Well the more things change the more they stay the same. I moved into the building about two months ago. It's held out to be a premium complex but there is nothing about the complex that is premium other the rent. Just a few things for potential tenants to think about:
- There are three elevators. Generally you would think that in a 25 story building that this would be ample. It would be if they functioned together at any particular time. Generally, that's not the case. The moving in and out traffic at this building is amazing. Constant. And not just at the beginning or end of the month. So what you had over Christmas/New Years is one of the elevators was out of commission. There was a sign on the elevator saying that it would be repaired first January 2nd, then 4th then the 7th. We'll see. I'm not confident that it will be fixed on the 7th. As to why management sets a date just to repeatedly move it makes no sense to me. Wait times are very long and there are a lot of elderly people in the building. Much of the time only one elevator was practically speaking available. Management just thumbs their nose at the residents. No sense of urgency.
- Must love dogs-that should be the theme of the complex. There are a lot of dogs living here. As we know dogs have one steady unceasing product-it's call dog poop (politely). Well the City of Toronto has by-laws dealing with dog poop which the owners ignore and the property managers ignore. There are planters in front of the building and the owners let the dogs urinate on them. Not so bad in the winter but it should be pretty smelly in the summer. And with the snow the dog poop has bloomed. There is dog poop everywhere in the snow. There are no signs I can see reminding residents that there is a by-law requiring them to pick up their dog poop. So if you would like to take a stroll through the snow with your kids or dog, watch out. It seems that there is minimal enforcement of this by-law in any event. But the park across the street has way less dog poop then the complex grounds. The property management should be more proactive in dealing with this rather disgusting problem.
- The swimming pool, aah, the swimming pool. Well there is a pool, sort of. The City of Toronto closed the pool on December the 18th ostensibly because of the fact that proper painted lines were not to be seen in the pool. I guess these lines warn of depth and other important things that we need to know. In any event, the pool has been closed since that date with no announced opening date. So pool users are out of luck for who knows how long.
- One thing that you should be aware of is that the cleaning staff at the building are not employed by the property manager directly. They outsourced this function. That would explain why speaking to them and asking them to do something is rather pointless. There is no nexus between the residents and the cleaning staff. The halls in the building are vacuumed only on what seems to be an ad hoc basis. Unfortunately, the floor I am on does not have the tidiest residents, so the floors are dirty and seldom vacuumed.
Well here is my first go at the building. I hope others of you will find this blog and share your experiences.
