Apartment Review for Fort Totten Station - Washington, DC

Much of the reviews that have been written on this site are true. I relocated to DC from a different city and had one day to find an apartment before I relocated permanently. I looked at three apartments that day and this one was by far the nicest. It was a brand new apartment (I was one of the first people to move into the apartment). I was so naive. I didn't know anything about DC and aside from the fact that this apartment was new and across the street from the metro, there really is nothing else good to say about it. (except maybe that parking is free) The electricity in the building has issues. I have lost my power on several occasions, when I first moved in the outlets in my kitchen did not work, and my oven has never full functioned (it takes literally one hour for my oven to pre-heat and I have never been able to get a pot of water to boil on my stove). The place does have rats (due mainly to garbage overflowing from the dumpsters in the parking lots of the buildings) and cockroaches. I am extremely clean and have never cohabitated with cockroaches and was mortified when I saw one (and then two and then three...) in my apartment. I even saw a bug fall out of the vent in my ceiling onto my living room floor--nothing says luxury living like an apartment that rains bugs! The brochure boast "contemporary lobby with residents' lounge," but the only building that has a lounge or much of a lobby is the main building. The other two buildings don't even have a chair for you to sit in in the lobbies. The building management staff are awful! They are not helpful, they are condescending when they speak to you, and just all together miserable to deal with. I have lived here for almost a year now and my phone number has never been programmed into telephone pad to buzz people in to the apartment. And as one other reviewer said, I too cringe whenever I need to go to speak with them. The apartments do not have full size washers and dryers. Although having any washer and dryer in your apartment is great, these w/d are very tiny and can only accomodate a few items of clothing at a time. Also, the dryer has a very loud buzzer that cannot be turned off. Finally, while not everyone who lives in the building is bad, there are many others who are people that I would prefer not to be living near. The people who lived upstairs from me were the epitome of domestic violence. I think they were one fight away from killing eachother. That is what I would hear in my apartment day and night, two people screaming at each other and throwing things, etc. It was not pleasant. The apartment a couple doors down from me has about 15 people living in it. Once I could not get out of the parking lot because the police had closed off the road because there had been some fight or shooting or something like that. Another time there was a man smoking crack (I assume it was crack, I am not really up on my drug knowledge, but he was definitely smoking something illicit) in his car in the parking lot outside my apartment (I live on the ground-er, "terrace" level). And I also think there are gang-affiliated individuals living in the apartments as well (I don't think my neighbor wears a red bandana hanging out of his back pocket because he thinks red is a good color on him). You can find better apartments that are priced comparably to Fort Totten Station Apartment in DC and I recommend you do find someplace else to live.