After years of insane rent hikes (the last one was...

After years of insane rent hikes (the last one was $600/month, "negotiated" down to a $500/month, i.e. $6000/year hike) and not wanting to deal with the devilish leasing manager Carlos anymore I've moved. Glad to be rid of the joint!

I lived in the Fillmore Center for six years. It's an ok place to live, but there are some strong downsides to renting here.

The downsides:
- The management company does the bare minimum to maintain the place.
- The leasing manager, Carlos, is horrible to deal with. He claims to have no say as to what you're paying and just tells you to move out if you don't like the prices (I eventually did). They should just replace him with a form letter for all the use he is. One of the worst parts of the Fillmore Center.
- The apartments are old (around 25 years old now) but the outside, leasing office, and show apartments are kept to look up-to-date. Check out your apartment before signing the lease or you might end up with a 90s special!
- Rent goes up every year. Expect a 10-20% increase (i.e. thousands of dollars per year); that is expect to pay an additional month of rent or more every year you live here without anything being improved in your apartment. "We don't do upgrades to occupied units". Over six years my rent went up by over 50%. If I stayed another year it would have been closer to 70%.
- Everything in the apartment is of the lowest possible quality: the outside is kept looking nice, but inside things remain old/deteriorating.
- Service varies from great to bad. One time your issue is dealt with right away with a smile, the next it takes a week to get something sorted out, you can't find anyone who knows about what's going on, and everyone you deal with wants nothing to do with you.
- These apartments are expensive for what you get.

I kept renewing my lease because the apartment works well for me in a few ways, i.e. "the upsides":
- The walls between units are mostly cement so you don't need to worry about neighbor noise (yours or theres) too much. One of my bedroom walls was not cement, bizarrely, though.
- It's near entertainment: there are music venues and a movie theatre nearby.
- There's a nearby grocery store.

The apartments are sort of marketed as if they're "higher end", but they're not any better than your average multi-decade old apartment complex. Even the "completely renovated" apartment I saw was just new counter tops on decades old, beat up cabinets.

Examples of issues I've had:
When I moved in there was a ton of stuff wrong with the place as it hadn't been updated in many years. I had to get various things replaced and they just plain wouldn't fix others. I found garbage in my sink from the previous tenants. The paint on the walls was already cracking the day I moved in. There were cuts and paint splotches in the carpet. The closet doors don't fit the space in the wall so they are bent & kinked. The paint is of such low quality that a wet cloth can wash it off the walls. I had fixtures rusted when I moved in and was promised a replacement that I never got. There was paint splatter on the mirror I had to remove myself. I needed to clean layers of dust out of places. The list goes on but you get the idea.