Pros:
-AMENITIES: lived in one of the recently updated units
-APPLIANCES: all appliances in unit (washer, dryer, dishwasher and all surprisingly high-end!)
-INTERIOR: modern interior (crisp white walls/doors, exposed brick in some rooms, marble tiled shower)
-PRICE: decent price (at first) for new, young professionals who don’t mind more than one roommate situation or paying for a guest bedroom
-NEARBY: lots of essential stores finally opened just a couple blocks away (Trader Joe’s, Target, CVS, etc.) making the neighborhood much more convenient than before
-MANAGEMENT: management was generally reasonable and considerate
Cons:
-LAYOUT: while they did a good job with what I’m sure were extensive renovations to units like ours, they didn’t quite nail the layout of the space (small “common space” even by NYC standards with zero closets, awkwardly different sized bedrooms, and the washer/dryer made the small space very hot and humid rapidly as it seemed to vent straight into the apt)
-INTERNET: the “complimentary” building-wide internet is kind of a running joke in the building (rather slow, sometimes unreliable, and not secured using the proper protocols for wifi security)
-SECURITY: packages stolen from mail area despite security cameras (none of us ever found out whether they were real/fake, on/off)
-LOCATION: at the very end of Rivington, this building is literally and I mean *precisely* on the edge of two distinctly contrasting environments (make a left out the door and you’re in massive housing projects neighborhood with constant crime…make a right out the door and you’re in the heart of LES which is full of young successful professionals, art galleries, restaurants, shops, bars)
OTHER/MISC:
-a few people experiencing homelessness hang around, and while they never caused any major issues to my knowledge, their sleeping on steps is a truly sad and constant reminder of larger issues that come with rapidly changing neighborhoods like LES
-was never entirely clear on this but there was some weird situation regarding the other units (allegedly rent controlled units were not updated but updated units were not rent controlled?) which made for an awkward disparity in conversations between tenants in different units