Boone Manor

If you're a smoker, Boone Manor is actually a pretty great place to live. It's quiet enough, the concierge is great, and maintenance is great! Management, however, has their priorities all wrong. Let me explain the most prevalent situation:

There are known issues with smoking on multiple floors of the building, but management won't (can't, as they claim) do anything useful about it. Unless you can provide photographic evidence, they will nothing beyond sending a notice to the entire building about potential lease violations. The excuse boils down to: "We can't knock on doors and ask if someone is smoking because we could be sued for profiling." Why not just knock on every door on the floor, then?

They'll say "smelling smoke is not evidence". Or that "no smoke alarms are going off". Look. Even if it isn't legally "evidence", it certainly should be enough to do something about it! The same as for noise complaints because smoke/odor goes through the walls just the same. It can't go through the floor/ceiling because those are concrete slabs. Therefore, if you have a strong smell of smoke on one side of your apartment and not the other, then the source is obviously your neighbor.

Of course, you'll be periodically greeted by smoke in the hallways, elevators, and stairwells as well. I've leased in 8 different buildings in my life, and I've never had to deal with so many smoke issues, and certainly not a management staff that acts in protection of the violators on the issue.

Finally, a pro-tip. If you do still decide to rent at Boone despite the above then you may not care, but... anyway: Note that while the HVAC system in your apartment is a closed loop, there is also a community A/C vent in the ceiling right above the entry/exit door. This vent is "always on" and, periodically throughout the day/night, will vent-in various smells/vapors/smokes/gasses of unknown origin. From the occasional burning smell to ... exhaust? The trick is to close off the vent. Even just using the manual lever inside of the register is enough to almost entirely solve the problem. Management would probably send out a lease violation email though if they found out residents were doing this.

Boone Manor has been clear about one thing: This is as safe a place to smoke as any. Just close your blinds so nobody can photograph you, and rest assured that nobody will come knocking.

Unfortunately, I'm up against a character limit for this review so can't share more.