't true because that's horrible! I'll be back today to talk with someone more about living there, and I'll definitely be asking about that! :) Thanks again. ~Sp
From: call19	Date: 04/16/2009
The car torching IS true. I was sleeping when it happened but my husband heard the commotion and called 911. Our car's been stolen from the place too, so it's not all sweetness and light at Lakeside. Don't be fooled.
From: turbjoh79	Date: 05/06/2009
No, I am not friends with the management and no, I would never work in leasing. Honestly, I rarely if ever see the managment as i just drop my rent check in the box and move on. I work in insurance and have for ten years. I am sorry your car got torched. That really sucks! On the flip side, I don't know what you would have expected management of any apartment community to do about it. Lakeside is not perfect but if you compare it to other apartment communities out there then you would find it is not all that bad either. The place I lived prior in West Seattle totally blew and for $1050 per month I had to deal with Roaches, crappier appliances, plywood bathroom cabinetry and a management company that didn't even care about anything at all. At least Lakeside is trying and making efforts. The grounds are very well kept for a place as large as Lakeside and when my sink drain got stuck and my closet shelving fell down they came right over and fixed it. I have lived there for 5 months now and there are only two things I will agree with you on. 1 the walls are thin. The person who used to live above me was a single elderly woman and I never heard a peep out of her but since she moved last month and the new party animals with kids moved in above me I will admit I now realize they are fairly thin. But rather then complain to management I just march up there and thel, them to Pipe the #$%^ down! In addition, there are kids who play in the parking lot. This annoys the heck out of me as they are kicking soccer balls around the cars and even up towards the building all the time. I agree they shouldn't be there and management has gone out and spoken with them many times. Sadly, the little bastards now wait until the office closes. I have now figured out where they live and am lodging formal complaints in writing every time they do it. Hopefully, they will get evicted.
From: alyssabarela	Date: 05/08/2009
I've lived in a lot of places throughout the years and I have to say that Lakeside is one of the worst places I have lived. Only one other place I think was worse and that was on Casino Road in Everett. I would have expected management to try and help out instead of just towing the Jeep. Maybe be a little more caring and understanding about it. It's not like they don't know us, we talked to them all the time. Especially when Cheryl and Shawna were in the office. So for them to say, we don't know who's it was, and just tow it was BS. Yes, the kids are annoying as hell, I've almost hit them so many times I've lost count because they dart out from behind cars and there is no parental supervision what so ever. I'm honestly relieved to be away from there now.
From: turbjoh	Date: 06/16/2009
So, here we are in June and as you can tell from reading this I moved in on December 20th. In the beginning I was very happy with Lakeside. I will still say that the unit I have is spacious and well maintained and I still say that management cannot be blamed for peoples cars being torched or any of the other misc things that some have tried to blame them for. What I will say is that the easier things that management should be able to take care of seem to be impossible for them. I have complained both verbally and in writing about the family that lives in the I building and continues to allow their children to play kickball in the parking lot. On a few occasions management has spoken to them. Given that I have complained numerous times and others in the complex have complained I feel the family on the second floor of the I building should be evicted. However, management does not seem willing to make all their tenants happy on this matter and feels the thousands of dollars of personal property owned by tenants and parked in the lot are not worth protecting. We actually have to park our cars on the other side of the complex to protect them from damage. So, due to my numerous complaints and the fact that the moment the office closes the kids still continue to play kickball amongst our property the moment the office closes and the fact that the father of the family actually came to my door and harassed us for complaining and add on the fact that Becky and the staff do nothing about the situation (like evict the bastards) I have decided to no longer recommend this community. Apparently the staff does not care enough to ensure a peaceful environment for the larger number of tenants so I will be moving when my lease is up. Seeing as how I pay my rent on average one to two weeks before it is due I am sure they will be sad to see me go but it is their loss and I have time to find a better community. In addition, since the nice old lady above me moved out and the non english speaking party animals moved in, I have learned that the walls and floors are very thin. My newest neighbors like to party till three AM (while their kids are there) and make all kinds of noise. In addition every step they take reminds me of the bombing of Pearl Harbor scenes from the movie. I have chosen not to renew my lease in January and more then likely move out shortly after. In addition, I intend to throw a lot of very loud parties in my final months here seeing as how disturbing your neighbors is cool with management and all the units around me are loud, obnoxious party animals. Of course rather then playing loud Mexican music I figure I will crank a combination of Metalica, Puff Daddy and Abba at all hours of the day and night as well as have wild loud sex in the early morning hours so they all know they arent the only ones who can be disrespectful. Naturally, I wont endanger anyone's personal property like they do but I will certainly make sure I am a horrible neighbor just as they are. I reccomend to anyone who looks at a unit here, if the steer you to the "I" building I suggest that you run in the opposite direction while screaming your head off the whole time. This building is predominantly occupied by noisy jerks with no regard for their neighbors or the personal property belonging to others.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/24/2009
Thank you following up with our responses - I don't actually give a hoot about the car fires, but all of your posts have hit the nail on the head. I too moved from West Seattle where car fies & shootings were considered normal. I HAD an appointment to view Lakeside in the morning, but have now canceled it. If I want to save rent, I think I'll go to the new and improve Delridge - better insulation in the newer buildings and stricter property rules. Good luck with your situation and thank you for saving us from it!

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