I found an interesting site called Apartment Ratings, which had some comments and ratings for my own beloved abode. I started to post my own review and rebuttal to some of the earlier comments, but when it came time to submit, I found their license terms too onerous (it reads to me as if I give up the right to post my opinion about Charlestowne North anywhere else, except some explicitly named forums where I must provide a link back to Apartment Ratings). So I'm posting it here, for whatever it's worth, since I've already taken the time to write it up.
The address for this building is 8150, not 850.
I would refute most of the things by the "Read this before signing" poster.
* Kay Management is indeed a slick operator, and the owner, Bresler & Reiner, will put you on the street in a heartbeat if that's what it takes to increase the share value. If you fail/forget to pay your rent (or if THEY CHARGE YOUR PAYMENT TO THE WRONG APARTMENT), they will give you no notice; ten or fifteen days late and you will see a court summons on your door to begin eviction proceedings. This happened to at least three tenants in 2004, and the only response on their part was to reiterate their existing policy for late payments.
* Apartment noise is not a problem for me. Maybe I'm lucky with my neighbors. There are some UM music majors who will practice during the day or in the evenings -- one violinist down the hall from me, but I can barely hear her when I'm in my apartment.
* Parking -- finding spaces -- is not a problem. It was a slight problem for a while a few years ago, partly because the management used to rent out the party room for outside parties. Many people do complain about lighting on the one side of the building.
* I don't believe smoke spreads from apartment to apartment. You can get management to install a gasket at the bottom of your door if you have problems. I have seen people smoke in the hallway on occasion, and then the smoke does get into your room if it's not well-sealed.
* The 10% annual rent increase, shocking as it is, only applies to people who were resident prior to 2004. Rents had not kept up with market rates for many years, so they wanted to bring them up. But if you move in now, your rent will start high, and should increase more slowly (otherwise everyone would quickly find a better value and move out!) This whole state of affairs does give an indication of how management works, though.
* What people say about the age of the building is pretty much true. Elevators have a mind of their own. One elevator is out at least once a month. Once or twice a year, both elevators will be out for a day or two; God help you if you live on the 8th floor. The plumbing is kind of questionable.
* Washers and dryers are $1.25 each (dryer can take more quarters for more time). They appear to be standard-size to me. They often get coin jams and break down in other ways, and the management doesn't take responsibility for them, so they often stay broken for weeks or months. There are two washers and dryers on each floor, though, so you can pretty much always find something a floor up or down.
* Package delivery has not been a problem for me. But it's true, they don't accept FedEx at the office.
* Aforementioned dumb manager is gone; current property manager(?) is fairly competent and quite courteous, as long as he's not on the phone with a prospective tenant. You don't exist until he's done selling that apartment.
* I got screwed over by the aforementioned rent-check-stealing property manager who slipped in an extra deposit fee which she never documented, but that was prior to Kay Management, and she's been convicted. I think things like this can happen anywhere. Be careful when you sign any lease or fork over any money.
On the plus side:
* Units on one side of the building can see the lake through the trees in the winter, and lush greenery in summer. Wonderful view from the balcony in good weather.
* CN currently has a tenants association which has worked with local government when certain things have gotten out of hand.
* Maintenance is very good and helpful.
* Greenbelt is great!
I hope Apartment Ratings modifies their terms of service to get more open reviews -- but I don't plan on checking to see if they change!
According to /., American newspapers will begin carrying manga. I don't know which newspapers, and I don't know which manga, since I don't know any manga titles, though I've been unable to avoid learning that there is a quite popular one called Sailor Moon.
For those of you still in the dark.... how to explain this? Have you ever watched the cartoon "Speed Racer"? The characters were drawn in a peculiar style that was definitely distinctive as compared to any of the various styles normally seen in an American newspaper or animated cartoon. Now imagine that there's a country, somewhere in the world, with 120 million people, and every single one of those 120 million people draws their cartoons in exactly the style of "Speed Racer", only with more hair. "All right, Idiot," I hear you saying, "that's a pretty wacky thought, but I'm imagining it. Hey, it's a pretty funny idea, actually; could make for a pretty comical movie or mockumentary". And now you're chuckling. Well, stop chuckling; such a country exists, and it is Japan, the land of sushi and kimonos, and manga.
Strictly speaking, "manga" the japanese word comics, is reserved for static cartoons and comic books, while "anime" is used for anything, well, animated. So Speed Racer is "anime", but since animation has not yet come to the newspapers, what some upstanding citizens who keep themselves informed of current affairs will find themselves confronted with is called "manga". Still with me? Good.
I've held for some time that manga and anime are a threat to American society on a scale rivalled only by Islamic extremism and, more recently, reality television. Manga has become sufficiently popular among the geek set, for reasons I cannot fathom, to a degree where Slashdot regularly posts about it in a positive light. The irony here is that, while Microsoft-related articles are posted with a Bill-Gates-as-Borg icon, the Slashdot editors are unable to recognize that manga possesses exactly the same assimilatory purpose and effect as all things Microsoft. I don't need to tell you the reason for this utter lack of resistance, now, do I? Is it starting to make sense yet?
If not, consider this. Wait, no, not that. Forget about that. Consider this. Many popular American "indie" comics show a very strong influence of manga/anime. For a good example, check out Penny Arcade. The pupils are sized within reason, and the mouths are not gaping pink caverns, but check out the hair on the two protagonists. Now, for an extremely offensive but typical example of manga, check out the hair on the Dragonball home page. WARNING: content behind the link may (should) be offensive to most viewers! If you find yourself in any way enamored of the characters found therein, the assimilation process has begun! Seek professional help immediately! The window of oppurtunity for avoiding complete manga infatuation is very narrow, so don't even consider looking at manga unless you have ready access to a qualified psychiatrist. A qualified Scientologist may do in a pinch; you may risk getting recruited into a powerful, litigious, all-consuming cult, but at least you'll still be able to appreciate original comic styles, and you'll have a chance to get yelled at by Tom Cruise.
In summary, manga is bad. Time to go to bed.
It's been a while since I had a browser where the Google preferences were set to H4X0R mode. But I just accidentally re-discovered it, and, OMFG, they replaced the word "Images" on the Images tab with "Þ|2Øl\|"! In case there are any non-1337 readers here, this is an obfuscated way of writing "pr0n". And, let's face it, that's what 90% of the images out there are, anyway. Kudos to Google; that takes balls.
The link may well have changed by the time you are reading this, so I also made a local copy.