a post request from 3rd Floor Rulez
I noticed that the JCI management recently posted the rules regarding guests and the pool area for the summer season. I commend them for trying to limit guests to 2 per resident, as well as getting after some of the smokers who tend to messy up the common areas. However, I am not pleased with the continuation of the “no alcohol” policy for the pool area. I think this is unnecessary and I propose a few, more livable options. The need to moderate alcohol consumption isn’t a bad idea, but to take it to forbidding alcohol near the pool is too much. This building is comprised of young, responsible adults for the most part, and having a beer by the pool is as American as apple pie. What is frustrating about the whole situation is one can look over the wall next door, to the Axiom, or across the street to 909, both JCI properties, and see no such policy in place. I suggest that the Jefferson--if an alcohol policy is indeed necessary--do one or all of the following:
- Ban all glass containers, alcohol or otherwise, from the pool area. If a resident can’t use a plastic cup for beer or wine, then they shouldn’t have it on the roof. This will also preclude residents from bringing hard alcohol to the roof.
- Ban hard alcohol from the roof area.
- Charge an alcohol fee. If a nominal fee of, $5/day could be charged for a cooler of beverages, JCI could then recoup any costs of putting a full-time staffer on the roof, and/or for clean-up. Many residents pay the annual amenities fees, but these may or may not cover the cost of maintaining the roof. This could be a decent compromise. A ticket system could be established at the front desk or by an employee posted on the roof. Simply, if you bring a cooler up to the roof, you pay $5 and are issued a ticket. Same thing could be done for towels. Need a towel, pay $2. This could raise more money for the building to keep up maintenance on the roof. This fee could also detract from excessive drinking, and showing the contents of ones cooler to a Jefferson staffer could also detract from hard alcohol.
I think these are reasonable and workable suggestions, and a good compromise that would be a win-win for tenants and management. Perhaps these ideas could be brought to the attention of management.
I agree with you on the alcohol policy but and I like you suggestions. I'm not a fan of the added fee since this is considered a luxury apartment building and you would think having the "luxury" of a beer by the BBQ is pretty standard, especially considering the buildings around us.
ReplyDeleteWhere I am also having a problem is that all the amenities are being rented out for profit to the building. I'm not sure how often you go to the club room on a weekend but it is pretty regularly rented out. Now, the preferred area of the roof, the lounge, will be rented out too. I know they did it a bit last year, but it seems like our amenities are shrinking to the benefit of the building's bottom line. That is frustrating.
JSM3 I agree - these rules make the building anything but luxury and more like a juvenile detention center. If I had known these "rules" when I visited the building I would have leased elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with charging a "tax" TJ - we get charged PLENTY. Where does the money go? There are no amenities around our building and no amenities available for us to enjoy in the building. This is a non-luxury, amenity-free building.
Even the "concierge" that we pay for is often times terrible. One woman - Stephanie I think - sits there with a scowl on her face, making her unapproachable and downright uninviting to me and my guests.
So if they're banning alcohol - I assume because of bad behavior - then why did they put all those cameras up? We're being watched AND restrained? This is so ridiculous.
Here's what I propose: This is not in my lease, so I'm not following the rule. I'm not breaking a law, nor am I injuring others in my beer drinking on the roof, so I'm not doing anything wrong and I won't stop doing it.
I think TJ does have a good point with no glass - I think no glass by the pool is a pretty standard rule everywhere. But I'm surprised that there isn't a guard up there. I've never lived in a building and not had a guard by the pool.
All in all this is just managements way of trying to put a bandaid on the problem instead of actually fixing it (get rid of the trouble makers and don't punish everyone else). Meeting with the tenants to LISTEN to them and set agreed upon, reasonable rules SHOULD be the way this building is managed. But its not, and we're all at the mercy of a couple inexperienced young women who have no idea what they're doing.
A while back there had been a post about a tenant meeting. Do these still happen? Now that spring and summer is coming around I'd like to join in on these discussions to figure out some solutions. If you could post the meeting times that would be great.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Anon - I wouldn't go so far as to call it a juvenile detention center but you can make your point your way.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the tax would be troubling since we already pay rent that is attributed with a "luxury" apartment building. Actually, I think the front office will listen if we come to them camlly and constructively. Where I doubt we'd make too much progress is asking them to enforce the rules they put us through the ringer for. They mention the courtyard noise but I've never noticed anyone out there enforcing the rules. They put the residents through the ringer about the parking passes, making quite a few threats for non-compliance. However, the staff are the worst offenders of parking illegally and there are still tons of cars that park down there that don't have stickers. Who is enforcing this? When I rented the movie room a while back, they were more than willing to take our money for the rental and deposit, but they were not willing to make sure that the people before me took care of the room. They made it very clear that it was not their job to hold the prior renters accountable for the condition they left it and we were out of luck if it wasn't working at the time I rented it.
These are the places that this building needs to step up, in my opinion. There is too much of a 'punish everyone' mentality rather taking the onus and enforcing the rules, even among the staff.
I also maintain the opinion that banning alcohol on the roof is too far and completely reactive as opposed to realistic. They need to work more to give the behaved residents a change to enjoy the building.
Ha! Management following through with something would be news to us all! I don't appreciate the threats that JSM3 mentioned. 1) Because they are extreme and ridiculous, and 2) Because I didn't sign up for this kind of treatment.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the reason for the ban anyway? I've never noticed anything that is deserving of a complete and total ban. And if something DID happen (would be news to me), then punish the rule-breakers, not the rule-followers!
Speaking of rule-following, the no alcohol rule is not one I'll follow. It just doesn't make sense. If one is behaving adn one is following the law, then there should be no problems. And if there are problems, like Anonymous said - use the cameras to identify the culprits!
Yeah, I have to agree with all of the posters. The "no alcohol" rule is ridiculous. It is because of a few bad apples. Management has to deal with the bad apples, not the vast majority of responsible tenants. I find it comical that instead of evicting problem tenants, they try to instate these unreasonable rules. Axiom and 909 have no such policies, and have the same type of tenants. I am just going to bring beer, in a can or plastic cup, my towel, and my lease and my ID. They can call the police if they think I don't have the right to have a few beers on the roof by the pool. Then they can go over my lease with my attorney and point out the part in the lease where a 32 year old, of legal drinking age, tenant can't have a drink on property he or she rents. America!
ReplyDeleteThe no alchol policy came into effect last summer after the usual bad tenants had two weekends with kegs on the roof. These tenants also tossed glass bottles across the roof on numerous occasions.
ReplyDeleteWhat's most troubling about it is that people had complained about those tenants at least a dozen times and management did nothing. I think there is a big difference between having a keg and having a drink at the end of the day.
Yeah I saw that long memo in the elevator (by the way, for those of us who take the stairs, this is a little annoying that we don't get flyers in the stairwell). I think they started this rule last summer, but truthfully, I doubt they'll do anything if you're behaving while drinking your bev. You could also conceal your beverage in a cup or something, but thats pretty lame to have to do. I mean if you're not disturbing anyone I find it hard to believe that management would actually come and take your beverage or ask you to leave or kick you out. It's likely that most of the drinkign goes on at night when management isn't here anyway, so this rule seems more like a strategy to deter bad behavior than actually address the problem causers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments. I over 21 and I see no reason why I should be treated like a child because of something someone else did before me. Management should patrol the rooftop area hourly and if they notice people acting unruly, then they need to address it with that person and not punish the entire building. As long as I pay my rent, work hard everday, and look at my ID which says I'm over 21, then I will continue to drink an "adult beverage" at my place of residence. The residence should come together and confront management about this. When is the next tenant meeting? I will be sure to be there!
ReplyDeleteWhen is the next meeting? I saw some fliers way back but haven't heard a thing in a while.
ReplyDeleteI set up the initial meetings through this blog and unfortunately they were taken in a direction apart from the blog. It seems to have been conjoined with the Axiom residents group, which is not a bad idea, nor a bad group, but it isn't our own group. The Axiom organizer Talib does a good job with their group, but ours seems to have falling away only one door down. It's my understanding only about a dozen people showed up for each meeting and the management was unwilling to meet with the group.
ReplyDeleteOf course management was unwilling to meet with the group. But this also proves that management is probably unwilling to actually enforce these rules because that would require follow-up, which we all know is something they don't know how to do. These empty threats from management are such a slap in the face. But at the same time - the operative word is empty - management can't and won't do anything if someone of age is drinking a glass of wine and behaving themselves. This is a scare tactic plain and simple. A lame and annoying one at that. The only this this memo did was further annoy and frustrate the vast majority of the tenants.
ReplyDeleteActually the local group kind of lost steam during the holidays, and it appeared that management had relaxed some of their policies. They also agreed to come to a meeting once we were able to convince them that it wasn't going to be an irrational yell-fest. There just hasn't been a meeting since. It sounds like folks are still experiencing issues (the alcohol policy is pretty dumb, but from what I read you can still drink on the roof, just not at the pool.
ReplyDeleteIf people are interested, I could put out an email to the original group and we could organize a meeting. They are supposed to allow us to post notices on the boards downstairs, but the first time it was attempted, management took them down. They've since agreed not to (while not owning up to removing them even though they were witnessed doing it, apparently), so if we organize another meeting it will most likely be advertised.
The next meeting is Monday April 25 at the Axiom building at 7pm.
ReplyDeletePeople at the Axiom and 909 share in your frustration of poor building management.
There were people drinking on the roof yesterday and this didn't seem to be a problem.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone from the three buildings allowed to attend this meeting mentioned above?
Did any of you see the roof on a Sunday morning after one of the legendary frat parties last summer? It was beyond unacceptable. I think the policy is just fine. If folks are going to act like fools, then these are the rules we will have to live with.
ReplyDeleteIt can't have been much better this morning. I was up there last night to grill around 7pm and shortly after I started the throngs began to appear. I won't make any generalizations about the age or occupations of the group in question, because there were at least two other groups that came up and behaved like adults. However, the main group (which had grown to about 30 people by the time I was done, and I'm sure didn't get any smaller) was popping champagne bottles and spraying beer all over the place. Not to mention there were glass bottles on the ledge that could put a hurting on an unsuspecting pedestrian. One gentleman who was just up there to chill out for a bit was rudely rebuffed when he tried to get them to calm down a bit.
ReplyDeleteThis is the reason management made the policy. Nice to see it working.
Management: there are video cameras up there, so your people at the front desk don't even need to get up off their asses to rectify this.
This, along with the generous increase in rent are the two main reasons we chose not to renew our lease today.
So where was building management to deal with the culprits who they are well aware of? Answer is pretty easy...nowhere like they always are! JPI/Greystar's way of dealing with problems is treating all residents like crap!!!
ReplyDeleteWith all of the cameras they have watching us and their great visitor sign-in policy, it's absolutely frustrating to write a rent check every month to be treated like a criminal in my own building. Wish they would have told me about their great policies before moving in. Guess the same can be said about the coal plant that we live next too that I was told was a water treatment plant. The tapes from their cameras watching residents and some from putting a camera in the leasing office would make for a great reality show...
Last night at around 6pm, I grabbed a bottle of beer and went up to the roof to enjoy a legal alcoholic beverage and call some friends living in Denver. I noticed that the cover was off the pool and it looked like they were starting to clean it and get it ready for Memorial Day. I was stopped by a young woman who mentioned she works for JPI Management, and I was told to leave the premisis because I had...drumroll...a beer in hand. "There is a no alcohol policy on the roof, you have to leave". Please show me in my lease where I agreed to this. Outrageous. And I mentioned to her how displeased I was, and I would write an email to Melonie, and she simply stated, "Who is Melonie?" Give me a break, what is going on here?
ReplyDelete3rd Floor Rulez, that's so ridiculous, I can't believe anyone said anything to you. Aside from your report, however, it seems like this policy has no teeth. Anyone who went to the roof on any day or night over Memorial Day Weekend can attest to that. Management will penalize someone having a beer, alone, while talking on the phone, but not multiple groups of people drinking 'in violation' of this supposed policy for three days straight? A rule enforced in this manner does not deserve to be followed...
ReplyDelete