I have lived here for two and a half years, originally by myself in a one bedroom and now in a two bedroom with a roommate. The apartments are beautiful and rent-stabilized, great amenities, parking is good (although guest parking is almost never available, despite it being in the lease), and the maintenance is fast and easy.
However, since January (when I moved into the two bedroom), the quality of the complex has declined SIGNIFICANTLY in terms of safety, which is what I originally liked
...about living here when I was alone. Since then, there have been almost daily package thefts and consistent break-ins from evicted tenants, some of whom who *sawed off* the lock on their old apartment door to get back in. There have been car break-ins in the garage, and a guest of mine who had to do street parking b/c of no guest parking had his car broken into as well. Then, earlier this month, tragically there was a homicide two floors up from us — they're saying it wasn't random, meaning the victim knew the perpetrator and thus it didn't have anything to do with the building's safety per se — but we had to find out on our tenant Facebook group, local news, and homicide detectives showing up at our door what was actually happening because the Essex staff were so delinquent in actually informing the building what was going on. To top it off, they've been going through different security companies, one of which had the most hostile and useless security guards we've ever had.
My roommate and I are absolutely not renewing the lease, and we've added extra safety measures on our own dime to our apartment out of extreme caution. I'm so glad I'm not living alone anymore because I would be even more paranoid living here. Just know that if you choose to live here you will be dealing with the most ineffective, rude, and non-communicative rental company (there's not even an office on site anymore, so I've never met our "community managers," who don't respond to emails anyway) while also fearing for your own safety.
Pets must be spayed/neutered.