The Rose on Bond, Oakland CA

I’ve lived here for just about a year now, and the apartments themselves are nice. The complex is a nice blend of classic Spanish architecture and modern clean aesthetic since it was remodeled in 2018. It’s actually a peaceful, quiet, gated and safe complex to live in, you wake up to birds chirping out the window, and my unit has gorgeous high ceilings. They are very dog-friendly and have nice landscaping and potty areas outside for them.

I still very much love the unit I live in, however the parking situation and a few other issues make it difficult (and dangerous) to live here. There is a limited number of parking stalls for rent ($125/mo), and if you’re not lucky enough to snag one of those, you’ll be subject to the multiple alternating street cleaning days on every single side of the complex and also across the street.

Sometimes you get lucky and find a spot late at night, other times you’ll have to risk getting a ticket ($65-85 a pop, I’ve gotten 3 of them now so account for that with your rent) by accident or by intention just to be able to park near the complex without walking too far at night.

To be honest the people immediately around the neighborhood are friendly and/or don’t bother you, they just live there like the rest of us, but I don’t know who it is that comes around stealing parts off of cars or crashing into them.

I’ve had my car’s catalytic convertor stolen in broad daylight in the afternoon while parked on the street right next to the complex briefly. And the back side of the complex for some reason always has car accidents (around the 4-way stop sign junction), the cars parked on the street on that side are prone to getting run into… I’ve seen probably 4 cars totaled on that corner in a year.

Most of the apartment amenities are moot - the grills aren’t open for use and the Amazon lockers I don’t know how to open (yet, maybe they’ll email us about it since it’s a new addition) ?

I have had a package stolen before too, so I no longer get my packages delivered there. The mailing address can be confusing and your mail can get lost when you first move there, the UPS delivery man told me to use 1638 as the address instead of whatever was written on my lease.

The dryers consistently overheat, melt, and destroy my belongings, so I don’t use those anymore either. Better to go to the laundromat a block away for the safety of your clothes and sheets. The apt management isn’t responsible for this and direct you to call the washer service company that doesn’t respond quickly with refunds.

All in all, I can see that management is trying their best and are very nice and approachable and keep enforcing the rules for everyone to live peacefully here. The on-site property manager and maintenance folks are super nice and have helped me several times with getting locked out and maintenance requests. It’s just that it’s a rough place in Oakland to live and some things seem to be a bit hard to keep up with consistently.