Mesa Residential Apartments

For someone who has lived in an overpriced closet-​sized apartment owned by sleezy landlords in Brooklyn, NY and happens to be a broke student, Mesa is heaven sent! I believe every pro and co listed so far is honest and valid. But hey, its a matter of what your willing to deal with. I can take the hideous carpet, the occasional spider and older building any day to get the space and price offered by Mesa.

5 is not enough, I will give 10 stars for mesa housing!!! Love love live in here! Sometimes it’s inconvenient when you run out of milk or eggs, you have to drive to the nearby grocery store, but when you see you live in such a peaceful place with super reasonable rent, you will forget about that annoying part. oh, one thing bothers me a lot is their sprinklers, i feel they have been wasting too much water on watering the grass (sometimes I thought I am watching a fountain show but just without music or lights). Hopefully they can think of a better solution for watering grass without wasting so much water.

I like Mesa about 90% more than One Miramar Apartments. My fiancé and I just moved here yesterday from OMS, and are really happy about the change. We moved to South Mesa, which is really spacious and has lots of storage. OMS hardly has any storage, but Mesa has tons. Yes the appliances are older, and the stove isn’t the best and the fridge makes loud noises, but the overall size and quality of the apartment is amazing.
Also, neighbors are nice, and it feels much more like a home rather than dorm-​style apartments.

Mesa is the definition of cheap graduate housing. Rent for central mesa is $ 465/​month, a little less than one miramar’s $ 495. I think north mesa’s about the same, while south & west mesa are around one miramar prices or a little more (for the extra space). Here are my pros and cons:
PROS:
1. convenient: walking distance to campus (15−20min), starbucks & regents pizza (5 – 10 min), UTC mall (10 – 15 min), other grocery stores/​pharmacies like vons, ralphs, trader joes are walkable, but biking or driving would definitely be better. also, Mesa shuttle comes every 10 minutes at peak hours, every 30 min at night. depending on where you live in Mesa, it may even be more convenient to take the SD bus either 201 or 30÷150÷41
2. Mesa is not as dormy as one miramar, you furnish it yourself, it’s not one giant apartment building, more like units
3. lots of room for storage/​stuff. Mesa apartments are on a whole much bigger than one miramar
4. lots of laundry rooms, I’ve never had trouble finding a free washer
5. free parking and lots of it, you can also get guest parking passes for visitors
6. packages are delivered to your front door
7. families live here :) we had kids come to our door to trick-​or-​treat, cutest thing ever; I think as long as you’re not neighbors with a screaming baby, it’s a big pro to see kids outside playing at the park
8. tennis courts/​basketball courts/​park
9. separate sinks so no sharing necessary!
10. maintenance people are very helpful and responsive, they fixed our broken sink on the same day I called it in
CONS:
1. older than one miramar, which means older carpet, probably more maintenance issues
2. depending on where you live, could be loud from the freeway/​la jolla village drive
3. no dogs, but cats are ok (same for miramar)
Basically the biggest con for me is that the apartments are a little old, depending on which one you get, could be a tad run down. But with some cleaning/​decorating it’s really not that bad. For me the pros outweigh the cons – I enjoy the apartment feel (just one key, you don’t have to swipe your ID card and enter a code), like the extra space, and of course extra appreciate the rent being so low since I’m currently making negative money. Grad housing for two years is a definite win, and Mesa’s not a bad option!