Mesa Nueva

Very well insulated for temperature and noise. The orange interior and exterior are annoying. The COVID regulations are strict and inflexible. Amazon locker and COVID testing very close to the site is convenient.

I live on the top floor of a South Mesa apartment with a roommate. The apartment has very high ceilings, lots of sunlight, and plenty of space. It is a very old apartment so the kitchen appliances and bathrooms are not the best. It is difficult to get the bedrooms to an okay temperature without turning the living room into a sauna. The rent is very cheap though and that plus proximity to campus are the main reasons I choose to live here.

If you want to live by yourself, I can't recommend anything more than the Mesa Nueva studios. They are the most affordable studios I've ever seen for rent, and all utilities are included. They're small (and fully furnished), but since I'm from out of state I don't have a lot of furniture and things to clutter up the space anyway. My studio is the perfect size for just me.

I had an old electric kettle that would occasionally flip the circuit breaker, and when I called the maintenance people to come and unlock my circuit breaker for me, they have always arrived within an hour and have been very helpful and friendly.

There are a couple really minor things that make me give this space a 9/10 instead of 10/10: there is no in-unit laundry, there is no dishwasher, and the hours for the mailroom's package pick-up service are really inconvenient. All of these are pretty minor inconveniences though, and if the lease didn't have a 2 year maximum, I would stay until I graduated.

I've really liked living in Mesa Nueva. My 2BR/2BA feels spacious and I have my own bathroom. I have the non-master bedroom, which is pretty small, but the common area is plenty big for my desk. There isn't a ton of storage space, however. It's so nice to have a washer and dryer in our unit. The internet is super fast, the cable package has everything, and the only utility we pay is electricity. I like living so close to campus–I can be at the door of my lab in 7 minutes on my bike. The pub, coffee place, and food trucks are so great to have inside the complex. All of this for much cheaper than market rate.

I've really enjoyed living in Nuevo West, Viento. I'm in the master bedroom and I have a good amount of space to work with and the room comes furnished with a comfortable desk and bed.

My favorite things include the amount of work space in the kitchen (I like to do a lot of meal prep on our island) and the nice big windows in the living room area, which let in a lot of natural light.

My only major complaints are that the refrigerator is a little small for 4 people and the bedroom doors have a weird locking mechanisms where, after unlocking it, the door can still get caught and lock you out if you don't make sure it's fully unlocked (at least in my apartment).

Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, I haven't been able to take advantage of many of our amenities (pool, gym, etc.), but they are available for all students living in graduate housing and I look forward to using them once the pandemic calms down.

First, the good:
- Cheaper than other off-campus housing nearby.
- Close to UCSD, 20 minutes walking distance.
- In-unit washer and dryers.
- Fast internet speeds (1 Gbps ethernet, wireless depends on your device, ~200-400 Mbps).
- (Soon-ish!) Trolley line will be built near here!
- A lot of amenities around the community (a lot are difficult to use now thanks to COVID-19), including a pool and exercise equipment. I can't comment on their quality due to COVID-19 keeping me from using them.
- Food vendors come on site on a rotating basis, and they're pretty good!
- Office staff are friendly and responsive!
- Washer and dryer are modern.
- Walls appear thick, don't hear much of neighbors.
- Places to hang bicycles outside the unit!

The meh:
- Internet is provided by Spectrum, which has had hiccups in the past. It also uses Carrier Grade NAT (or something like it), making it impossible to do port forwarding.
- Closet space is OK. Not great, just OK. Master walk-in closet is alright.
- Bathrooms are gigantic. Just... why? I would rather have had more space in the rest of the home.
- Oven and fridge are old and/or barebones.
- No AC, and can't install AC units on windows. Summer was uncomfortable, but fall and winter thus far have been great!
- Kitchen storage space is on the smaller side.

The bad:
- Really difficult to move in, depending on which building you are. E.g. If moving into Marea, there's no good way to park nearby and move things inside without either rolling them a long distance or carrying them up a lot of stairs.
- Policies appear to be written assuming that residents are relatively inept, and thus there are more restrictions in terms of what can and cannot be done, compared to a regular rent agreement for off-campus housing.
- Another possible downside is that university housing is only available for up to 2 years, for the regular student. One exception is that if you were offered Student Housing Opportunity Recruitment Enhancement (SHORE), housing is available for longer (5 or 6 years? I'm not sure exactly off the top of my head).
- No pets, although I see a lot of dogs around...
- Not a lot of storage space.
- A lot of bicycle thefts on campus...

In summary: I enjoy living here, it's cheaper than any alternatives, but there are caveats. I hope to be able to explore more of the area once COVID-19 is gone.

Great place and good price !

This review is based on three years in a studio apartment in the Cresta building of Mesa Nueva, starting just after the building finished construction. I've left out the pandemic-related changes, which hopefully are temporary.

I don't have much experience with other apartments, so my expectations may be too high.

# The apartment

## Good

* It's new. Everything is clean and functional.

* I've never heard any noises from the adjacent apartments, except the occasional under-sink food waste grinder running.

* An Ethernet port is available for Internet access.

* Furniture is included: bed, desk, chair, drawers, table, and two stools.

* Although the apartment is small, there's a good amount of storage space under the bed and in a large shelf above the kitchen.

* My particular apartment faces south and has good views of sunsets.

## Bad

* No dishwasher or microwave oven provided

* The bathroom exhaust fan appears to turn on and off randomly. I don't know if this is intentional.

* The vent hood above the stove doesn't connect to the outside, so it's useless for removing smoke.

* The refrigerator has a top-freezer configuration, which requires bending down to access the refrigerator compartment.

* The provided desk has a horizontal bar at knee level, which makes it difficult to position my legs comfortably.

* The provided chair is not very comfortable.

# The building

## Good

* No surveillance cameras

* Waste disposal: Landfill waste and recycling can be taken to a room on each floor and dumped into chutes.

* The building doesn't force everyone to funnel into one entrance. There are three stairways. Anyone can climb the central stairway or use the elevators. With a keycard, residents can enter the building at either end stairway.

* Easy access to the central campus (about 5 minutes by bicycle)

* Reasonably easy walking access to MTS bus stops

* Laundry facilities have enough capacity and are reliable. The machines accept quarters or credit/debit cards. They charge $1 per wash cycle and $1.25 per dry cycle.

## Bad

* Waste disposal: No easy way to handle compost

* Since August 2020, the doors leading from the central stairway to the hallways on each floor have been locked. This means I have to insert my keycard, remove my keycard, and enter a 4-digit number first to get into the hallway, and *again* to get into my apartment. This is very inconvenient.

# Packages and mail

## Good

* Incoming packages from UPS, FedEx, DHL, and other carriers come directly to the mail room and are available for pickup soon after the carriers deliver them.

* Mail room opening hours are good.

## Bad

* Incoming USPS packages first go into the university-wide mail system, which then takes 1-2 extra days to get them to Mesa Nueva so you can pick them up. This process doesn't work on weekends, so anything that USPS delivers on a Saturday or Sunday won't be available to pick up until Monday.

* The mail room doesn't accept outgoing shipments. For about a year they did, but then they took away this important service. Even when they opened a new, larger mail room they did not resume handling outgoing packages. This means I have to take my packages to the campus mailing center or a shipping carrier's location. This is a difficult task for large packages when you don't have a car.

# Utilities

## Good

* Everything is included in the rent, no extra bills or relationaships to worry about

* The Internet connection is fast, and a working Ethernet port is provided

## Bad

* The Internet connection could be more reliable (although it's a lot better than it was in 2017).

# Amenities

## Good

* I haven't used any of these amenities, but they look very nice: pool, 2 hot tubs, fitness centers, playgrounds

# Management

## Good

* I received a Student Housing Option for Recruitment Enhancement (SHORE) offer, which allowed me to use the University housing for basically as long as it takes to

I lived in the studio on my own for about 8 months, and another 8 months with my wife. Alone, it is perfect. Large enough that space is not an issue, but small enough to clean and maintain regularly, and comes furnished. It is also walking (~15 min) distance to campus. With my wife, it no longer feels spacious, but still plenty of room, and the fridge is big enough to hold groceries for us for weeks. As a place to live for 2 years while getting my graduate degree, I couldn't ask for more.

I live in a studio at Mesa Nueva Cresta. The studios come furnished with a bed & mattress, side table, dresser, dining table with 2 stools, desk & chair with table lamp, stovetop with oven, and refrigerator. The monthly rent is $873 which includes water, trash, gas, electricity, cable, internet, parking, and gym access. With a floor size of 275 sq. ft., the room might seem a little small, nevertheless, it is quite comfortable and very well ventilated. It doesn’t have air conditioning, but that has not been an issue. The internet has also worked great so far. The parking lot is very close to the apartments. There is a lot of storage space on top of the kitchen which makes it really convenient. The full refrigerator and queen size bed is quite nice. Although the kitchen counter space is minimal, the dining table is very large and can be used if extra space is required. There is no microwave oven, which can be an inconvenience sometimes. There are laundry rooms on every alternate floor and the trash chute on every floor makes it super easy to dispose of waste without having to go down to the ground floor every time. There is a campus shuttle stop just in front of the apartments, which makes travel to campus very convenient. There is also an Amazon locker nearby from where packages can be collected as per one's convenience. Overall, Mesa Nueva is a wonderful place to stay.