Review for Eastside Commons Apartments

The manager of this building continues to astonish me with her inaction and hateful attitude toward tenants, which is a shame because the building itself is kind of cute and in a nice location.

I don't mean to say that Eastside Commons is without maintenance problems; the building is old and poorly maintained. Still, when problems are reported, management is slow to address or even acknowledge them. For example, the hot water heater shared by the entire building went out on a Saturday night, and, on Thursday, the manager still contended that it wasn't broken, but "it is just taking longer for the water to get hot." Tenants had gone the better part of a week without hot water, and she refused even admit there was a problem!

Other major problems with this place include pests, security, parking and noise.

About a month after I moved in, my apartment developed a major roach problem. I've lived in a variety of apartments over the past 15 years, and I've never seen a roach problem like this. It's not a matter of a few roaches here, and there, but swarms of roaches teeming over kitchen surfaces and my computer desk at night, and many surfaces, such as my computer desk are dusted with the brown powder of roach feces. I have also seen what looked like a rat scurrying around the courtyard.

There are also human pests. It's not at all unusual to see vagrants camping out by the dumpster in the back, which erodes my sense of security. I've had people hit me up for change inside the courtyard, despite the security gates, and people have even tried to sell me drugs!

Eastside Commons management seems to be aware of the security problems, but uninterested in addressing them. There are three sets of security gates on the property and all three are currently broken. On the front of the property, there is a parking lot gate, which is intended to protect the cars for folks who pay $25 a month for "secure parking." The car gate seems to be broken more often than it seems to be working There is also a pedestrian gate which used to be opened with a digital security code. This was replaced with a simple mechanical lock, which is never locked.

Prospective tenants should be aware that there are also two gates in the rear of the building that present greater problems. These have been in various states of disrepair since I moved in two years ago. These gates are often propped open so tenants can let in their party buddies, and currently someone has bent pieces of steel to permanently prop them open. Other times, a gate will be locked, and, thanks to poor maintenance, be impossible to open from the outside. It’s easy to imagine someone getting mugged while struggling to get inside the building. I frankly think it would feel more secure management simply removed the gates than keep them in a permanent state of disrepair.

I should also note that I submitted a repair request in writing describing these problems to the manager, and after being locked out on a Saturday, sent her a frustrated email. When she responded she acted completely unaware of them. It’s not clear whether she was being disingenuous or simply incompetent, but given her other actions, I think she has a cavalier attitude toward the truth.

In addition to the broken parking lot gate, there are additional problems with parking. The Eastside Commons management offers two tiers of parking, the $25/mo secure parking with reserved spaces and unreserved spaces in the back. There are fewer unreserved spaces than there are people who would like to use them, so tenants frequently have to park on the street. When the new manager took over at Eastside Commons, she implemented a parking sticker system to cut down on the number of guests using these spots.

In principle, this parking policy sounds fine, but, in practice, it created substantial problems for me and other tenants. When she first announced the new policy, she instructed tenants to fill out an attached form, but failed to actually attach the form. This left me confused about how to get a parking sticker. Since the manager only held office hours during regular business hours and no weekend hours, I decided to wait for her to realize her mistake and post the forms on the door. This was a mistake. She towed my car. I was not alone, too. At least three other tenants said Chelsea had their cars towed, and when they complained she was nothing but standoff-ish. I still don’t have a parking sticker because I’m never able to find her at the office, and she refuses to take care of this over email.

There’s not much to say about noise. There’s a lot of it. If you like to have loud parties, this might be a good place for you. The previous manager lived on site, which cut down on some of the parties, but the new manager lives off site, so there are parties every night of the week and pool noise at all hours of the day. Pool rules such as no alcohol are routinely violated and people brazenly smoke marijuana in the common areas of the building. Last August, the pool was broken for nearly the entire month. While it speaks poorly of Eastside Commons management, I welcomed it because it cut down on the amount of party noise outside my unit. That is, until it looked like mosquitoes were breeding in the stagnant water.

There is so much more I have yet to mention, like the un-air-conditioned “fitness center” filled with broken equipment or the cancellation of internet service. Still, I want to end by saying that the major factor making Eastside Commons a miserable place to live is its management. The current manager is spiteful, performs maintenance only when it is critically necessary, and seems to be dishonest. I would strongly discourage anyone from living here.