Thursday, July 30, 2009

Tonight Was Interesting

The above is NOT a picture of my actual basement/laundry room. This is just to give you an idea of what I had to deal with tonight



After spending all day working at the club, getting it set up for the grand opening this Saturday night, I came home exhausted. I was sitting at my computer, checking my email when I started to hear a loud noise that sounded like someone banging on metal. I thought there was someone out on the fire escape. I looked outside and didn't see anyone, but I could still hear the banging. Then I got scared.

We have had a number of problems with crackheads breaking into our building and sleeping in the basement. I find remnants of them all the time here in the building. This is a major reason why I avoid the building's basement at night. I don't want to ever come face-to-face, alone with a or multiple crackheads hanging out down there. I realized that the banging on metal noise was coming from the basement. I walked to the foot of the stairs and could hear the noise get louder and louder. Just as I was about to go downstairs to investigate, I heard a loud popping and hissing sound. Whatever it was, it scared the shit out of me and I ran back to my apartment.

I didn't know what to do. I was scared and shaking. I called 911 and told them the situation. The police came out rather quickly and went downstairs to check things out. Turns out there weren't any crackheads. The banging noise I heard was the sound of a water pipe breaking. A water pipe had broke downstairs in the laundry room and now there was water flooding the whole basement. Great. Now what am I suppose to do?

I tried calling the building owners (a certain huge property owner/management company here in SF) and got nowhere. Unfortunately all of the emergency contact numbers I had for this company weren't working. I couldn't even access the 24-hour emergency line for the huge property owner. This huge SF property owner is a total joke in my book, but that's a whole other discussion.

I called the water department. I needed to get this running water shut off immediately. They sent the fire department out to shut off the water.

Now it's 3AM and I am still waiting for the plumber to arrive. I have no idea what the plumber will be able to do at this point, if anything. All I know is that I am exhausted and just want to get some sleep. I just wish the building ownership were a little bit more accessible during a late night emergency.

Update: plumber is here. A pipe fell off from the boiler. I think that's all bad. The plumber said he would sauder it back on so that our building would have water.

Yay! Problem solved.

I'm still mad at this huge SF property owner/management company. If you live in San Francisco and rent from them, you probably have many stories of frustration of your own. San Francisco, you probably know the exact company I speak about without me having to disclose their name.

This along with the constant neglect of our building makes me want to move out of this building. It's too bad because I really enjoy the actual inside of my apartment and the neighborhood. I just hate the way this company works and neglects its buildings.

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