I have slowly been upgrading from bad neighborhood, to slightly better one for the last few years. This is the best from the last three, (better than Post rd, better than Simspon st), but still not a very nice place to live.
When I moved in, the apartement was full of mold. They did not replace or even clean anything since the last tennents moved out. This inlcudes: no painting, no carpet cleaning or replacement, no replcement of the broken blinds, etc. This was all promised to me of course before I signed the lease, but not followed through on.
Since then, I have had to have maintenence out monthly to clean mold out of my bathroom (they refuse to actually fix the problems, just come and bleach it), and I am told that the problems I am experiencing are not happening. The best example of this is the fact that I have no control over my heat. Once the management turns it on, it will get hotter and hotter in my apartement unless all the windows and sliding door is open. I left town for a five day period, and returned to my apartement being 88 degrees! It will get up to at least 84 overnight, so even when it was -10degrees outside, I was sleeping with my windows open, just to remain comfortable. The maintenence people tell me that my thermostat is working fine, and scold me for having my heat turned up too high (64 degrees). I have had them to my place at least a half dozen times, then just got sick of trying and live my life with all my windows open all winter long.
I have complained several times about: my dishwasher leaking, sink faucet dripping, garbage disposal not working (and leaking), window and door locks not working, major insect/spider/centipede issues, oven not heating properly, crack heads smoking rocks in my bushes (finding broken pipes, empty bags and burnt brillo), bad power uolets and non-functioning grounds, bad showers (unless you like being frozen one second, and scalded the next), no parking, vandalism, hand to hand drug transactions, and prostitution... none of these issues have been resolved and some (even after several calls) have not even been addressed.
If you are in a tough spot, and need something cheap (relative to other in-town, east side locations), it's not bad. Like I said, it is better than other comparable bad neighborhoods, and it has easy access to main interchanges and the rest of the city. Very cheap cab fair from downtown due to highway 30 (using Badger), and it is surrounded by better neighborhoods, so there are many close parks, bike paths, food and shopping.
For better or worse, people seem to mind their own business here. If you are doing something that might bother neighbors in other areas, don't expect to get hassled. This was nice for me in the rare occasions I had friends over for social beverages. The downside of this, is that nobody seems to care about all the really bad stuff going on (i.e. hard drug use and sales, prostitution, vandalism, car burglary, etc.).
I am moving out because I have a young son, and I do not feel comfortable in this neighborhood with him. My son has spotted crack pipes, brillo, used condoms, lots of empty alchohol containers and a needle in the grass lawn areas surrounding the apratments. I have seen many fights, seen many slashed tires, lots of broken car windows and other signs of violent crime, although I have not been a victim of this myself here.
Overall, for me, the downsides far outweigh the minor benefits of easy transportation and distant access to parks. There are much better apartments in the city (almost all of them), so bite the bullet and spend the extra $50/month to live somewhere else!!!

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