Home Sweet Home

I live in a town of about 100,000. It's a smallish town in North Central Texas. A college town. An Air Force base town. You would think that it would have a variety of eating establishments and entertainment. If you did, you would be wrong. Comparing this town to others of its size, be it state-wide or nation-wide, it is sadly lacking. It's not a horrible place to live. I'm just sayin it could be better. It is better than my hometown, a town of about 10,000. But, it's not as good as other places. The housing here is iffy as well. I was not happy with the last apartment I lived in. Circa 1970s, hasn't been remodeled since, 6 kids in the apt. upstairs, meth-doin' neighbors, termites in the bathroom. You'd think it was in a really bad neighborhood or something. No, it was one of the better neighborhoods here. The outside was nicely taken care of. But, not so the inside. I heard about some brand spankin' new apartments being built so I immediately went and got on the list. I moved into this apartment complex last year, Halloween to be exact. I was hoping that since it was new they would be more choosy about who they let in. How they maintained the property. You know.... doing things the way they are supposed to be done? Wrong. This place is a year old and it is already ghetto. Oh, it's got the big fancy security gate. That never works. It's got the big, fancy office which reportedly has an exercise room and an internet room and a "gathering" room (to hold showers and such). I've yet to see them. The buildings are nice. Brick, good design. But the lawn is atrocious. Full of weeds, fire ants and scraps of trash. The patios and front porches of some of these places are a fire hazard. Now, there have been about 15 or so places clear out, be it their choosing or eviction. But, there are at least that many more that need to be. I cannot imagine why someone would want to move into a nice place and live like trash. I cannot imagine why the management puts up with it. (other than some of them are family, how great is that?) But, enough of the maintenance. First, let me tell you this. When they got the security gates funtioning, they sent around a notice that if you wanted a remote you had to pay $XX.XX and $X.XX a month. They also put up these "carports" (and I use the term loosely) in various parking areas along the fronts of the buildings. It is expected that if you want one of these parking spaces under the carport that you pay $XX.XX a month for that privilege. Well, I have parked in the same place since the day I have moved in, due to the arrangement of parking and the number of people that live in my building. It always worked out fine, we always had our own parking place, and it was sort of an unspoken agreement that we don't take each others place. After all, we were all close to our doors. Well, when they put up the said "carports", they took 4 of the 6 spaces in front of my building. One of them was "my" space. So, I ask you... should I have to pay to park in that space? Or should I have to park in another space and fight it out with the neighbors over the available spaces? Usually forcing either myself or them to park buildings away? I didn't think so. On reason being I am technically supposed to have a handicapped parking space, as are my immediate next door neighbors. That would take up the two parking spaces closest to the doors. Which are the ones we were parking in before the great "carport" fiasco. So, I go to the office and register my complaint. They can either shut up and let me have my parking space back, covered or no, or they can put in 2 handicapped spaces there. Well, we can't do that, how about you pay us $XX.XX instead of the $XX.XX we want. My response? What part of I am not paying to park in front of my own apartment do you not understand?!? Needless to say, they saw things my way. (Mentioning N. TX. Rental Association and lawyers help) There are many other issues I have with the management of this place, such as some of the hand-lettered posts on the bulletin board and some of the letters that they send about. If I were more ambitious and if I thought the people who lived here could be cohesive enough to back me I would start a tenants association. But, to tell you the truth.... I'm tired of the whole mess so I'll just deal with what immediately affects me and wait for my out.