Apartment Review for Alexan Galleria

Sometimes I really wonder what exactly people expect out of an apartment complex. I've lived in various apartments over the past five years in Austin and can say this one has definitely been my favorite. I've been struggling with moving out for over a year now as my boyfriend lives on the other side of town and I would like to move closer to him and my friends, hoewver LOVE my apt and hate to leave it.

I'll start with the cons:
1) the carpet is SUPER cheap, when I moved in my unit was brand new and so was the carpet, two years latter it has horrible wear in the high traffic areas.
2) the fake wood floor seems to generate weird black stains on the carpet.
3) living in a mall you will have to deal with the downside to that: ie, loud events in the parking garage that last till 10 at night with crappy bands, fireworks going off 50 feet from your apt and scaring the crap out of your dog, loud cars driving by, etc.

Pros:

1) As far as noise coming from the actual other units and not the mall, I barely hear anything. I never hear the people next to me and only occasionally hear the guy above me when he's playing with his dog and stomping loudly. it's never late at night, usually just when he gets home from work and is really not a big deal. Living on a 2nd floor in an apt building, you have to expect some level of noise, what I have experienced is easily the most quiet apt complex I've lived in.
2) the apartments are pretty, I feel like I have a home, not a crappy college kid apt.
3) I live in a mall, I can walk to dinner, shopping, get dessert, go to a movie, etc. It's AWESOME. When family/friends come in from out of town to visit, if I can't take off work I don't feel guilty at all, they can easily occupy themselves, get food, etc. HEB, Target, etc are all very close too. Almost everywhere I need to go to run errands is in a 5 minute radius of my apt. It is a lazy person's dream.
3) the gym is easily the best apt gym I've ever seen for the amount of equipment available and if you wait until 8 at night, there's never anyone there.

I've had little issues with management, they are always responsive with work orders, I've renewed my lease three times and the last time the office lady actually helped me get a lower renewal rate with the manager. If I could pick up my complex and the mall and move it to the area of town I want to live in I totally would. If you can't deal with the accomidations here, I suggest you buy a house, because you are never going to be happy living in an apt complex.

Oh - also, the dog poo, at least in my building (by dillards), it seemed to be an issue related to one very lazy, white trash resident who would let his dog in out unattended and unleashed to do his business and then never come out to pick up after him. He was only here for about 4 or 5 months, and ever since he left there have been no poo issues again. As a dog owner who hates dogging poo piles when I take my pup out, this makes me very excited.