Ravenswood Gardens

I moved out of this apartment building in March 2014, ending a year of hell and hundreds of sleepless nights. My husband and I were desperate in looking for a place to stay back in ³⁄₂₀₁₃. So when we found this place, without much thinking and consideration, we made a BAD decision and moved in to this 1 bedroom. Back then a 1 bedroom was $ 800 and very affordable. (now they raised the rent)
They call it «California style», which means old Californian-​like motel building, which ALSO means the building is NOT designed for Chicago WEATHER! All doors and windows of all units are on one side of the wall next to the corridor, and they have a outdoor steel staircase. You can see and hear anyone who is walking on the corridor and up/​down the stairs. And because the windows and doors are only on the same wall, there is no air circulation inside the unit. It gets very VERY stuffy inside and you will have to keep the NOISY A/​C on all the time (yes, even in winter!)
And last year, we had something called Polar Vortex and had very heavy snowfall. the corridor and the steel staircase got very icy and slippery. Guess what, they shovel the snow off the corridor (right outside your window) and steel staircase, and hence banging on the steel railings, almost every other night for at least an hour from 1AM!!! they even talked very loudly when they are shoveling the snow. My husband and I couldn’t sleep for so many nights and had to show up at work like a zombie the next morning, its ridiculous!
The walls and ceilings are extra thin, you can hear your next door neighbor having sex and upstairs neighbor walking across the room. They have this old crappy cooking stove that has pilot lights. So many times the pilot lights went off when we’re not in the apartment. This is actually very dangerous.
The building were managed by Reside and then they changed the management company a day before Thanksgiving! And they only give notice on the very same day by putting a piece of paper on our doors. Like those other tenants who pay rent by direct deposit on the old management company, Reside’s website, my husband and I had to call the Reside helpline to make sure the direct deposit account is deactivated (because nobody is in the Ravenswood Gardens office) The way the Chris guy runs the management office is always unprofessional.
We are very glad that we finally moved out of this place. I really hope many of you will read this review and consider if you really want to move here and live in such misery like I had.

Okay, I am out of that HellHole that I have called home for the last
9 years and now it’s time to warn everyone why they should never rent
an apartment here.
And, yes, it is unfortunate that when one writes a review for a realtor or
a place where one has lived it most likely will not be favorable and I will
say that everything I am writing this morning definitely will make this an
unfavorable review.
Please bear with me while I give you some background.
I have lived here for 9 years, always paid my rent on time.
About 5 years back I had gone to work and came home and one of my
beloved Cats was gone/​missing from apartment, I then found out that
maintenance had entered my apartment without warning/​notice and let
my cat get out.
Now, the scary thing is is that this building is called California Style
according to them which means it used to be a motel back in the 50’s, it’s
all open, the doors go right into the outside.
So, by the grace of God after 8 hours of my working I came home and
went out into the courtyard and heard meowing, and I climbed to the 3^rd
floor and my Maine Coon Bugonia who I had for 6 years was just sitting
in front of somebodys door up on the 3^rd floor.
I thought I had lost him for sure. I was so grateful that for whatever
reason he didn’t leave the area of the building.
I have seen Realtors change 3 times since I started living there, H.A. Langer,
Chicago Realty, Reside Living, and now Tricap Residential which has come in
over the last couple of months and started making massive changes right away.
And, with these massive changes come raised rents, big time raised rents.
Let me just say the building I lived in has Studios and 1 bedrooms, the studios
are only 265 sq. feet while the one bedrooms are near 500 square feet.
These so called apartments are very small and the walls are paper thin, no insulation of any kind here folks, you can hear everything, when someone sneezes,
laughing, talking, loud music booming through the walls and when someone
was smoking upstairs from me I literally filled my apartment with smoke.
We used to have the best Manager named Mona Tapia but then she got pregnant
and had twins and left the position, and this new guy comes in by the name of Chris S and he has his own set of rules.
Which are.
His office was right across from my apartment and everytime he would enter/​exit
his office for whatever reason he would slam that damn door so loud, this was a daily occurrence.
He was not professional at all very juvenile and rude, and the fact that he is
supposed to be the Liason between the Realtor and the Tenant astonishes me.
Wrong /​Bad Choice, this guy has a major chip on his shoulder and doesn’t know
how to talk to people.
Last winter my neighbor across the way fell on the icy set of 4 stairs because at
the time they had no railings which is a city violation by the way, however, over
the last week railings on same stairs have since appeared. Like Magic!
Now, the question you all must be thinking is why did I stay so long if things were
so bad?
Because sometimes in the game of life Bad Stuff Happens and in my case I
had found a lovely apartment on Lamon and was ready to take it when Dollar Tree
eliminated my position as Asst. Mgr of Operations because I was the highest
paid in the entire district.
So, unfortunately right as I was ready to leave I really couldn’t anymore.
Oh, can’t forget the substandard appliances that were in the apartments,
I had a refrigerator that leaked water constantly, made big floods on my floor,
but this is how they operate at Ravenswood Gardens.
For the Record Dover is a beautiful street with lovely homes of landmark status,
and I will miss seeing my friends with their miniature collies in the morning.
But, be warned, at the north end of the block right next to Happy Wash
is a House of Horrors by the name of Ravenswood Gardens, run by someone
who should never have been allowed to be a manager.
Stay away/​avoid at all costs… or if you must venture by make the sign of the
cross as you pass by, because truly, if you enter through this gate you will
not be going to a good place at all…

I cannot wait for my lease to be up. I love my apartment, it is great for one person and affordable, however the money I am saving here comes at a price. You can hear EVERYTHING your neighbor does upstairs and to the side of you. So, if you don’t want to be woken up to what sounds like bowling balls dropping on the floor, either live on the third floor or not at all. The temperature in my apartment fluctuates all the time. You don’t control the heat in the apartment only the ac which is a wall unit in the living room so, plan on either sleeping on the couch or with the door open and ac on high. Counter space is limited but I have made it work. The intercom also hardly ever works and the cameras you see, don’t work. My car was hit and in direct line of a camera but, I found out they haven’t worked for a long time so I had to pay a massive deductible to get my car fixed.
The complex is under new management so they have been doing all these «improvements,» however they never tell you what they are doing or when. My vehicle was blocked in the parking spot this week by a huge truck, and today I am out sick from work with massive headache and stomach ache listening to them pound around in the apartment above me.
They also do not allow dogs, which I don’t understand since the apartments are all out door entrances and a small dog would do just fine here. They allow cats, but that is it.
The apartment does have it’s benefits. Like I said affordable, you can get parking, free street parking, and it is on a cute street. Close to wrigley to walk there but far enough away that the baseball traffic won’t be and issue.
Honestly, if they allowed small dogs, I would probably stay. Because it is affordable. But with the way they are putting in wood floors in all the apartments, it just increases the sound of everything going on above me. Did I mention they are raising the rent? I’d rather pay more money for a place I can have a dog and some quiet, then continue to live here. Just a few more months.

Was a tenant at these apartments some time back. My bathtub had a problem, sewer water was flowing back out of the tub drain and shooting up into the tub and onto the walls and floor. I told the apartment management and they sent a handyman who ran the shower and told me to keep my shower curtain closed. This happened on several occasions but the actual problem was never addressed. I eventually moved out because having raw sewage spewing into my apartment seemed too much of a health hazard for me to abide. Long story short, the apartments then sued me for rent. I would rather live in my car than rent here ever again.