Review History for skeletoninadress

Could be worse, but not a good experience

I've lived at Lakewood for five years now. This was my first apartment and I thought it was fabulous at the time I moved in. The management back then was very nice, unfortunately they're under new management now and I think that will be their downfall. I do have several complaints with the complex, as follows: I did not know about the shooting range across the street until after I moved in. Yes, you read that correctly: a shooting range. And not just one! There's a civilian rod and gun club, and then on the corner of Skyline and John Muir Dr. there's a police shooting range! I moved here from out of town and never knew anything about the shooting range until after the lease was signed. I suppose I should have done more research, but honestly I think it is the responsible thing for Lakewood to disclose such nuisances in the lease, or somewhere in all their literature, but they never did. The gun club is open every day, and they are out there rain or shine, sun up to sun down. It's extremely irritating. Half the time the driers in the laundry rooms do not work, and yet they had the audacity to increase the cost of the machines. Also, they're not coin operated. They have a card that you have to put money on. The only machine that services this laundry card to add money was recently replaced and currently does not work, and at the moment has a huge loogie on it that no one has cleaned off. About a year ago the new management repainted all the doors, put new (much needed!) paneling in the elevators, and put very ugly stock photos of sports equipment and occasionally the GG bridge on the elevator landings. They call these "first class upgrades" and are trying to petition the city to allow them to raise our rent up and above the percentage they're allowed to raise it annually to cover these so-called "upgrades". During the time they were painting, they left notices on the doors that they would be required to open the doors TWO INCHES to allow for proper painting (which in itself is a joke, the people they hired to paint are completely unskilled and it shows). However, I came home one day to find my door standing wide open. The paint was still wet and I got it on my nice skirt despite being careful when entering my apartment. My cat was inside all alone and could have easily run out and gotten lost thanks to them leaving the door completely open when they said it would only be two inches. (they allowed cats when I moved in) True, the place has a pool, hot tub, balcony, gym, and tennis court, but considering the shooting range and how small the apartments are, I really feel the rent is too high. And, it increases every year. I have seen cheaper places in the city and much cheaper places outside the city with comparable facilities. You are given one assigned, covered parking spot, which is nice. Unfortunately, if you have a family and have more than one car, you're kind of screwed. You're either stuck on the street getting tickets and trying to find a space (there simply isn't any space on the street after 6PM), or you have to pay an extra $70 per month for another parking space. It's nice that they'll allow you to rent another space, but the price is pretty high when I've seen other complexes that have more spacious parking where you can park a second car for free. Also, the new management decided to enact "package room" hours. If you have a package that was delivered to the office (which you need to do, if UPS drops it in front of your door it WILL get stolen. It happened to me.) you can only pick up those packages between 9-10 AM and 5-6 PM. This never fails to piss me off because I am rarely available to pick up the packages between these hours. If you're really nice and don't do it too often, they might allow you to get a package outside of the hours. But really, are there really so many people picking up their packages during the day that the staff can't get any work done and have to enact specific hours? I doubt it. Recently the electrical outlets in the kitchen of our apartment have stopped working. We've had to move our microwave and toaster into the living area until maintenance comes (you usually have to call for maintenance a few times before they come). There's low flow toilets and low flow shower heads mandatory in every apartment, which, pardon my language, is a -----. I've heard a lot of complaints about mold from other residents, but honestly I haven't had a problem with it, at least in the bathroom. The other day we were re-arranging furniture and lifted up our mattress to find that the entire bottom had molded. I still have no idea what caused that. Lastly, they actually painted the kitchen counters white. Whose bright idea that was I don't know, but it's ridiculous and miserable. EVERYTHING stains it. And the pressed particle board that the counters are made of are falling apart and shed all over the kitchen floor. One compliment I will give this complex is that the walls are very thick and well-built. I never hear my neighbors, although you do hear people in the hallway quite loudly. Unfortunately I'm near a connecting door to the adjacent building which makes the hallway ever louder.