916 Union Street

A good place to live. Nice neighborhood.

This is a very beautiful mediterrean style apartment building with about 30 units. The bottom floor is the lobby, parking, bike room and laundry. There is also a little yard in the back. Good things: The apartment I live in is very charming, complete wjth tall adobe style rounded ceilings in the living room. Living room, kitchen and bedroom are of a good size. The neighborhood (Gold Coast) is one of the best in Alameda. The street deadends into the canal which keeps out a lot of through traffic and keeps the street quiet. Not so good: the kitchen, while sizable, is very old and has not been updated, there is very little counter space and the appliances are old. There is no dish washer or garbage disposal, The bathroom is very small and is also very old.

$80 in total late fees and overdraft fees because the property manager charged the wrong bank account. Their only response was to blame me and my bank. I've used five different online rent payment sites in all of my years renting and never had this problem. They also promised in writing that the apartment would be cleaned before move-in. Apparently "cleaned" to them is a light dusting. There were stains on the floor and debris that indicated the floors hadn't even been vacuumed or swept. All tiled surfaces were filthy, and the property manager claimed in all seriousness that the dirt, grime, and old food residue was simply "set" because of the building's age. I ordinarily would not post a negative review for a Bay Area rental, because it's always a similar story when it comes to cleaning. In this case however, the fact that this property management company has cost me $80 for no reason without so much as an apology is a new low.

A very old building with lots of character and lots of quirks. Affordable to live, quiet neighbors, and pretty accessible by foot or car to multiple strips of food/shops.