On city living.
I had an altercation with the man in the crawl space a few weeks ago, I went into the crawl space because they were making noise in it in the middle of the night so I went to go ask if they could quiet down. Immediately I saw that there were two men who smelled of beer that were sitting at a table. and a radio was playing loud music. One of the men came to the door, blocking it and said angrily "you cant be in here".
"I--just wanted to know if you could quiet it down, Im trying to sleep--"
"You cant be here"
"I cant?"
"No you cant be here."
"This is a shared crawl space"
"NO, YOU CANT BE HERE"
"thats funny, when your landlord was showing me the place he said it was shared"
"ITS NOT"
"do you live here?"
"YES I LIVE HERE. GET. OUT."
at this point, the man was starting to inch into my apartment. He was not very tall, but he was drunk and larger than me. feeling threatened, I wasn't sure how long I could pretend not to be afraid of him.
"Fine. But I will be calling the landlord in the morning"
Sure enough, I called Julio and he didn't answer. After that run-in he has not been returning my calls at all.
Oh and last week, they were using powertools in there. I would ask them to quiet down but I'm afraid of that man ( who i think is Julio's brother…Manuel?). I hear him yelling at his 2 year old all the time.-- who is also in there frequently screaming. They just let her roam the building screaming-- and not the exuberant cry of an excited child, but the scream of a crying child thats been left unattended. Did I mention they let her play in garbage? I worry for that child's safety. Bad neighbors AND bad parents. Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but I don't want to have to deal with a man who threatens college girls and yells at two year olds. I was to avoid violence and more shouting. He makes me feel unsafe in my own home.
We have resorted to calling Adam, the guy who works for Sassouni management, but he is not much more helpful. at the very least, he speaks english, and I don't feel like a racist asshole for hating him too. He gets things done, but not consistently or in a timely manner.
We called for a stepladder or for someone to tell us how to change the bowl light fixtures nearly a month ago. No one got back to us. We figured it out ourselves, but neither of us appreciated the fact that we were left on our own. AGAIN.
Noragh's ceiling was leaking for nearly two weeks before they sent someone to fix it. There were paint bubbles and part of the ceiling had to be cut out. Now there's just a board up there covering a hole. Its unsightly and unsanitary. not to mention dangerous. What would have happened if the ceiling caved in and crushed her while she was showering?
Nothing probably. Nothing ever happens. Those assholes would probably just leave her there and then ask where the rent was.
Now, as for the vermin.
We had only one mouse about a month ago and we've not seen another one. The trouble is the roaches. Ive been seeing them throughout the basement level and I think they might be coming in from the basement crawl space or there must be a crack somewhere. two weeks ago, I went to go reset the router and 4 small roaches * swarmed down my arm and underneath the bookcase.
*indicative of a nest
Yesterday afternoon, there was a small roach skittering across my desk. I killed it with a shoe.
Last night was the far worst roach experience yet. I woke up with a full size roach trying to crawl into my ear-- or eat the wax from it or something. It was disgusting and absolutely traumatizing. It was about the length of my thumb.
How are they getting in here? All three roommates are very clean, yet somehow we still have a roach problem. Are we doing something wrong? Is it the garbage in the crawl space? are they in the walls? The exterminator once told me that the woman upstairs didn't take out her garbage. That could be it. What can we do?
My frustration lies both in this roach problem but also in the fact that we are seemingly left to our own devices. I feel like we are being discounted because we are students and female. I don't like feeling threatened by drunken strangers in my own home. I don't like vermin living in my home. I don't like being ignored.
I cannot wait for my lease to expire so I can get out of this godforsaken hole.
"I--just wanted to know if you could quiet it down, Im trying to sleep--"
"You cant be here"
"I cant?"
"No you cant be here."
"This is a shared crawl space"
"NO, YOU CANT BE HERE"
"thats funny, when your landlord was showing me the place he said it was shared"
"ITS NOT"
"do you live here?"
"YES I LIVE HERE. GET. OUT."
at this point, the man was starting to inch into my apartment. He was not very tall, but he was drunk and larger than me. feeling threatened, I wasn't sure how long I could pretend not to be afraid of him.
"Fine. But I will be calling the landlord in the morning"
Sure enough, I called Julio and he didn't answer. After that run-in he has not been returning my calls at all.
Oh and last week, they were using powertools in there. I would ask them to quiet down but I'm afraid of that man ( who i think is Julio's brother…Manuel?). I hear him yelling at his 2 year old all the time.-- who is also in there frequently screaming. They just let her roam the building screaming-- and not the exuberant cry of an excited child, but the scream of a crying child thats been left unattended. Did I mention they let her play in garbage? I worry for that child's safety. Bad neighbors AND bad parents. Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but I don't want to have to deal with a man who threatens college girls and yells at two year olds. I was to avoid violence and more shouting. He makes me feel unsafe in my own home.
We have resorted to calling Adam, the guy who works for Sassouni management, but he is not much more helpful. at the very least, he speaks english, and I don't feel like a racist asshole for hating him too. He gets things done, but not consistently or in a timely manner.
We called for a stepladder or for someone to tell us how to change the bowl light fixtures nearly a month ago. No one got back to us. We figured it out ourselves, but neither of us appreciated the fact that we were left on our own. AGAIN.
Noragh's ceiling was leaking for nearly two weeks before they sent someone to fix it. There were paint bubbles and part of the ceiling had to be cut out. Now there's just a board up there covering a hole. Its unsightly and unsanitary. not to mention dangerous. What would have happened if the ceiling caved in and crushed her while she was showering?
Nothing probably. Nothing ever happens. Those assholes would probably just leave her there and then ask where the rent was.
Now, as for the vermin.
We had only one mouse about a month ago and we've not seen another one. The trouble is the roaches. Ive been seeing them throughout the basement level and I think they might be coming in from the basement crawl space or there must be a crack somewhere. two weeks ago, I went to go reset the router and 4 small roaches * swarmed down my arm and underneath the bookcase.
*indicative of a nest
Yesterday afternoon, there was a small roach skittering across my desk. I killed it with a shoe.
Last night was the far worst roach experience yet. I woke up with a full size roach trying to crawl into my ear-- or eat the wax from it or something. It was disgusting and absolutely traumatizing. It was about the length of my thumb.
How are they getting in here? All three roommates are very clean, yet somehow we still have a roach problem. Are we doing something wrong? Is it the garbage in the crawl space? are they in the walls? The exterminator once told me that the woman upstairs didn't take out her garbage. That could be it. What can we do?
My frustration lies both in this roach problem but also in the fact that we are seemingly left to our own devices. I feel like we are being discounted because we are students and female. I don't like feeling threatened by drunken strangers in my own home. I don't like vermin living in my home. I don't like being ignored.
I cannot wait for my lease to expire so I can get out of this godforsaken hole.