Review for The Block Apartments

1. Safety - My laptop, my roommate's credit card, my boyfriend's bike, AND my roommate's boyfriend's bike have been stolen here at the block. When complaints about broken doors that allow ANYONE to enter the apartment complex are filed, super patronizing e-mails are the only response you'll get.

2. Parking - "Tandem Parking" is terrible, extremely inconvenient, and also tight. My roommate scratched the side of her car against the large pole that is right next to our assigned space. Also, the garage door is randomly broken, meaning you cannot take your car anywhere because the garage door is stuck shut.

3. The apartments look pretty good from the outside. The inside of the apartment is painted well and has nice a good appearance, although several maintenance issues that the building had from day 1 have still not been fixed (March). For example, a tile is missing in the bathroom and a spot on the wall is unpainted, etc.

4. Office staff is SO superficial. Once again, e-mail responses make you feel like you are in third grade, with ridiculous and unhelpful explanations that are simply written in a polite fashion. When I e-mailed the block after they took away the promised media center and turned it into a leasing office, they responded that "Growing and changing is uncomfortable for everyone involved, and I wish I knew a date when things would be back to 'normal.' (whatever that means) :-)" So that is just an example of how stupid you feel for even trying to get good service from management.

5. There are two leaks that have yet to be attended to. Yes, sometimes they leak on my bed and pillows. I called maintenance once and they told me they would send someone out. Later, I called again and they said that someone had already fixed the problem (no one had ever come to my apartment). Finally when someone came, he went upstairs to check out the situation in the floor above me, but returned to say that their door was locked and he "could get the master key, but they are having a party, so they will probably lock the top lock and not allow me to get in." So I just had to sleep in my bed with water dripping into it. Just one example of the many maintenance issues that are unresolved in just one apartment.

6. Condition of the unit was good. I would have left a higher score on this one if initial issues with the condition of the unit were taken care of promptly. However, no one ever came by to address the several problems that we listed on our check-in page (which is still hanging on our fridge, waiting for someone to check it). I will be very upset if they try to charge me for these problems.

7. Noise level is HORRIBLY LOUD on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. It doesn't matter if your room faces the interior hallway or the street, because you can hear drunk people yelling either way. A drunk girl banged on our door loudly about 50 times at 3 in the morning before I woke up and told her she had the wrong apartment number. Plus, I will write about other issues associated with drunk residents: vomit and trash. If someone throws up (and trust me, they will) in the hallway or in the stairwell, it can take a full month before anyone cleans it up. Hallways are usually mopped every week, but I found that they janitors love to mop around the throw up and just leave it alone to eliminate any possibility of fresh air that I once had. Also, drunk people love to throw pizza around in the hallway (this really happened) or leave empty beer bottles/cans EVERYWHERE. Sometimes they also leave their full trashbags outside YOUR door (instead of taking it just down the hall) because they are that lazy. Anyway, its terrible.

8. Dryer takes about three cycles to actually dry clothes. Water is never hot in sinks and only stays warm in the shower for about 10 minutes IF your roommates aren't using the water at the same time. Internet doesn't work at important times (registration, for some reason, both semesters) or at random times. Elevators break often, e-mail responses to this problem are especially frustrating. Media center is constantly being moved to different buildings in order to support corporate goals and growth. DO NOT LIVE HERE! There are lots of nice houses in Hyde Park. You could also just go with a smaller, privately-owned apartment complex.