Capitol Hill Apartments

Having lived at this apartment building for the past 5 years says a lot. 1) I'm too lazy to move out and 2) I'm too lazy to move out. Capitol Hill although in the proximity of the Creighton owned properties is independent from Creighton. So, there's a majority of students living at the apartment building. There's only one type of room you can get, a studio. Past the 6th floor, I think you get charged a bit extra, for the "view," which is a freeway or central high school's football field.

Let's start with the positives; if you go to Creighton, it's about a 2-minute commute by foot and the staff is generally pretty nice. Now that we've got that short laundry list out of the way, sit back and relax while I move on to the negatives of living at Capitol Hill.

1) Every week, something new is being fixed (for the last 5 years!). You may think I'm exaggerating, but seriously, if it's not the plumbing, it's electrical, it's one of the slow elevators, its something being painted, it's a room being re-carpeted, the heater, etc etc.. They seem to always find an excuse to always turn off the water at least once a month, more frequently during the summer when they think most people aren't in their apartments.

2) I've lost count of how many quarters the laundry machines have stolen from me. 4 Washers, 4 dryers for the whole building, just avoid doing laundry on busy nights.

3) The kitchenettes are poorly designed. Not only is mine pink, there's no ventilator above the stove, so everyone will know what you cooked 3 days ago from the lingering stench. Not to mention the fridge that can barely fit a pizza box inside of it. The freezer box is just big enough to put my iPhone into.

4) The "Workout room" consists of a bicycle and 3 thread mills that have been broken for the last 3 years. The common area is right next to the laundry room, so forget studying down there, unless the unpleasant sound of a machine barely working helps you study.

5) Outlets in the room, they're only 2 prong. You'll most likely need to purchase 3-prong converters for most of your stuff. The outlets in the bathroom also don't work unless the bathroom light is turned on.

6) Inflation. Every year that I've lived here, the rent has gone up by ~ $20/month. I think I started with under 400/month, now am up to 600/month. I don't get it, nothing in my room changes? The staff doesn't do anything differently? A POS is a POS is a POS, no matter how much money you throw at it. I'm not an economics major or anything, but something is definitely not right here.

7) Security is practically non-existent. 2 cars in the covered basement garage (+$50/month) have gotten broken into (just a month ago). Not to mention storage units are provided by Capitol Hill free of charge, located in the basement, just bring your own lock. Yes, these were broken into as well. Was I affected? Yes, $2500 worth of wheels and tires, gone. What did Capitol Hill do? Nothing. I called the police, filed a report and they contributed by letting the officer in the door and giving him an obscure recording of the perp in question that is too blurry to make out and could be a "white or black male between the ages of 20 and 60". Great security cameras huh?

8) So the spark that ignited me to write a review for Capitol Hill? The Capitol Hill "abatement process." There's asbestos in the building, that Capitol Hill is only trying to get rid of now. So, they're renovating each floor for a month or so at the time, moving everyone on that floor to a different floor temporarily. Oh yeah, they only give you 1 month notice that they're moving you out of your room temporarily too. Being a graduate student in my last year, these last months are absolutely crucial for me. I've explained to them that I can't be moving in and out of my room, wasting what little time I have. Besides I've lived with asbestos for this long, what are a few more months, right?

Thank god, I know a few great lawyers (Liz T.) who had to pretty much go over their own contract with them. The moral of the story, don't move into Capitol Hill. You'll be so much happier you didn't. Trust me, rent is not cheap, rooms are not of good value, and I've explained how they treat long-term tenants.

Is it possible to give it negative stars?