I saw a girl putting little flyers at tenants doors today that listed this blog. I then saw the building service man take them off a row of doors on the 12th floor. I took a picture. I'll bring it tomorrow at the tenant meeting.
Anony 9:58 Please send the photo to me. I'll post it. There are those who think this blog is paranoid. I've been dealing with things like this since this blogs inception.
Can I get a volunteer on each floor to help spread the word of future meetings and the like in future? Perhaps we can nip this flier filching in the bud.
i've been living here for almost 1 yr and this is the first ive ever heard about a blog. I LOVE IT! i've become very frustrated living here to the point that i dont think i'll renew my lease. i moved in because of the beautiful building/apts/views, large dog accomidations, amenities, and the young/multi-cultural vibe. little did i know what attracted me here would be the same things making me want to leave. 1)the building/apt is beautiful and i love the views, but the walls are ridiculously thin. i know that you have to take one on the chin when living in an apartment, but D*MN...i can hear my neighbor sneeze! its nice to go to the roof (when there isnt a frat initiation or family reunion) to enjoy a beautiful sunset while throwing back a cold beer with your significant other.....oh wait you cant drink on the roof anymore. :-( 2) when i finally got ready to bring my dog i was told that i could not because of the new 40 lb weight limit....despite the fact ive seen small horses and PIT BULLS being walked in and out. i understand that earlier residents were grandfathered in BUT since my lease was within the old rules, should i be grandfathered as well? PS - stop calling your pit a staffordshire...ITS A PIT!!! 3) no courtyard after 10 pm, JCY Highschool, no rooftop action after 12, blah, blah, blah.... if your apartment faces the courtyard (as mine does) it can get noisey. the majority of the time its people on their balcony/apt, the roof or from the pub parties. moving people to the front of the building has not completely eliminated the noise from the courtyard but it has increased the continued nastiness that seems to plague the hallways and elevators. scattered french fries, cig butts, beers cans, ect. funny thing is, im a smoker and have a problem with it. since when was it cool to stink up an entire floor with weed? hey you....its embarrasing to have family over and the first thing we smell from the elevator is weed. 3b)i understand and agree with the security/saftey issue a lot of people have in the building....but you live in the CITY! i hate having to walk downstairs to pick up my guest(s) like this is highschool, especially when people can easily get in through the garage and the key checking thing seems to be sometimesy. 3c)the younger vibe has turned out to be nothing but a nightmare. they seem to be directly related to many of the changes that have occured.
At the end of the day, we all pay the equivalent of a mortgage to live in these luxury apartments. rent prices in DC at this point are just down right STUPID no matter where you go! when you charge people a lot, one has every right to expect a lot in return. i personally, being gen y, am over the tomfoolery. when i have addressed my issues/concerns with management, they made it seem like it was done as a result of a number of bad incidents, that it was a necessary evil taking place as the building continued to become more occupied OR that i was the only one with the issue. they did state that if others didnt like some of the policies, they would be willing to change it. i didnt want to turn this into a b*tch session, but i am glad to see that im not the only one going through similiar issues. i never received my lease (and still havent) and have had issues with lost checks/payments and the fluxuating water/electricity usage. it sucks that in trying to weed out a few bad apples, the super loyal AWESOME neighbors ive grown to love being/live around are the ones leaving. everyone here is extremely friendly, polite and enjoy life.
* TO MNGT: make no mistake, i have found you to be to be very plesant to deal with. but to co-exist with each other we have to have dialogue! before you change a policy or create a new rule, can you please poll us or have a building meeting to address issues?? I know you send out letters to notify us, but some of us travel and work crazy hours and cannot always make it into the office during business house.
This should be an interesting meeting. We asked for a place we could post Tenant Association notices, and were told to post on the little bulletin boards. However, those were taken down by "tenants". If they were taken down by tenants (doubtful) it's a perfectly reasonable request to have a sign posted at the concierge desk where it can be monitored. Given that Rivers presented this option to management and wouldn't say via email what managements response to this was, I'm guessing it didn't go over well. This makes absolutely no sense to me without an explanation, which I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
As someone who lives in a courtyard-facing unit on the bottom level, the 10pm curfew is much appreciated. It may seem trivial on higher floors but when 8-10 people are sitting 10 feet from your window drinking (which leads to raised voices) and smoking it becomes near impossible to open your window and/or even fall asleep. I say this as someone who likes to have a good time; I just know to act like an adult and I realize that I live in a building with 1,000 other people so acting like I'm the only around isn't going to help.
Ugh. Don't get me started on smoking. Our neighbors might as well be smoking in our apartment. I don't care that people smoke, but what I do care about is their smoke getting into my apartment and me having to breathe it, which shouldn't happen. And yes, we've had a "smoke sweep" installed since we moved in.
I daresay that it seems sort of hypocritical to be upset about the random delivery ninjas putting flyers in your door, but not for flyers advertising the tenant meeting.
Also, while one would suspect management removing the flyers from the very small bulletin boards in the mail room, I've seen tenants taking down other flyers to put up their own, FWIW.
Also, to Anon. 1:08, if you've lived here for the past year, you're well aware of the shenanigans that put these rules into place. Additionally, our rent is pretty comparable to similar apartments in the city and within a block of Metro.
And regarding your utility issues: 1) Electricity is billed through Pepco directly to you, not the building. 2) Water bill is dependent on how much water you use, I don't see how that's a management issue. If your bill is high, take shorter showers or turn off the water when you brush your teeth.
And generally speaking, it seems that most of the folks who post here aren't a part of the problems that have caused these rules and regulations to be in place. It's unfortunate, but if we collectively make an effort to get to know our neighbors and engage one another, then I think you'll have fewer issues. With a sense of community and thus, community policing, there are historically fewer problems.
We've asked management four times for a water bill and never got a response. Our electricity bill is high, but thats because these aren't energy efficient units - VERY drafty letting both hot and cold air in. Additionally, most of the "2nd bedrooms" don't have a window, leading people to need to use lights more.
WoW! I was just notified of this blog and am SHOCKED at what I'm reading here about management. While I do not live here (my boyfriend does), he has had his fair share of issues with the management here. I work for the Washington Post and will be poking around to draft a story to report this. This is ridiculous how this company has neglected its tenants like this. They've done spun everyone and everything up, unnecessarily I might add.
Dear WaPo Reports: If your editor thinks that a story about a group of upper-middle class tenants in a gentrified area who have their panties in a wad about some very minor issues is worthy glossing the pages of the Post, then I'll cancel my subscription. There are far more important issues that the fish wrap needs to report on. more importantly, I'm fairly certain that there are probably slums in other parts of town where the tenants have bigger issues.
Thanks, T. Ricky
PS: Since it's the culture here to shoot first and ask questions later, I'm going to assume that you've got no formal journalism training because your sentence structure is horrid. Therefore, I'll assume you don't work for the newspaper and your comment is simply a salvo towards management and you're just trying to poke the hornets nest and get a response from the front office, which isn't going to happen.
Got home and found out about this. I'll be checking this blog out and will try to make the meeting tomorrow. Would like to see some changes in the building and have had problems with the leasing office as well.
Are we supposed to bring anything like our lease or emails to the meeting tomorrow? Also, are these regularly scheduled meetings? This is the first I've heard of it.
We'd like to schedule them regularly, but some around here ARE trying to make spreading the word difficult. This blog is the only place I know of that can't be pulled down off the wall. Others are pitching in with their own methods too.
Please tell your neighbors and do attend. Strength in numbers you know.
Oh! and BTW, bring whatever you choose. I like Chocolate chip cookies.
Oh come on people a meeting isn't going to fix the problem! Those unqualified dingbats in the leasing office are the most pathetic group of women I've ever met.
I've been here a year, and while I heard others had received the same discount on their lease renewal as they received when they originally signed up, I did not (probably because I'm a girl and those nasty women downstairs don't seem to play nice with other females), so I'll be departing shortly, thank god. But in a year, I got ZERO support for any issues I had. Do you really think emailing Greystar superiors or having a tenant meeting will solve these problems? Doubtful.
Until the staff is cleared out, the problems will remain. So good luck folks, trying to communicate with a company that down right ignores you is going to be a challenge.
To answer your question: yes, I do think that if enough people email Greystar leadership then something will change. The people in the leasing office may not care about Greystar's reputation, but I bet they do at HQ.
First off...kudos to whomever started this blog. Glad I found the card under my door when I came home from work. I have a lot of friends that live next door at Axiom, and some dude sets up shop in the lobby and collects email addresses, and has had a pretty active tenant association for some time now and they get things done, so this is a step in the right direction. My roommate and I are going to both come by after work. We have lived here for just over 15 months, and have quite a few gripes, but hope not to make it a bitch session. Whoever runs this blog may want to put together some kind of agenda. A topic we would like to bring up is the fact that alcohol has been banned from the roof. I pretty much quit going to the pool because of it, and have been spending my time at Axiom (who is under the same management, yet ALLOWS alcohol) or at the Onyx. Obviously, the frat party can't continue, but as a 32 year old male, I think I can make my own decisions as to have the ability to drink on my own property. I am sure we will have other issues but a step in the right direction indeed.
Also...can we ask management to quit referring to the chair weights that sit at the front desk as "concierges"? Using that title would assume friendliness, usefulness, and an ability to provide services such as calling a cab or giving you the name of a restaurant in the neighborhood. Other than sucking at remembering names and faces, they seem to only be good at harrassing tenants or strapping a McDonald's feedbag around their faces. Just food for thought...
Will management attend? Did Melanie agree to 1) not tearing down our tenant group flyers as she did last time, 2) posting a flyer at the front desk?
ReplyDeleteI saw a girl putting little flyers at tenants doors today that listed this blog. I then saw the building service man take them off a row of doors on the 12th floor. I took a picture. I'll bring it tomorrow at the tenant meeting.
ReplyDeleteThe Greystar Regional phone number is 813-887-4200
ReplyDeleteThe DC Tenant Advocacy phone number is (202) 719-6560
Anony 9:58
ReplyDeletePlease send the photo to me. I'll post it.
There are those who think this blog is paranoid. I've been dealing with things like this since this blogs inception.
Can I get a volunteer on each floor to help spread the word of future meetings and the like in future?
ReplyDeletePerhaps we can nip this flier filching in the bud.
i've been living here for almost 1 yr and this is the first ive ever heard about a blog. I LOVE IT! i've become very frustrated living here to the point that i dont think i'll renew my lease. i moved in because of the beautiful building/apts/views, large dog accomidations, amenities, and the young/multi-cultural vibe. little did i know what attracted me here would be the same things making me want to leave.
ReplyDelete1)the building/apt is beautiful and i love the views, but the walls are ridiculously thin. i know that you have to take one on the chin when living in an apartment, but D*MN...i can hear my neighbor sneeze! its nice to go to the roof (when there isnt a frat initiation or family reunion) to enjoy a beautiful sunset while throwing back a cold beer with your significant other.....oh wait you cant drink on the roof anymore. :-(
2) when i finally got ready to bring my dog i was told that i could not because of the new 40 lb weight limit....despite the fact ive seen small horses and PIT BULLS being walked in and out. i understand that earlier residents were grandfathered in BUT since my lease was within the old rules, should i be grandfathered as well? PS - stop calling your pit a staffordshire...ITS A PIT!!!
3) no courtyard after 10 pm, JCY Highschool, no rooftop action after 12, blah, blah, blah....
if your apartment faces the courtyard (as mine does) it can get noisey. the majority of the time its people on their balcony/apt, the roof or from the pub parties. moving people to the front of the building has not completely eliminated the noise from the courtyard but it has increased the continued nastiness that seems to plague the hallways and elevators. scattered french fries, cig butts, beers cans, ect. funny thing is, im a smoker and have a problem with it. since when was it cool to stink up an entire floor with weed? hey you....its embarrasing to have family over and the first thing we smell from the elevator is weed.
3b)i understand and agree with the security/saftey issue a lot of people have in the building....but you live in the CITY! i hate having to walk downstairs to pick up my guest(s) like this is highschool, especially when people can easily get in through the garage and the key checking thing seems to be sometimesy.
3c)the younger vibe has turned out to be nothing but a nightmare. they seem to be directly related to many of the changes that have occured.
At the end of the day, we all pay the equivalent of a mortgage to live in these luxury apartments. rent prices in DC at this point are just down right STUPID no matter where you go! when you charge people a lot, one has every right to expect a lot in return. i personally, being gen y, am over the tomfoolery. when i have addressed my issues/concerns with management, they made it seem like it was done as a result of a number of bad incidents, that it was a necessary evil taking place as the building continued to become more occupied OR that i was the only one with the issue. they did state that if others didnt like some of the policies, they would be willing to change it.
i didnt want to turn this into a b*tch session, but i am glad to see that im not the only one going through similiar issues. i never received my lease (and still havent) and have had issues with lost checks/payments and the fluxuating water/electricity usage.
it sucks that in trying to weed out a few bad apples, the super loyal AWESOME neighbors ive grown to love being/live around are the ones leaving. everyone here is extremely friendly, polite and enjoy life.
* TO MNGT: make no mistake, i have found you to be to be very plesant to deal with. but to co-exist with each other we have to have dialogue! before you change a policy or create a new rule, can you please poll us or have a building meeting to address issues?? I know you send out letters to notify us, but some of us travel and work crazy hours and cannot always make it into the office during business house.
This should be an interesting meeting. We asked for a place we could post Tenant Association notices, and were told to post on the little bulletin boards. However, those were taken down by "tenants". If they were taken down by tenants (doubtful) it's a perfectly reasonable request to have a sign posted at the concierge desk where it can be monitored. Given that Rivers presented this option to management and wouldn't say via email what managements response to this was, I'm guessing it didn't go over well. This makes absolutely no sense to me without an explanation, which I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWell said Anony 1:08.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog. It's nice to have you.
As someone who lives in a courtyard-facing unit on the bottom level, the 10pm curfew is much appreciated. It may seem trivial on higher floors but when 8-10 people are sitting 10 feet from your window drinking (which leads to raised voices) and smoking it becomes near impossible to open your window and/or even fall asleep. I say this as someone who likes to have a good time; I just know to act like an adult and I realize that I live in a building with 1,000 other people so acting like I'm the only around isn't going to help.
ReplyDeleteUgh. Don't get me started on smoking. Our neighbors might as well be smoking in our apartment. I don't care that people smoke, but what I do care about is their smoke getting into my apartment and me having to breathe it, which shouldn't happen. And yes, we've had a "smoke sweep" installed since we moved in.
ReplyDeleteI daresay that it seems sort of hypocritical to be upset about the random delivery ninjas putting flyers in your door, but not for flyers advertising the tenant meeting.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while one would suspect management removing the flyers from the very small bulletin boards in the mail room, I've seen tenants taking down other flyers to put up their own, FWIW.
Also, to Anon. 1:08, if you've lived here for the past year, you're well aware of the shenanigans that put these rules into place. Additionally, our rent is pretty comparable to similar apartments in the city and within a block of Metro.
ReplyDeleteAnd regarding your utility issues:
1) Electricity is billed through Pepco directly to you, not the building.
2) Water bill is dependent on how much water you use, I don't see how that's a management issue. If your bill is high, take shorter showers or turn off the water when you brush your teeth.
And generally speaking, it seems that most of the folks who post here aren't a part of the problems that have caused these rules and regulations to be in place. It's unfortunate, but if we collectively make an effort to get to know our neighbors and engage one another, then I think you'll have fewer issues. With a sense of community and thus, community policing, there are historically fewer problems.
Good points Tricky!
ReplyDeleteWe've asked management four times for a water bill and never got a response. Our electricity bill is high, but thats because these aren't energy efficient units - VERY drafty letting both hot and cold air in. Additionally, most of the "2nd bedrooms" don't have a window, leading people to need to use lights more.
ReplyDeleteWoW! I was just notified of this blog and am SHOCKED at what I'm reading here about management. While I do not live here (my boyfriend does), he has had his fair share of issues with the management here. I work for the Washington Post and will be poking around to draft a story to report this. This is ridiculous how this company has neglected its tenants like this. They've done spun everyone and everything up, unnecessarily I might add.
ReplyDeleteDear WaPo Reports:
ReplyDeleteIf your editor thinks that a story about a group of upper-middle class tenants in a gentrified area who have their panties in a wad about some very minor issues is worthy glossing the pages of the Post, then I'll cancel my subscription. There are far more important issues that the fish wrap needs to report on. more importantly, I'm fairly certain that there are probably slums in other parts of town where the tenants have bigger issues.
Thanks,
T. Ricky
PS: Since it's the culture here to shoot first and ask questions later, I'm going to assume that you've got no formal journalism training because your sentence structure is horrid. Therefore, I'll assume you don't work for the newspaper and your comment is simply a salvo towards management and you're just trying to poke the hornets nest and get a response from the front office, which isn't going to happen.
PPS: I'm not negative, I'm just a realist.
Got home and found out about this. I'll be checking this blog out and will try to make the meeting tomorrow. Would like to see some changes in the building and have had problems with the leasing office as well.
ReplyDeleteNever said I was a journalist ;) Nor am I an editor. A contributor, though, and this is all very, very interesting.
ReplyDelete:) I agree WaPo, but what do I know?
ReplyDeleteTricky Ricky,
ReplyDeleteHave you watched the news lately? I dare say that a story about yuppies revolting against management would be a step up.
Are we supposed to bring anything like our lease or emails to the meeting tomorrow? Also, are these regularly scheduled meetings? This is the first I've heard of it.
ReplyDeleteYuppies? Do you consider yourself a Yuppie TR?
ReplyDeleteAnony 7:35
ReplyDeleteI think you should bring a torch. ;)
We'd like to schedule them regularly, but some around here ARE trying to make spreading the word difficult. This blog is the only place I know of that can't be pulled down off the wall. Others are pitching in with their own methods too.
Please tell your neighbors and do attend. Strength in numbers you know.
Oh! and BTW, bring whatever you choose. I like Chocolate chip cookies.
Oh come on people a meeting isn't going to fix the problem! Those unqualified dingbats in the leasing office are the most pathetic group of women I've ever met.
ReplyDeleteI've been here a year, and while I heard others had received the same discount on their lease renewal as they received when they originally signed up, I did not (probably because I'm a girl and those nasty women downstairs don't seem to play nice with other females), so I'll be departing shortly, thank god. But in a year, I got ZERO support for any issues I had. Do you really think emailing Greystar superiors or having a tenant meeting will solve these problems? Doubtful.
Until the staff is cleared out, the problems will remain. So good luck folks, trying to communicate with a company that down right ignores you is going to be a challenge.
Phew!!! Is there a cute emoticon for shaking ones head?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I missed it, but did anyone from management commit to coming to this meeting, or are they blowing it off again?
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question: yes, I do think that if enough people email Greystar leadership then something will change. The people in the leasing office may not care about Greystar's reputation, but I bet they do at HQ.
ReplyDeleteThey are blowing it off again.
ReplyDeleteFirst off...kudos to whomever started this blog. Glad I found the card under my door when I came home from work. I have a lot of friends that live next door at Axiom, and some dude sets up shop in the lobby and collects email addresses, and has had a pretty active tenant association for some time now and they get things done, so this is a step in the right direction. My roommate and I are going to both come by after work. We have lived here for just over 15 months, and have quite a few gripes, but hope not to make it a bitch session. Whoever runs this blog may want to put together some kind of agenda. A topic we would like to bring up is the fact that alcohol has been banned from the roof. I pretty much quit going to the pool because of it, and have been spending my time at Axiom (who is under the same management, yet ALLOWS alcohol) or at the Onyx. Obviously, the frat party can't continue, but as a 32 year old male, I think I can make my own decisions as to have the ability to drink on my own property. I am sure we will have other issues but a step in the right direction indeed.
ReplyDeleteAlso...can we ask management to quit referring to the chair weights that sit at the front desk as "concierges"? Using that title would assume friendliness, usefulness, and an ability to provide services such as calling a cab or giving you the name of a restaurant in the neighborhood. Other than sucking at remembering names and faces, they seem to only be good at harrassing tenants or strapping a McDonald's feedbag around their faces. Just food for thought...
ReplyDeleteLOL!!!! 3rdFloorMuckraker!!! LOL!!!
ReplyDeleteIf someone can't make this meeting, will there be a "meeting wrapup" posted for others to see or distributed to tenants?
ReplyDeleteAnony 9:32
ReplyDeleteI hope to be provided "wrap-up" info by the gentleman that moderates the meeting.