Hello, I have been a resident of Park La Brea in Los Angeles, CA for somewhere around 10 years. I live in a so-called garden apartment, which from what I have heard is much much better than living in one of the cell blocks, or towers as they are called. I can't speak directly to the towers, but lets just say you only need to spend a few minutes on the internet to read about the elevator outages, lack of parking, bug infestations, and noise of those glorified dormatories.
I am writing this blog partially as a way to blow off steam about my living situation, partially as a corrective to the false information about this complex, and partially to warn prospective tennants who most definitely will be sold a false bill of goods at the leasing office.
Why do I still live here? Well, the location is decent. And I have too much stuff to move easily. Due to my career I will need to relocate soon, so I plan to move out very shortly. But first I must try to warn potential residents of what they will face. It's the right thing to do.
Here is a log of my experiences at Park La Brea with only some details changed slightly to protect my identity. It is tough to find an apartment in LA, especially one that is affordable and centrally located. That is what makes Park La Brea such a damn tragedy. It is among the most poorly managed things I have ever seen, a close second to the US Post Office. Its employees are indolent, incompetent bozos, and its entire management bureaucracy is set up to get people to sign the lease, after which PLB will do anything to avoid helping the resident and evade even the simplest responsibility.
The residents are not much better. In the past, PLB was known as the home of the "newly wed or nearly dead" but this demographic is changing. Many of the residents are now recent immigrants who follow the community standards of whatever thirdworld slum they hail from, lazy parents with whole broods of brats which they encourage to scream as loud as possible right under your window, stupid mobile phone addicted Hollywood wannabees from the midwest in their first apartments, or worse. And the way the apartments are layed out, you'll hear every word of every scream. Basically, Park La Brea rents are high, but not high enough to keep out the riff raff. Now the only one getting their money's worth is that elderly rent control tenant too deaf to hear the little animals screaming outside her window. In all honesty, if you are looking for a place to house your huge screaming family or hide your Asian mistress, Park La Brea is ideal.
I will do this blog in the following format for ease of use; i will present a new reason not to live here every post. There are so many, I may need to combine them for efficiencies sake. Here goes:
Reason 1:
The management are liars and spread deceit at every chance in an effort to get you to sign a lease and then abandon you.
Sound heavy handed and unfair? How could everyone who works in management be a liar? Well, its hard to believe, but true; they've mastered the art of deceit here at PLB. The interesting thing is that there is high turnover at PLB, yet they manage to maintain the corporate culture of unaccountability and irresponsibility. Admittedly, this is a topic I will need to address in depth over many posts, but its important to say this at the onset. Why? Because the goal of this blog is to warn unsuspecting renters in the Los Angeles area away from living here.
The people that work at Park La Brea come in two types. Incompetents and bald-faced liars. Well this is a bit unfair to the Incompetents, since they also lie, but mostly because they are ignorant. Of course, much of the staff blends these two traits with a lack of accountabilty to make quite a package. Absolutely no one is accountable, especially not the so-called general manager, Chris Scgroggins.
Where to start, where to start.
How do they spread misinformation about what an apartment PLB offers? Well to start, say you were in Los Angeles, looking for an apartment. You could look at the apartment section, and know right away that something was up when you saw the phone number for Park La Brea listed under multiple localities without attribution. But of course, it goes far further than that.
Take a look at this advertising website: http://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/California/Los-Angeles/6669/PropertyOverview.aspx
Apartment
beds 1
baths 1
1/2 baths 0
sq footage 800 (probably not true since 700 is quoted elsewhere, but we'll give them a pass)
$1560-$2230
Per Month
deposit $500 (falsehood)
I am sitting here looking straight at my lease and I can tell you that the deposit on a $1500 or so Park La brea apartment is not $500, nor has it probably ever been. I signed my lease some 10 years ago and my deposit is twice the monthly rent; it is hard to imagine that as rents have gone up, the deposit required has sunk to an amazing low. What place charges less than a months rent in this day and age? These little casual lies deseminated no doubt by the leasing office are the type that should make prospective renters raise their eyebrows, but we all know what it is like to rent in a big city...you're desparate, and want to find a home. Park La Brea management's only skill is exploiting this desparation.
Let's read a little further. Here are the amenities they list, with the truth in parenthesis:
Apartment Features
Air Conditioning (nope, not all have it, and some older apartments, i.e. the ones that are actually 1500 or so, are so old they have air coolers from the 1950s, not real airconditioners)
Cable Ready (well cmon, what isnt cable ready? interestingly enough, PLB won't allow the cost effective dish companies to install unless they put a dish on your patio or front stoop as you can not install on the roof or on the building; this is unfair and unsightly. Expect to be stuck with ATT cable--much of this seems to refer to tower apartments but i've not seen a dish on a tower yet unless they all share one or something)
Ceiling Fan(s) (not always, and you have to pay for them if they are not already installed)
Dishwasher (true)
Oversized Closets (this is a joke. not worth commenting on the closets are so small)
Some Paid Utilities (gas. whoopie)
View (this depends on apartment, so very misleading)
Community Features
Business Center (never saw it, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt)
Covered Parking (for a price that was 50 in the early 2000s who knows what it is now)
Emergency Maintenance (nominal at best; they'll come after hours emergencies and tell you nothing can be done til the next day).
Extra Storage (again for a cost)
Fitness Center (as of now and the last 10 years, you must pay a huge fee just like any gym)
Garage (there is only parking for a fee)
Gated Access (access for everyone! the gate stops no one and it is simple to talk your way in)
High Speed Internet Access (this has nothing to do with PLB specifically)
Hot Tub ( i guess they have these in expensive apartments? or maybe they're talking about the one at the pay to enter pool?)
Laundry Facility (true and PLB sold this to a private company that immediately started raising the fees--there is little accountability here either)
Playground (ah yes, the playgrounds they build with your rent so that parents can continue to send their kids into the courtyards to scream at the top of their lungs)
Public Transportation (someone provides a shuttle for elderly, don't know if its PLB or not)
Swimming Pool (they won't necessarily tell you this, but YOU MUST JOIN THE HEALTH CLUB AND PAY THEIR FEES TO USE THIS POOL. This is one of several things the leasing agent lied about to me, so I remember it well.)
Whew. I'm exhausted. I will leave you with a few sites to go read for yourself about PLB. Notice as you look through them, that PLB administrators have time on their hands to post rebuttals pretending to be normal tenants. This is galling when you are a resident waiting 1 month for a routine service call only to find that they lost the ticket, or trying to find the mysterious General Manager Chris Scroggin, who actually hides from tennants with problems, pretending to be away from his desk "on site."
http://www.insiderpages.com/b/10921875094
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/CA-Los-Angeles-Park-La-Brea-Village-Apt-395034.html
Here is a typical PLB fake poster on the apartment opinion pages. I highlighted the particularly disingenuous parts for you. If you have any contact whatsoever with PLB workers, you know how very ignorant they are, which makes it almost cute when they try to pull a fast one like this shill, most likely an intern or new employee (having failed to get into the military) directed to respond by Scroggin himself:
"
i'm insulted
From: triley
Date posted: 12/27/2005
Years at this apartment: 1999 - 2005 7 responses
I just found this website the other day and read these reviews. Park Labrea has been my home for 5 years, and i love it. When i read some of this crap that people are writing it makes me angry that they are dissing the home that I love! Maybe they did have a bad experience, but we should all be able to express our opinions without being accused of working for management. Some of the points are valid like parking is definately hard, and service although fast takes a couple of trips to get the job done. On the whole though I love the area that I live in, which is one of the garden apartments, and have found that people are very friendly and helpful to me. My neighbors are awesome some of the nicest ones I have ever had and I moved from a home that I had lived in for 14 years! I def recommend Park labrea i have had no problems here at all! Don't let a couple of disgruntled people ruin it for you. As far as i can see there are alot more happy people here than not..me included! "
Now go read this uninformed puff piece which is interesting only because it features an actual quote from so-called General Manager Chris Scroggin. You mean, he exists? "Freshly hip" indeed. If "hip" is defined as dying geriatrics and noisy asian boatpeople, well I guess that's hip. Freshly hip. Try telling that to the ancient plumbing that during some seasons, breaks once every few weeks.
That's all for this week, time for me to go enjoy the mothers bringing their screaming broods home to scream in the "no can do" area under my window. In the coming weeks, i'll post pictures and everything in an attempt to become the internets one stop anti-Park La Brea webblog!
I invite all comments, whether you support me or not.
