The Sovereign Apartments, Chicago

Right off the bat, if you are looking at at staying with the Sovereign, or any building owned by Lakeside Management, who owns the Sovereign, look elsewhere. I lived in the Sovereign for many years. The building was purchased a few years back by Lakeside Management, which is a subsidiary of Loyola University of Chicago. I can honestly say that the personnel of this building has significantly decline over the past few years. They tout that all utilities are included. Sure, but you know that it is actually accounted into your rent, so they are not doing you any real favors. They tout security of the building, but there is more on that in a bit. They tout that the neighborhood has a great deal of amenities, which is true, but fail to mention how sometimes it turns out to be a problem for residents, as is the case with the Edgewater Arts Festival every year which shuts down Granville Ave for a weekend, so if you have their gated parking, your car is useless for that weekend. There are other issues that are problems for residents in terms of accessibility and such; this is just one example. The front desk staff is either rude or they don't do their jobs, but spend their time playing on their smartphone. This is so much so that they put up notices in the elevators that all visitors to the building must first check in with the front desk so that the tenant may verify the visitor is legit. But with the front desk staff busy on their phones, randos get past all the time to the point that there have been thefts within the building of those dumb enough to leave their apartments unlocked. Sure, they are stupid to leave their apartments unlocked, but with a key fob entry system and survelliance in common areas, why is security so lax there? The full-time day time front desk woman (M-F daytime shift) is really rude and phoney in her attitude towards some of the tenants that she does not like. Maintenance is a joke here. There is one African-American man on the maintenance staff, who when he does not properly repair your issue, will respond with his favorite quote, "What more do you want?" Umm ... how about fixing the problem to the way it was before it was broke. I have heard him use that in reference to other tenants at the front desk with the staffer there for all to hear. Really inspires confidence in the staff, doesn't it? Further, I hated having anyone come into my apartment to begin with, partially because of my disability covered under the American with Disabilities Act (more on that later), partially because of their ineptitude or laziness, partially because of their rudeness, especially the aforementioned African-American male maintenance worker. In addition, they have some really bad plumbing issues. Hot water that will suddenly scald you while taking a shower for one, and in other instances, there were periods where the water was shut off for a few days because something went drastically wrong and ALL water needed to be shut off for a few days. The elevators there are a joke. There are two main elevators and one freight elevator. It seems like one of the two main elevators break down every other week, and typically on a Friday. They refuse to pay extra for someone to come in on a weekend to get it running, so you are talking about one main elevator and a slow, sketchy freight elevator to service 10 floors with 31 apartments on each floor and an 11th floor with 2 bedroom suites the entire weekend. Needless to say, those days, I have had to wait more than five minutes during peak times to get an elevator because they are cheap. The washing machines and dryers, which are subcontracted out, seem to always break down and while there should be two of each on each floor, in reality, you can count on one or two machines in each room being down a few times a month. This last paragraph is the most disturbing, however. I am someone who falls under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Three times, the front desk and management was informed, verbally and in writing, by myself and through my health care provider, of my condition and the accomodation that was required for my condition. My accomodation was simple, just understanding of my condition. However, the reason I had to submit my ADA compliance request three times is that in all cases, they "lost" the written request. In the case of the last one, it was faxed directly from my health care provider, and they received that little notice that the fax went through. Then, at my request, my health care provider called to verify whether or not they received the ADA forms, and Cornelia, who works in the office, confirmed it was received. However, even after that, my request was not honored and when I inquired about the paperwork they directly received from my healthcare provider and was confirmed, a staffer informed me that there was nothing in my file. Three requests, ALL LOST. Seriously? So, the last two years declined from bad to absolutely horrible there and I doubt it will get any better. So after years there, I could no longer tolerate the ever declining care and issues that is continually occurring at the Sovereign. Avoid at all costs. All of what I say is true. When I first moved into The Sovereign, I loved it and that is why I stayed there, but again, those last two years were hell because of the decline of staff who really do not want to do their jobs. I cannot believe that a company that is a subsidiary of Loyola would be like this, but I guess Loyola is not paying that much attention to what goes on with their subsidiaries.