Overall, the building is nice. It stays relatively cool in the summer and is located along ample bus routes. Most of the tenants are...
Overall, the building is nice. It stays relatively cool in the summer and is located along ample bus routes. Most of the tenants are old and kept to themselves. Also, Squirrel Hill is a very safe and nice neighborhood.
However, there was a lot of traffic noise, and it is much cheaper to live a few blocks away in Greenfield or even in Squirrel Hill if not on Murray Avenue. It is an old building, so there are no thermostats, and you will be subject to regulating the temperature of your apartment through turning off the heater (if it is on) and opening the window.
The aforementioned complaints are trivial in comparison to how stupid and creepy the management and employees of the place are though. Certainly, Rochelle (if she still runs the joint when you read this) will try to charm you when you are looking at apartments, but I found this woman to be quite a nuisance. Sometimes she would leave notice before showing my apartment, but generally she would show up unannounced or at a different time than the ones she listed. One time, she showed up unannounced with a team of men to measure my apartment. Even they seemed disturbed that they were barging in on me, but it was obviously of no consequence to her. She always hassled me to make appointments to use the freight elevator to move furniture, yet the staff would be completely unprepared whenever I showed up at our designated time if they were not oblivious to the appointment altogether. Rochelle is additionally incompetent in that she cannot read notes. This baffles me, as it is standard to formalize things in writing when dealing with matters concerning a lease, but if you move there and ever write her a note about something, then don't expect her to read it; rather, wait for her to bring it back to you and demand that you circle and underline the pertinent parts because she obviously finds reading to be challenging.
Moreover, the janitor, Scott, tried to get me to give him and the other janitor marijuana (please note that I am not a drug dealer or anything of that sort) for having to take out more trash than usual during a week in which many tenants were moving out as though I had caused the problem to begin with. Scott also struck me as a pervert, as he would sometimes attempt to make sexual jokes regarding my girlfriend with me when she was not in my presence. On multiple occasions, my girlfriend also complained about Scott's sexual angst, as she claimed that he would never let her pass without attempting to engage in small talk which would usually result in him touching her or following her to our apartment like a lost puppy. This type of behavior is unsettling when it comes from a dirty old man; although I think he is harmless, I can see how this would annoy or unsettle younger women.
Further, a neighbor of mine at some point either died or experienced some type of medical problems. I don't know for sure what happened in this case other than that there was an extremely vile smell permeating the entire floor that I lived on for about a week, and nobody discovered what it was until they wheeled my neighbor out. I only saw the ambulance and heard the commotion outside, so I don't know if she died and started to decompose or just defecated all over herself until somebody discovered her. Regardless of what happened, I was unable to enter the floor I lived on and make it into my apartment for a good while without holding my breath lest I wished to vomit.
If you are not young, as I am, then you may have better dealings with the staff, but I am under the impression that they thought my age gave them the license to be tactless. I would not conduct my personal relations with others in such a way, yet they are trying to run a business. I always paid my rent on time and abode by the terms of the lease anywhere I have lived and have never experienced similar treatment from previous landlords.