Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Six Months to Final Repairs

So I have lived in New York City for nine months - and in my studio apartment for six. This morning, the last of my requested repairs were finally completed. It's not that the management company for my building and their maintenance department are completely incompetent - in fact they do good work; it's just a challenge getting them to care about your problems as much as you do.

In New York City, many of us live in mediocre or below-average standards and pay out the ass for them. The demand for housing is so high that customer service among the middle and lower class residences suffers because if you aren't willing to pay for your subpar digs, someone else is. In many cases, you either get used to it or get out.

Fixed today:
- missing bathroom tile
- uneven roller track in a kitchen utensil drawer (you had to pull up and and back and then push forward to shut the drawer)
- remove window guards (I'm on a high floor; I'm assume that's safe enough to not have to feel like I'm in prison)

Fixed a few weeks ago:
- approximately 1x1' hole in the wall under my kitchen sink (I had baited it with about a dozen combat traps)
- poorly-grounded light switches (I often received tiny shocks when turning on or off a light)
- broken closet door
- approximately 2x1" hole behind toilet
- switch direction of pantry door (pantry is adjacent the wall) so that I wouldn't have to tilt sideways and over the door to reach into it

Fixed a few months ago:
- switch direction of refrigerator door (same situation as the pantry)
- missing electrical outlet covers

Fixed myself because I got tired of waiting:
- approximately 2x3" hole under bathroom vanity light (I covered it with a thin piece of cardboard, secured it with masking tape that matches the wall color and lined it with caulk)
- tiny holes around the air-conditioning vent (where there is no air-conditioner)

Still not fixed:
- missing back splash baseboard on counter top adjacent the stove
- extremely drafty window (not much can be done about that, short of replacing the entire window)
- the closet alcove lightswitch turns on the bathroom light and the bathroom light turns on the closet alcove light (but it's ok because they're right next to each other)

No comments: